can't find it's sound card

[John T]

I'm new to Linux and have just set it up on my old laptop for my grandson to use. I've installed a few games but there's no sound. After many hours searching and trying out codes (that I don't understand) I'm still no closer. There is a sound card in there:

sudo inxi -A
[sudo] password for ben:
Audio: Card Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.10.0-38-generic

.... but Linux can't find it - Pulse audio tool shows "Dummy Output"

[I'll be away for a few days so apologies if I don't respond promptly to any suggestions]

[cool]

You could try by changing some of the sound controls with alsamixer:

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sudo apt-get install alsa-utils

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alsamixer

[panorain]

alsamixer will not simplify it nor fix it.

terminal output -- >

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lspci

[cool]

[I'll be away for a few days so apologies if I don't respond promptly to any suggestions]

When you get the chance can you also paste the output of:

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aplay -L

and

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pacmd list-sinks

and

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lshw -c sound

Thanks

[Mute Ant]

I get Dummy Output sometimes after an update, something to do with the kernel and the drivers I guess, reboot and it is okay again.

[John T]

Sorry it's been so long since your response - I'm a complete beginner and not familiar with how the forum works.

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 aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
default:CARD=Intel
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Analog
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=Intel
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Analog
    Front speakers
surround21:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Analog
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Digital
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
dmix:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Analog
    Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=Intel,DEV=1
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Digital
    Direct sample mixing device
dsnoop:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Analog
    Direct sample snooping device
dsnoop:CARD=Intel,DEV=1
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Digital
    Direct sample snooping device
hw:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Analog
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=Intel,DEV=1
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Digital
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Analog
    Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=Intel,DEV=1
    HDA Intel, ALC260 Digital
    Hardware device with all software conversions

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ben@ben-NOTCHA-114 ~ $ pacmd list-sinks
No PulseAudio daemon running, or not running as session daemon.

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ben@ben-NOTCHA-114 ~ $ lshw -c sound
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
  *-multimedia            
       description: Audio device
       product: NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 1b
       bus info: pci@0000:00:1b.0
       version: 02
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=snd_hda_intel latency=0
       resources: irq:27 memory:dc440000-dc443fff
WARNING: output may be incomplete or inaccurate, you should run this program as super-user.

[MrEen]

Hi John T. One of these solutions will probably get sound working for you.

Try pulseaudio --start first and test the sound.

If that didn't kickstart it, you may not have a profile set. In your case, pacmd set-card-profile alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0 output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo should work. Then you should only need to make sure you're not muted at that point.

[John T]

Hi,
I tried pulse audio as you suggest but got the following output:

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 pulseaudio --start
The program 'pulseaudio' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt install pulseaudio

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ben@ben-NOTCHA-114 ~ $ sudo apt install pulseaudio
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies.
 pulseaudio : Depends: libpulse0 (= 1:8.0-0ubuntu3.2) but 1:8.0-0ubuntu3.8 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I am completely new to Linux and don't understand any of the coding.

Cheers,

John T

[MrEen]

Open Synaptic Package Manager and click Edit, Fix Broken Packages. Then see if sudo apt install pulseaudio will work.

[John T]

Sorry for being thick, don't understand the first bit of your suggestion "Open Synaptic Package Manager and click Edit, Fix Broken Packages". Tried to second bit and had the following response:

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$ sudo apt install pulseaudio
[sudo] password for ben: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
pulseaudio is already the newest version (1:8.0-0ubuntu3.8).
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 29 not to upgrade.

Is it worth trying to reinstall?

[John T]

just tried to update using:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Could the problem be caused by windows XP still being on the hard drive?

[MrEen]

Try again pulseaudio --start as it's showing as installed now.

If no error, and still no sound, go back to your sound settings (where you saw Dummy Output.) Does it still say the same?

XP is not the problem here. Sometimes, it just takes a little work to get things right.

[John T]

still showing up as dummy

[John T]

...also I notice in Alsamixer that there is a zero next to what I presume to be my sound card - which has been identified in the terminal as being a Intel corp NM10/ICH7 see attachment

[MrEen]

Bring up alsamixer to your card again. Now press m to unmute the master volume.

You can use the arrow keys to move to CD and Mic and do the same if you wish.

[John T]

Thanks. I've done that but in "sound" it still shows up as "dummy".

cheers

[MrEen]

Okay. This might change that. In the terminal, type gksudo xed /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf (replace xed with your preferred text editor) and when the file opens, scroll to the very bottom and add this line to the end of the file:
options snd-hda-intel model=auto
Save the file, close xed (3 warnings will probably pop up in the terminal that you can ignore,) and reboot.

If this doesn't get the sound working, we'll go back to my first post in this thread and try the pacmd command.

[John T]

Hi again!
That didn't work so I tied your first post again and got the following response:


ben@ben-NOTCHA-114 ~ $ pacmd set-card-profile alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0 output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
No card found by this name or index.

Does this mean I need to substitute my sound card (MN10/ICH 7) somewhere in the line?

[MrEen]

Well that's weird. What is the present output of lshw -c sound?

Actually, I could use the output of pacmd list-cards as well.

[John T]

lshw -c
Hardware Lister (lshw) - B.02.17
usage: lshw [-format] [-options ...]
lshw -version

-version print program version (B.02.17)

format can be
-html output hardware tree as HTML
-xml output hardware tree as XML
-short output hardware paths
-businfo output bus information

options can be
-class CLASS only show a certain class of hardware
-C CLASS same as '-class CLASS'
-c CLASS same as '-class CLASS'
-disable TEST disable a test (like pci, isapnp, cpuid, etc. )
-enable TEST enable a test (like pci, isapnp, cpuid, etc. )
-quiet do not display status
-sanitize sanitise output (remove sensitive information like serial numbers, etc.)
-numeric output numeric IDs (for PCI, USB, etc.)

ben@ben-NOTCHA-114 ~ $
ben@ben-NOTCHA-114 ~ $ pacmd list-cards
0 card(s) available.

Funny it doesn't recognise the sound card !