System Settings | Sound empty device list and no sound in video player, after reboot it works fine

[grofaty]

Hi,
on Ubuntu 16.04 I have installed VLC media player 2.2.2 from official repository.

1. File | Open and select some video.

2. Video starts playing but pop-up error appears:
Audio output failed:
The audio device "default" could not be used:
Connection refused.

See attachment: audio_error_in_vlc.png

3. From Ubuntu's System Settings | Sound I see there is no Output device. See attachment system_sound_settings_problem.png

Note 1: Opening Firefox and playing videos from youtube.com and sound is working without a problem.
Note 2: I have also tried playing video in "Totem Movie Player" default Ubuntu video player and sound also does not work.

4. Work-around is to restart Ubuntu. Then looking into System Settings | Sound and devices are displayed. See attachment: system_sound_after_reboot.png
When running video in VLC now audio works fine. Also after reboot audio works fine when playing video from "Totem Movie Player".

I am not an audio expert, but this does look like some system sound problem and not specific video/audio player, so I have reported a problem against pusleaudio package. I hope I have reported a problem against correct package.

Regards

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:8.0-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-24.43-generic 4.4.10
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-24-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
Architecture: i386
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Mon Jun 20 22:37:16 2016
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-06-03 (17 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release i386 (20160420.1)
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 06/12/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 79ET62WW (1.07 )
dmi.board.name: 1951F5G
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr79ET62WW(1.07):bd06/12/2006:svnLENOVO:pn1951F5G:pvrThinkPadT60:rvnLENOVO:rn1951F5G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 1951F5G
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T60
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Plurtu (plurtu)]

Instead of restarting Ubuntu you can restart PulseAudio from terminal:

  pulseaudio -k (wait a few seconds)
  pulseaudio

Disappearing PulseAudio output devices can happen when using Firejail.

https://firejail.wordpress.com/support/known-problems/#pulseaudio

[grofaty (grofaty)]

That's it! On firejail web page there is statement that this is bug in PulseAudio 7.0, but it looks like it effects PulseAudio 8.0 also, getting version by typing: pulseaudio --version

Work-around solution described in your firejail.wordpress.com link fixes the problem.