[Dell Studio 1557] No sound after upgrade to Kubuntu 18.10 beta

[JR]

I upgraded from Kubuntu 18.04 to 18.10 beta today, and I noticed I don't have sounds. The UI only shows a 'Dummy Device'. After doing a 'sudo alsa force-reload', KDE shows the audio device.
When I execute alsamixer in a shell before executing the force-reload, the audio card is shown.

My hardware: (from lspci)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 05)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.10
Package: pulseaudio 1:12.2-0ubuntu4
Uname: Linux 4.19.0-041900rc6-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu11
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: juergen 8924 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: juergen 8924 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Sat Oct 13 21:07:53 2018
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-02-16 (1334 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.1)
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to cosmic on 2018-10-13 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 10/06/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A02
dmi.board.name: 0KM426
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A02
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: A02
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA02:bd10/06/2009:svnDellInc.:pnStudio1557:pvrA02:rvnDellInc.:rn0KM426:rvrA02:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvrA02:
dmi.product.name: Studio 1557
dmi.product.version: A02
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[JR (juergen-richtsfeld)]

I just 'resolved' that issue myself by removing the package timidity - it seems this program exclusively used the audio hardware. If there is a issue, it is with this package.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[lan (lan-libero)]

I've upgraded today to 18.10, after fist reboot no audio and the UI only shows a 'Dummy Device'.

With a "alsa force-reload" the sound become available, but after a reboot same problem.
Removing timidity the issue appear solved.

[lan (lan-libero)]

My hardware
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 06)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor PCI Express x16 Controller (rev 06)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI (rev 04)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I217-LM (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Q87 Express LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP108 [GeForce GT 1030] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GP108 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)

[Dennis L. (dennis2society)]

Removing the timidity package resolved this for me.

But the symptoms are strange:
Symptoms after upgrading from 18.04 to 18:10:
- aplay -l shows all audio devices as expected, including internal on-board sound device
- pavucontrol only shows hdmi3 output, analog sound is missing from options

Removing timidity (just out of frustration because I couldn't find any other suggestions on this) and rebooting once brought back the analog sound devices

Thanks to JR for mentioning this.

[Dennis L. (dennis2society)]

Update: Probably related to this report:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/timidity/+bug/1798466

[Tessa (unit3)]

note: I'm seeing this issue even though I don't have any timidity packages installed. so I've opened another report to track that base issue:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/1797714

[Pirouette Cacahuète (lissyx)]

Same on upgrade from Ubuntu 18.04 to 18.10, fuser -v confirms exclusive access taken by timidity on the sound device, removing timidity* fixes.

[Kamil Domański (alabattai)]

Possible duplicate of https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/1799203

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

No I don't think that bug 1799203 is related.

We have over 3000 audio bugs open right now and many of them will sound similar...

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Per comment #2 by the original reporter, this is a duplicate of bug 210472

[Tom Fields (udzelem)]

I can confirm, working sound on a Thinkpad T530 using snd-hda-intel kernel driver stopped working after upgrade from Kubuntu 18.04 to Kubuntu 18.10.

=> sudo apt purge timidity-daemon resolved the issue for me permanently.

Doing a sudo alsa force-reload also worked, but only until the next reboot.

[Michal Illich (a-list-l)]

Also had this problem after upgrade 18.04.1 -> 18.10.

I do *NOT* have timidity installed.

alsa force-reload works as temporary fix.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Michal,

In that case, please open your own new bug (if not already?).