"Failed to play sound: No such driver" ubuntu 20.04

[Regern Faraja Otieno]

my speakers- built in audio produces terrible sound
I tested the speakers via settings/sound and there was no sound
I checked gnome logs and found "Failed to play sound: No such driver"
I checked online and it seams to be a problem that affects many users

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: linux-image-5.4.0-31-generic 5.4.0-31.35
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-31.35-generic 5.4.34
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-31-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: regern 70802 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c: regern 70802 F...m pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: regern 70802 F...m pulseaudio
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu May 21 19:13:55 2020
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-05-16 (5 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200423)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 15-3552
ProcFB: 0 i915drmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-31-generic root=UUID=55652357-023b-4633-8d3a-46ce1a22d378 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-5.4.0-31-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-5.4.0-31-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.187
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 03/06/2018
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 4.4.0
dmi.board.name: 079W3P
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: Not Specified
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvr4.4.0:bd03/06/2018:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron15-3552:pvr4.4.0:rvnDellInc.:rn079W3P:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvrNotSpecified:
dmi.product.family: Inspiron
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 15-3552
dmi.product.sku: 06AC
dmi.product.version: 4.4.0
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This change was made by a bot.

[piktogramm (piktogramm)]

Judging on the described behaviour this Bug also is present in Ubuntu 14.04
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/1879869

[piktogramm (piktogramm)]

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1879939/comments/3

Mentions, that Kernel 5.4.0-32 is going to fix the problem, which is not right. 5.4.0-33 still has the problem.

[Eric Carroll (eric-carroll)]

I had the same problem after upgrade to 20.04
Setting / Sound / Output / Test produced no sound.

Pressing the test button resulted in an error in syslog:

gnome-control-c: Failed to play sound: No such driver

libcanberra-pulse was missing:
apt search libcanberra

libcanberra-pulse/focal 0.30-7ubuntu1 amd64
  PulseAudio backend for libcanberra

Installed via sudo apt install libcanberra-pulse

Problem resolved.

[Regern Faraja Otieno (regern)]

Thanks Eric
libcanberra-pulse worked for me

[vince bartle (vbartle)]

Thanks Eric, this also fixed it for me. :)

[Jan Wielemaker (j-wielemaker)]

Installing libcanberra-pulse indeed fixes the problem. Thanks! Flagging this as "Invalid" seems dubious. Shouldn't libcanberra-pulse be a dependency for gnome-control-center or the base sound system?

Sound used to work fine. Given the number of sound devices I always used the gnome control center to switch the right device and check it works before starting Zoom, etc. The checking failed after the latest security updates. After a couple of hours I discovered sound was actually working properly and it was just the test in the control center failing. After running `gnome-control-center sound` on the terminal I got the message "Failed to play sound: No such driver" and found this post ...