Terrible sound after update to 18.04

Bug #1790816 reported by Sheryl Zettner
14
This bug affects 3 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
alsa-driver (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

The sound just is extremely distorted after update to 18.04. Like an old radio that's not picking up the station right. I saw a webpage about the same device I am using and tried their solution. That didn't help at all. Hope I didn't make things worse.

I saw a page that mentioned the lspci command. Based on that, I guess I am using an Intel 82801 JD/DO audio card. One site said that requires an snd_hda_intel driver, but all I could find in Synaptic Package Manager was that an alsa driver and pulse audio were installed. Could the correct driver have been removed with the new installation?

This computer has been kind of buggy as of late, but the audio had been working. I had problems installing this OS. Mostly it seems to be working otherwise though.

1) Description: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
Release: 18.04

2) N: Unable to locate package pkgname

3) What you expected to happen: sound to work properly

4) What happened instead: sound distorted

Hope my attempt to fix it doesn't screw up the bug report.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-33.36-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-33-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.2
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: szettner 2030 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: GNOME-Flashback:GNOME
Date: Wed Sep 5 03:07:08 2018
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-06-28 (433 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20170215.2)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Symptom_AlsaPlaybackTest: ALSA playback test through plughw:Intel failed
Symptom_Card: Built-in Audio - HDA Intel
Symptom_Jack: Green Headphone Out, Front
Symptom_Type: High background noise, or volume is too low
Title: [OptiPlex 760, Analog Devices AD1984A, Green Headphone Out, Front] Background noise or low volume
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to bionic on 2018-09-02 (2 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 12/03/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A01
dmi.board.name: 0D517D
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA01:bd12/03/2008:svnDellInc.:pnOptiPlex760:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0D517D:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: OptiPlex 760
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

Revision history for this message
Sheryl Zettner (szettner) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Jean-Pierre van Riel (jpvr) wrote :

It's a shot in the dark, but in my case, pulse sound server (atop of alsa) seems to have gotten into a mess with an upgrade between 16.04 and 18.04. Post login, removing old / session start user config fixed my dodgy channel mappings (but not quite the same as crackling, etc):

pulseaudio --kill \
  && rm -r ~/.config/pulse/* \
  && pulseaudio --start

However, every new boot, the same missing channel mappings cause my audio to sound bad (not mapped correctly to 5.1 channels).

Also, try alsa-info which is a script that bundles all the alsa inspection commands and then maybe try fish for the problem in that. Also try figure out how to play a sound file directly to alsa vs via the pulse sound server to rule out pulse causing the problem.

I think the speaker-test command also directly tests the alsa layer where as the gnome-control-centre (settings) sound page "Test Speakers" tests the setup via pulse.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

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

Changed in alsa-driver (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Sheryl Zettner (szettner) wrote : Re: [Bug 1790816] Re: Terrible sound after update to 18.04
Download full text (4.1 KiB)

Thanks to your reply to my problems with 18.04 and sound. Just now saw it,
so I am only now replying.

On Wed, Feb 27, 2019 at 4:25 PM Jean-Pierre van Riel <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> It's a shot in the dark, but in my case, pulse sound server (atop of
> alsa) seems to have gotten into a mess with an upgrade between 16.04 and
> 18.04. Post login, removing old / session start user config fixed my
> dodgy channel mappings (but not quite the same as crackling, etc):
>
> pulseaudio --kill \
> && rm -r ~/.config/pulse/* \
> && pulseaudio --start
>
> However, every new boot, the same missing channel mappings cause my
> audio to sound bad (not mapped correctly to 5.1 channels).
>
> Also, try alsa-info which is a script that bundles all the alsa
> inspection commands and then maybe try fish for the problem in that.
> Also try figure out how to play a sound file directly to alsa vs via the
> pulse sound server to rule out pulse causing the problem.
>
> I think the speaker-test command also directly tests the alsa layer
> where as the gnome-control-centre (settings) sound page "Test Speakers"
> tests the setup via pulse.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1790816
>
> Title:
> Terrible sound after update to 18.04
>
> Status in alsa-driver package in Ubuntu:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> The sound just is extremely distorted after update to 18.04. Like an
> old radio that's not picking up the station right. I saw a webpage
> about the same device I am using and tried their solution. That didn't
> help at all. Hope I didn't make things worse.
>
> I saw a page that mentioned the lspci command. Based on that, I guess
> I am using an Intel 82801 JD/DO audio card. One site said that
> requires an snd_hda_intel driver, but all I could find in Synaptic
> Package Manager was that an alsa driver and pulse audio were
> installed. Could the correct driver have been removed with the new
> installation?
>
> This computer has been kind of buggy as of late, but the audio had
> been working. I had problems installing this OS. Mostly it seems to be
> working otherwise though.
>
> 1) Description: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
> Release: 18.04
>
> 2) N: Unable to locate package pkgname
>
> 3) What you expected to happen: sound to work properly
>
> 4) What happened instead: sound distorted
>
> Hope my attempt to fix it doesn't screw up the bug report.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
> Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-33.36-generic 4.15.18
> Uname: Linux 4.15.0-33-generic x86_64
> ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.2
> Architecture: amd64
> AudioDevicesInUse:
> USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
> /dev/snd/controlC0: szettner 2030 F.... pulseaudio
> CurrentDesktop: GNOME-Flashback:GNOME
> Date: Wed Sep 5 03:07:08 2018
> InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-06-28 (433 days ago)
> InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64
> (20170215.2)
> PackageArchitecture: all
> SourcePackage: alsa-driver
> Symptom: audio
> ...

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