[VPCCA3S1E, Realtek ALC269, Speaker, Internal] Pulseaudio fails to detect card

[Adalbert Hanßen]

This problem came up after installing Xubuntu 20.04.02 on this computer, which used Xubuntu 18.04 before. Ifter installing the system, I installed some programs, among them Sound Switcher Indicator 2.3.6 and I unistalled firefox after I had installed Chromium instead.

My first test of Audio/Video:
When streaming e.g. from https://www.france24.com/fr/direct, I can see the video part but I hear nothing. I am sure that the loudspeaker is not muted. pavucontrol shows me a blue slider switch. Its tab "playback" shows a varying Chromium playback indicator and the associated fader has influence on the amplitude of the shown intensity.

(Note: I am using a German version so my transaltions of the items might be off a bit, still I hpe that it can be understood).

I have no HDMI cable connected to the computer and no USB-sound device is plugged into it. The laptop has an internal microphone and an internal loudspeaker.

In pavucontrol's tab "output devices" it shows something like "no output devices available" when "only hardware devices" are selected there.

In pavucontrol's tab "configuration" I can select nothing.

I am quite confident that this is not a hardware bug, because the audio system worked before I upgraded to Xubuntu 20.04.02.

I also tried alsamixer. in F2 it offers two cards: 0: PCH and 1: HDMI. When I type 0 there to select the PCH one, nothing happens. If I type 1, nothing happens either (I expected the latter since there is no HDMI-device connected). In the levels above, one of the offered items is highlighted and the selection can be moved by up or down.

Most of the files in /proc/asound are empty:

$ ls -l /proc/asound
insgesamt 0
dr-xr-xr-x 6 root root 0 2021-07-30 17:46 card0
dr-xr-xr-x 6 root root 0 2021-07-30 17:46 card1
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 2021-07-30 17:46 cards
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 2021-07-30 17:46 devices
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 2021-07-30 17:46 HDMI -> card1
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 2021-07-30 17:46 hwdep
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 2021-07-30 17:46 modules
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 0 2021-07-30 17:46 oss
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 2021-07-30 17:46 PCH -> card0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 2021-07-30 17:46 pcm
dr-xr-xr-x 6 root root 0 2021-07-30 17:46 seq
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 2021-07-30 17:46 timers
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 2021-07-30 17:46 version

Probably this will give a hint (perhaps it is also visible from the automatically collected information).

I think I had tried the sound system with the live stick before installation. But I'll repeat that test again and tell you the outcome.

Kind regards

melolontha

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.11
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.8.0-63.71~20.04.1-generic 5.8.18
Uname: Linux 5.8.0-63-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.18
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse: Error: command ['fuser', '-v', '/dev/snd/controlC0', '/dev/snd/hwC0D0', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D0c', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p', '/dev/snd/by-path', '/dev/snd/controlC1', '/dev/snd/hwC1D0', '/dev/snd/pcmC1D3p', '/dev/snd/seq', '/dev/snd/timer'] failed with exit code 1:
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Fri Jul 30 17:08:50 2021
InstallationDate: Installed on 2021-07-28 (1 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 20.04.2.0 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20210209.1)
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
Symptom: audio
Symptom_Card: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
Symptom_Jack: Speaker, Internal
Title: [VPCCA3S1E, Realtek ALC269, Speaker, Internal] Pulseaudio fails to detect card
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 08/24/2011
dmi.bios.release: 21.0
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: R2100V2
dmi.board.asset.tag: N/A
dmi.board.name: VAIO
dmi.board.vendor: Sony Corporation
dmi.board.version: N/A
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: N/A
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Sony Corporation
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.ec.firmware.release: 21.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrR2100V2:bd08/24/2011:br21.0:efr21.0:svnSonyCorporation:pnVPCCA3S1E:pvrC609VVH0:rvnSonyCorporation:rnVAIO:rvrN/A:cvnSonyCorporation:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.family: VAIO
dmi.product.name: VPCCA3S1E
dmi.product.sku: N/A
dmi.product.version: C609VVH0
dmi.sys.vendor: Sony Corporation

[Adalbert Hanßen (melolontha)]

I just checked it:

I could show a newscast from France 24. Both audio and video worked

* with firefox
* with an alternatively snap-installed Chromium browser.

On my trials mentioned above, I also used Version 92.0.4515.107 (Offizieller Build) snap (64-Bit). I thought to have installed it the apt install way, but possibly this is also just another way to really get a snap packet. I was not aware of that.

What I could not test that way: On my target system, I uninstalled firefox since I only need one browser. Installing something else is possible on a live system (albeit the installation is only present until shutdown). However, it is only possible as installing does not alter any kernel component which apparently happens sometimes when updating requires a reboot.

Anyway: Would it make sense to copy system files from the live system (via a USB stick or directly by mounting the Linux system partition)?