No sound after Maverick Meerkat upgrade

[David Oftedal]

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

After upgrading from Lucid, the system was unable to reproduce sound. Even "yes > /dev/dsp" had no effect.

For some strange reason, alsamixer showed all channels to be muted while KDE's mixer didn't – But that turned out not to be the problem. Correcting that had no effect.

However, the problem was solved by doing the following:

rm -rf ~/.pulse*
killall -HUP pulseaudio

Another workaround is using alsa output in players.

Whatever it is that's confusing Pulseaudio should be deleted or renamed upon every upgrade.

* killing the pulseaudio daemon may also work:

pulseaudio --kill

[David Oftedal (rounin)]

In fact, it's worse: The commands have to be run after each reboot to get sound.

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

Please run the following command in a terminal, so more information can be gathered about your system: apport-collect 647539

[Markus Mueller (mmu)]

AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: CONEXANT Analog [CONEXANT Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: mmu 1646 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: mmu 2694 F.... npviewer.bin
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xf2920000 irq 48'
   Mixer name : 'Conexant CX20561 (Hermosa)'
   Components : 'HDA:14f15051,17aa20ff,00100000'
   Controls : 14
   Simple ctrls : 7
Card29.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:29 'ThinkPadEC'/'ThinkPad Console Audio Control at EC reg 0x30, fw 7XHT24WW-1.06'
   Mixer name : 'ThinkPad EC 7XHT24WW-1.06'
   Components : ''
   Controls : 1
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card29.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'Console',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [on]
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
Package: pulseaudio 1:0.9.22~0.9.21+stable-queue-32-g8478-0ubuntu19
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=C
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-22.33-generic 2.6.35.4
Tags: maverick
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-22-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 03/10/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 6DET63WW (3.13 )
dmi.board.name: 74663RG
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:bvr6DET63WW(3.13):bd03/10/2010:svnLENOVO:pn74663RG:pvrThinkPadX200s:rvnLENOVO:rn74663RG:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 74663RG
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X200s
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Markus Mueller (mmu)]

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[Markus Mueller (mmu)]

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[Markus Mueller (mmu)]

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[Markus Mueller (mmu)]

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[Markus Mueller (mmu)]

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[Markus Mueller (mmu)]

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[Markus Mueller (mmu)]

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[Markus Mueller (mmu)]

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[Markus Mueller (mmu)]

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[Nagy Tamás (ntomka)]

AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ntomka 19776 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: ntomka 19776 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC1D0p: ntomka 19776 F...m pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xd5200000 irq 46'
   Mixer name : 'Conexant CX20585'
   Components : 'HDA:14f15069,104313f3,00100301'
   Controls : 6
   Simple ctrls : 4
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'S51'/'Creative Technology SB X-Fi Surround 5.1 at usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.2, full speed'
   Mixer name : 'USB Mixer'
   Components : 'USB041e:3042'
   Controls : 0
   Simple ctrls : 0
Card1.Amixer.values:

Card2.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:2 'Generic'/'HD-Audio Generic at 0xd0040000 irq 47'
   Mixer name : 'ATI R6xx HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:1002aa01,00aa0100,00100200'
   Controls : 4
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card2.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [on]
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Alpha amd64 (20100926)
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: pulseaudio 1:0.9.22~0.9.21+stable-queue-32-g8478-0ubuntu20
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=hu_HU.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Tags: maverick
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-02063505-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 02/05/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: K52Jr.207
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: K52Jr
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrK52Jr.207:bd02/05/2010:svnASUSTeKComputerInc.:pnK52Jr:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:rnK52Jr:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: K52Jr
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

[Nagy Tamás (ntomka)]

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[Nagy Tamás (ntomka)]

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[Nagy Tamás (ntomka)]

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[Nagy Tamás (ntomka)]

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[Nagy Tamás (ntomka)]

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[Nagy Tamás (ntomka)]

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[Nagy Tamás (ntomka)]

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[Nagy Tamás (ntomka)]

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[Nagy Tamás (ntomka)]

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[jp.seixas (joaopseixas)]

No sound here too. Killing pulseaudio also works here.

[Eduardo Sanz Godoy (redulavos)]

I've got an acer aspire 7736 zg and after upgrading from ubuntu lucid, all sound dissapears.
killing pulse audio like it's said above doesn't help.

[jp.seixas (joaopseixas)]

After killing pulseaudio, you have to restart the application you are trying do hear. You have to kill it each reboot.
Here simply killing pulseaudio deamon works perfect: "pulseaudio --kill".

[jp.seixas (joaopseixas)]

PS: uninstalling pulseaudio solves the problem at all.

[Eduardo Sanz Godoy (redulavos)]

I feel useless, i've uninstalled pulseaudio thru synaptic and it doesn't work.
No sound at all. What should i do?
I

[Nagy Tamás (ntomka)]

Uninstalling pulseaudio is not a solution, workaround maybe. I'm using alsa output in players, it's working this way but this is just a workaround also.

[jp.seixas (joaopseixas)]

Eduardo Sanz,

If you completly uninstalled pulseaudio and still got no sound, your problem is with another package, you should investigate and open another thread.

ntomka,

I know it's not a solution, but is better than no sound at all. There's only 4 people complaining about this bug, and there's no one assigned to fix it. I think this will remain unfixed for a loooong time.

[Nagy Tamás (ntomka)]

jp.seixas: I wonder how many people simply not report bugs... I think this is an ugly bug. There were no problem in lucid, so what happend since?

[jp.seixas (joaopseixas)]

ntomka,

I agree it's ugly, and no prior version had it. I hope that with the official launch of final version more people complain about it. But, unfortunately, I've seen ugly bugs that have never been fixed...

[dr. Hannibal Lecter (lecterror)]

+1 affected. I've tried killing PulseAudio and some other stuff listed here:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/5794/lost-audio-after-upgrading-from-10-04-to-10-10

I am now afraid to update my main machine until I'm 100% sure this can be resolved.

[jp.seixas (joaopseixas)]

With the latest updates I don't have the problem anymore.

[dr. Hannibal Lecter (lecterror)]

As mentioned on the link in my comment #34, it seems like my problem was related to this bug:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/617647

[Karl Hegbloom (karl.hegbloom)]

I have a Thinkpad X61 Tablet, and am also experiencing this bug. The pulseaudio daemon never runs. When I try to launch it in a terminal, I see this:

E: module-alsa-card.c: Failed to find a working profile.
E: module.c: Failed to load module "module-alsa-card" (argument: "device_id="29" name="platform-thinkpad_acpi" card_name="alsa_card.platform-thinkpad_acpi" tsched=yes ignore_dB=no card_properties="module-udev-detect.discovered=1""): initialization failed.
pulseaudio: could not connect to socket
pulseaudio: No such file or directory

Also relevant is:
% cd /proc/asound
% ls
card0/ card1/ card29/ cards devices hwdep Intel@ modules pcm seq/ ThinkPadEC@ timers version Webcam@
% cat modules cards devices pcm
 0 snd_hda_intel
 1 snd_usb_audio
29 thinkpad_acpi

 0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
                      HDA Intel at 0xf8220000 irq 46
 1 [Webcam ]: USB-Audio - HP USB Webcam
                      HP USB Webcam HP USB Webcam at usb-0000:00:1d.7-1.2, high speed
29 [ThinkPadEC ]: ThinkPad EC - ThinkPad Console Audio Control
                      ThinkPad Console Audio Control at EC reg 0x30, fw 7RHT16WW-1.02

  2: : timer
  3: : sequencer
  4: [29] : control
  5: [ 1- 0]: digital audio capture
  6: [ 1] : control
  7: [ 0- 1]: digital audio playback
  8: [ 0- 0]: digital audio playback
  9: [ 0- 0]: digital audio capture
 10: [ 0- 0]: hardware dependent
 11: [ 0] : control

00-00: AD198x Analog : AD198x Analog : playback 1 : capture 2
00-01: AD198x Digital : AD198x Digital : playback 1
01-00: USB Audio : USB Audio : capture 1

Notice that card29 is from the Thinkpad Embedded Controller, and that it presents a control, but not a PCM. Pulseaudio is getting the device from udev, but it can't set it up because it has no pcm. I think that pulseaudio really ought to just ignore that device, at least for the time being. That's fine because it never knew about it prior to this anyway and sound worked just fine. I will research this and see if it's a udev change or what that needs to be done, and will post a patch or whatever it takes when I find out what to do.

[Karl Hegbloom (karl.hegbloom)]

Ok, here's the solution. First I ran 'modinfo thinkpad_acpi' to see what options that module supports... I did that because I have run it before and remembered that what we are looking for is one of it's options... I found that "enable" is for enable or disable of the ALSA interface to the console volume control. Disabling it solves the problem and I have sound again.

Create /etc/modprobe.d/thinkpad-acpi.conf with at least:

options thinkpad_acpi enable=0

... and then reboot the computer.

I'm not certain what package should contain that setting. I am sure that this is thinkpad specific, and not related to the problem mentioned above that was found on the other laptop model. I would begin debugging them in similar fashion, by stopping the pulseaudio daemon if it's even running, and then trying to run it from a terminal to see what it prints.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Karl, you have a separate bug that's causing a similar symptom, so
please file a separate report.

[Nagy Tamás (ntomka)]

I installed Mint 10 RC after it's release and everything works fine since then. The problem was real and reinstalling the whole system is not the solution, I guess. Whatever, this bug not affects me now (I hope it will stay this way).

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

The original reporter hasn't been responding by running the apport-collect command, and the other people responding all have different hardware (which usually means different root causes). Due to this fact, I can only close this bug for now, and I'll ask you others to file separate bugs using this terminal command:
ubuntu-bug audio
Thanks for understanding.

[Paul Abrahams (abrahams)]

ubuntu-bug audio is useless here. It gives the message:

Please use the "report bug" feature, available in the menu of the application,
or use "ubuntu-bug <packagename>" to report a bug against the particular package.

I have no idea what the appropriate application is, and what would <packagename> be other than "audio" -- which gets me exactly back to where i started.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

ubuntu-bug alsa-base

("audio" is a symptom not a package)

[Paul Abrahams (abrahams)]

I just followed David Henningsson's advice as to how to report this bug for different hardware. So what is the right way to do that? I've discovered that the soundchip in my Asus K60 laptop is a VIA82xx, which I guess is diffferent from the Intel chips.

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

@Paul, it should only say that if you have selected "Sound problem with one or a few applications only". If you have no sound whatsoever, you should select "playback does not work, or is crackling" in the same dialog.

[Paul Abrahams (abrahams)]

The bug is much worse and more complex than I realized:

1. ubuntu-bug alsa-base hangs on "Collecting Information", with the progress bar set at the beginning, and cannot be cancelled. The only way to stop it is to exit the shell.

2. kmix refuses to unmute or display its window.

3. I have no sound from the built-in speakers either, with everything unmuted in alsamixer (except of course for the headphone, which is apparently disabled).

4. ubuntu-bug audio now tells me that pulseaudio has crashed. If I attempt to report *that* bug, ubuntu-bug hangs.

And since I can't get ubuntu-bug to work for me, I don't even know how to report all this except here.

I had no sound problems until the latest upgrade, and I had been using 10.10 for a while. Even going back to the previous kernel doesn't help.

[Paul Abrahams (abrahams)]

I just installed the latest updates. The built-in sound now works -- but the headphone still does not. I don't see how to report that with ubuntu-bug, since i do get sound -- just not *all* the sound.

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

@Paul, given your problem with apport-collect and ubuntu-bug audio, try collecting an alsa-info according to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/AlsaInfo , then file a new bug and attach the alsa-info to the bug. Thanks.