Ubuntu
alsa-driver package

Laptop after 16.04 upgrade : no sound output

Asked by Quentin Ayoul-Guilmard

After upgrading to 16.04 I cannot get any sound output through either headphones or built-in speakers on my MSI GS60 2PC-247XFR. Hardware issue is unlikely since the problem appeared right after upgrade, and it worked before.

I checked Sound Settings, PulseAudio Volume Control and GNOME ALSA Mixer. It should be noted about those last two that :
- alsamixer (terminal interface) does not show any volume bar, which is why I used this GNOME GUI which seem to be working just fine.
- PulseAudio Volume Control shows two Built-In Audio in tab Configuration. I turned off the first one, which shows a list of profiles all appended by "(unplugged)" and was originally set to "Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output (unplugged)"; the second one is set to Analog Stereo Duplex. This changed nothing as far as I can tell.

PulseAudio Volume Control does display an moving volume bar when sound is playing (e.g. from web browser).

I followed https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshootingProcedure.
Output of alsa-info.sh is at http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=ce6b5b4a04641b689b3a6a763b63aabbbe13704a.
The output of

cat /proc/asound/{version,cards,devices,hwdep,pcm,seq/clients}; sudo lshw -short;ls -lart /dev/snd; find /lib/modules/`uname -r` | grep snd ;cat /dev/sndstat; lspci -nn; lsusb; sudo which alsactl; sudo fuser -v /dev/dsp /dev/snd/* ; dpkg -S bin/slmodemd; dmesg | egrep 'EMU|probe|emu|ALSA|alsa|ac97|udi|snd|ound|irmware'; sudo /etc/init.d/sl-modem-daemon status; sudo grep model /etc/modprobe.d/* ; sudo dmidecode|egrep 'anufact|roduct|erial|elease'; lsmod | egrep 'snd|usb|midi|udio'; pacmd list-sinks; aplay -l ; sudo lshw -C sound

from step 4 is at http://pastebin.com/p93F0Q8B.

Finally,

aplay -D plughw:0,3 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

does not display any error.

I read the latest related issues here and was bothered by the absence of any snd-hda-intel option, but a blind "options snd-hda-intel model=laptop" in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf (then reboot) availed nothing ; I removed it (then rebooted). My alsa-base.conf is at http://pastebin.com/Zn6Akz7L.

I found no other help in the latest solved question here, hence my own. Thank you in advance for any help you may provide, ot the time you may dedicate to my question.

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Ubuntu alsa-driver Edit question
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Quentin Ayoul-Guilmard
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Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

If you boot an older kernel is it OK?

Revision history for this message
Quentin Ayoul-Guilmard (ayoul-guilmard-quentin) said : 		#2

tl;dr : No.

I have currently two kernels I can boot :
4.4.0-24-generic
4.2.0-38-generic

The original post refers to 4.4.0-24-generic. I just now booted 4.2.0-38-generic, checked GNOME ALSA Mixer, PulseAudio Volume Control and Sound Settings for any obvious mute or volume issue, then performed the Test Sound provided by Sound Settings and ran

aplay -D plughw:0,3 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

for which I expected sound from built-in speakers. I got no sound in either test and no error message from the latter test.

I would need detailed instructions to test with another kernel (not familiar with this) but I can easily provide additional test results on 4.2.0-38-generic.

Revision history for this message
Quentin Ayoul-Guilmard (ayoul-guilmard-quentin) said : 		#3

I just tested with bluetooth headphones (current 4.4.0-24-generic kernel) and I get sound normally (system sounds, music, ...). Built-in speakers and headphones plugged through jack do not work any more than previously reported.

This seems to suggest hardware failure, does it not ? =/

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#4

Try:

killall pulseaudio; rm -r ~/.config/pulse* ~/.pulse*

Wait ten seconds then reboot

Revision history for this message
Quentin Ayoul-Guilmard (ayoul-guilmard-quentin) said : 		#5

I did it and it changed nothing, as far as I can tell. I tested it in the same way as described in my previous post (#2), as well as a random Youtube video (which worked fine with bluetooth headphones).

Revision history for this message
Not Telling (c4529218) said : 		#6

I just installed Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and didn't have any sound either. After reading the help feature, I solved my problem.

What I did was go through all of the "sound devices" to find the one my speakers are connected to.

You can do this by clicking the speaker icon on the menu bar and selecting "Sound Settings...". Begin playback of the audio. Take note of what is selected under "Play sound through" and then each of the devices; hopefully you will hear audio after selecting one of them. If you don't, select the device that was originally selected, close the Sound Settings, stop your audio playback.

At this point if you haven't already, I recommend you read through Ubuntu's help application which you can access from the Ubuntu logo at the top of the side bar and accessing 'Help'. It has some great suggestions.

I don't work for Canonical but I hope this helps you.

Revision history for this message
Quentin Ayoul-Guilmard (ayoul-guilmard-quentin) said : 		#7

Thanks for helping, Not Telling. I have indeed encountered this selection issue in the past, and worked out which device was which. Unfortunately, I am quite sure the right device is selected; the cause looks to be elsewhere.

Revision history for this message
Not Telling (c4529218) said : 		#8

Maybe you can see on your laptop or sound card manufacturers website and see if they have a driver for Ubuntu. My sound card manufacturer is Creative Labs, and they had a drivers for Ubuntu (Linux).

The only other solution I can suggest is sleep. I have found sleep solves a bitch of a problem.

I am out of ideas. I wish you luck solving your problem.

Revision history for this message
Quentin Ayoul-Guilmard (ayoul-guilmard-quentin) said : 		#9

Question closed : it turned out to be a hardware problem.

For the record, a connector from the motherboard was disconnected. My clue was a powerless USB socket adjacent the jack socket; it was confirmed by opening the laptop and inspecting. It was remarkably unlucky that this problem happened right at the time of upgrade to 16.04.

Thanks to actionparsnip and Not Telling for their time.