#This is not finished yet, I just want to save what is done so far

Sound Troubleshooting Guide

for Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10, 11.04 and 11.10

Notes/Warnings/Tips about this document:

• This is a do-it-yourself guide to fix your sound problems. I do not guarantee that it will work, but feel free to edit this document if you have any problems.
• Make sure that you have plenty of time to do this guide, as it will probably take a few hours.
• Make sure that you have installed the latest updates for ubuntu before beginning this guide.
• All advice in this guide has been tested on Ubuntu. Though we have not tested thoroughly on Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Lubuntu the advice is likely to work for these versions as well.

• In this guide, a Terminal window will be frequently used. In some cases, it is essential for you to use it to solve your problem. You can find a tutorial on using the terminal here: Using the terminal

• All commands to type are in boxes,

  like this.

• You will probably not need all of this guide to cure your audio! Feel free to only pick the bits that appear relevant.

Preliminary checks and guide start:

Make sure that all of these things are OK (follow the checks in the order supplied):

• Your speakers are turned on fully (on the speakers)

• Your speakers are turned on in AlsaMixer

• Your speakers are plugged into the correct ports.
• If your speaker has a power cable, make sure that it is plugged in.
• Your speakers work (try plugging them into a CD/DVD/Radio player)
• Your Ubuntu release is supported. If it isn’t supported anymore, install a supported release of Ubuntu (clean install, not upgrade from the upgrade tool).
• If your problem is NOT sound, but recording instead, check out Appendix G, and Appendix B, on the recording section. If it still doesn't work after tweaking the settings a lot, use the instruction under the heading Af to reinstall ALSA.
• If your problem is that the sound stops working after hibernation, follow the instructions under Ba.
• If you want to make MIDI work, make sure that sound works normally, then follow heading Bb.
• Boot into any supported Ubuntu LiveCD/DVD/USB, and see if sound works. If sound doesn’t work there, then the problem might be with Ubuntu, your sound card (or motherboard, if the sound card is internal), or the BIOS settings. Follow heading X for more information.
• Run the following command:

  • aplay -l

  • If it gives an output similar to this:

    aplay: device_list:221: no soundcard found...

    Then follow heading Aa.
  • If it gives an output similar to this:

    **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
    ALSA lib conf.c:3643:(snd_config_update_r) Cannot access file /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf
    ALSA lib control.c:882:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL hw:0
    aplay: device_list:249: control open (0): No such file or directory

    Then follow heading Ab.
• If it does not give any of the 2 outputs (or similar to them), then follow heading Ac.
• Run the following command:

  lspci -nn | grep '\[04[80][13]\]'

  • If the command gives no output at all, follow heading X.
  • If the command does give output, follow heading Ac.

Aa (Fix Audio Permissions)

• Run the following command:

  sudo aplay -l

  • If it gives an output similar to this:

    aplay: device_list:221: no soundcard found...

    Then follow heading Ac, and if sound still doesn’t work, repeat this guide (redoing the checks).
  • If it does not give that output (or similar to it), then run:

    sudo usermod -aG `cat /etc/group | grep -e '^pulse:' -e '^audio:' -e '^pulse-access:' -e '^pulse-rt:' -e '^video:' | awk -F: '{print $1}' | tr '\n' ',' | sed 's:,$::g'` `whoami`

    Then reboot, and run this command:

    aplay -l

    You should see the devices now.
  • If still see the aplay: device_list:221: no soundcard found... output, then follow heading Ac, and if sound still doesn’t work, repeat this guide (redoing the checks).

  • If you do see the devices, and sound doesn’t work, use AlsaMixer to unmute your audio, and set it to 100%.

Ab (Reinstall libasound2)

• Run the following command:

  sudo apt-get install --reinstall libasound2

  Your sound should work. If it doesn’t, repeat this guide (redoing the checks).

Ac (Make the system/ALSA recognize the sound card(s))

• Run this command: (referred to in this section as the 'big one')

  echo "Sound cards recognized by the system:"; lspci -nn | grep --color=none '\[04[80][13]\]'; echo "Sound cards recognized by ALSA:"; lspci -nn | grep '\[04[80][13]\]' | while read line; do lspci -nnk | grep -A 3 '\[04[80][13]\]' | grep -e 'Kernel modules: ..*' -e '\[04[80][13]\]' | grep --color=none -F "$line"; done; echo "Sound cards recognized by ALSA, and activated:"; lspci -nn | grep '\[04[80][13]\]' | while read line; do lspci -nnk | grep -A 3 '\[04[80][13]\]' | grep -e 'Kernel drivers in use: ..*' -e '\[04[80][13]\]' | grep --color=none -F "$line"; done

  • First, make sure that Ubuntu recognizes all of your soundcards. If it doesn’t, make sure that your sound card is properly placed in its slot (you can disregard this step if it is integrated into the motherboard), and make sure that the BIOS does not disable the sound card.

  • Then, make sure that ALSA recognizes all of the sound cards that Ubuntu recognizes. If it doesn’t recognize all of them, then follow this tutorial. After that, reboot and re-run the big command above, and it should be recognized.

  • Finally, make sure that all of the sound cards recognized by ALSA are activated. If they are not all activated, get the slot number of the card that is not activated (the first field, usually something in this format (can be letters or numbers): 00:00.0), and run: (replace SLOTID by the slot id of the sound card that is not activated. If you have more than one sound card, re-run this command as many times as needed, always replacing SLOTID):

    DRIVER=`lspci -ks SLOTID | grep "Kernel modules:" | awk -F: '{print $2}' | sed 's/ *//g'`; modprobe $DRIVER && echo "$DRIVER" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

    Reboot, re-run the big command above, and it should be activated!

Ad (Switch default sound card)

• Run this command:

  aplay -l

  • For me, it gave this output (yours will probably differ):

    **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
    card 0: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
    Subdevices: 1/1
    Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
    card 1: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: VT1708S Analog
    [VT1708S Analog]
    Subdevices: 2/2
    Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
    Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
    card 1: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 1: VT1708S Digital
    [VT1708S Digital]
    Subdevices: 1/1
    Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

  • Choose the card/device you want to have as the default card, then check the first part (card X:), and remember the bolded part. Then, check which card device you want to use (device Y:), and remember the bolded part. Edit (or create) /etc/asound.conf with your favorite text editor (as root). Put the following contents in it (replace X and Y by the card and device numbers you saw):

    pcm.!default {
    type plug slave.pcm {
    type hw card X device Y
    }
    }

  • Then save, exit and reboot.

Ae ((Make NVIDIA HDMI Audio work)

• To install NVIDIA drivers, go to:
  • Here if you are using Ubuntu 11.04 or above.

    

  • Here if you are using Ubuntu 11.04 Classic or below.

    

  • Here if you are using Kubuntu.

    

  • Here if you are using Xubuntu.

    

  • Here if you are using Lubuntu.

    

• Once you have found the "additional drivers" program, a small window will appear for a short time, then disappear for this one:

  

• Install the recommended driver, then reboot your computer
• Now run in a Terminal window:

  aplay -l

  • You should see an output similar to this:

    **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
    card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC662 rev1 Analog [ALC662 rev1
    Analog]
    Subdevices: 1/1
    Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
    card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC662 rev1 Digital [ALC662 rev1
    Digital]
    Subdevices: 1/1
    Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
    card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI]
    Subdevices: 1/1
    Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
    card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI]
    Subdevices: 1/1
    Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
    card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI]
    Subdevices: 1/1
    Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
    card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI]
    Subdevices: 0/1
    Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

  • If you do not see the NVIDIA cards, then follow heading Ac.
• Run:

  grep "eld_valid *1" /proc/asound/NVidia/eld*

  • You should see something like this:

    /proc/asound/NVidia/eld#X.0:eld_valid      1

X is a number between 0 and 3, and remember the bolded part. Use this reference on what probe mask you should use: eld#0.0=device 3, probe_mask=0x1 eld#1.0=device 7, probe_mask=0x2 eld#2.0=device 8, probe_mask=0x4 eld#3.0=device 9, probe_mask=0x8 So now, run your favorite text editor (as root) on /etc/modprobe.d/nvidiahdmi.conf Add this line (replace 0xY by the Probe Mask number you saw for your device): options snd-hda-intel probe_mask=0xY Then save the document. After that, run this Terminal command: sudo update-initramfs -u Then run your favorite text editor (as root) on /etc/pulse/default.pa Find these lines:

#load-module module-alsa-sink #load-module module-alsa-source device=hw:1,0 #load-module module-oss device="/dev/dsp" sink_name=output source_name=input #load-module module-oss-mmap device="/dev/dsp" sink_name=output source_name=input #load-module module-null-sink #load-module module-pipe-sink Add at the end of it: load-module module-alsa-sink device=hdmi:NVidia Then save, and then run in a Terminal window: rm -rf ~/.pulse ~/.asound* ~/.pulse-cookie Then reboot. If you still can't hear from the NVidia HDMI, then check out procedure Ad, and if it still doesn't work (after a reboot), try unmuting it with AlsaMixer.