No sound after upgrading to mint 18.1

I had a similar audio problem a year or so ago when I used to use Kubuntu - Sound was working when I installed the OS, but when I tried to set up Ardour to work with a USB Audio interface - after I'd finished setting everything up, I shut down and removed the audio interface. The next time I booted I had lost all sound, nothing through the headphone jack or the speakers. In the KDE audio settings, I could see that the OS had somehow routed all audio to a virtual device - which provided no audio whatsoever, but there was no entry for my built-in sound card. If I plugged the USB audio interface in - I could route audio through the audio interface, or the dummy device - but again there was no entry for my built-in sound-card.

After many hours of messing with JACK, ALSA and PulseAudio - I was getting close to giving up and re-installing the OS.
Then I discovered something in the documentation for Alsa which fixed the issue for me:

Code:

sudo alsa force-reload

I'm not a Mint user, so I don't know how you'd go about getting to the audio settings, but if your audio is being routed through a dummy device - you could try issuing the "alsa force-reload" command (as root - so don't forget sudo!) and see if that fixes the issue.
And even if it is not being routed through a dummy device - try "alsa force-reload" anyway. It might fix the problem.

Otherwise if that doesn't work - run this command:

Code:

sudo lspci -vvv > hardware_info.txt

That will list all of the hardware devices on your machine (and their capabilities and driver modules) in a file called hardware_info.txt. We don't need to see all of the hardware information. But if you open that file in a text editor and search for Audio, that should take you to the block of lines containing detailed information about your sound-card, the drivers it uses etc. If you copy and paste the entire block for the sound-card into a post here - hopefully one of us will be able to offer further assistance.

 

I need help with sound. New install of Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia with all new hardware, Nothing looks muted. Reading this thread, I wonder if still active. Why wont my machine play sound? Help, I lost my linux guru and dont want to use Windows.

[email protected] ~ $ inxi -Fxs
System: Host: Jbox Kernel: 4.10.0-38-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine: System: Gigabyte product: AX370-Gaming K5 v: Default string
Mobo: Gigabyte model: AX370-Gaming K5-CF v: x.x
Bios: American Megatrends v: F3 date: 06/16/2017
CPU: Hexa core AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Six-Core (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 38396
clock speeds: max: 3200 MHz 1: 1550 MHz 2: 1550 MHz 3: 1550 MHz
4: 1550 MHz 5: 1550 MHz 6: 1550 MHz 7: 1550 MHz 8: 1550 MHz
9: 1550 MHz 10: 1550 MHz 11: 1550 MHz 12: 1550 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Device 67ef bus-ID: 09:00.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,amdgpu (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,radeon)
Resolution: [email protected]
GLX Renderer: AMD POLARIS11 (DRM 3.9.0 / 4.10.0-38-generic, LLVM 5.0.0)
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.8 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Device 1457
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 12:00.3
Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Device aae0
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 09:00.1
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.10.0-38-generic
Network: Card: Intel I211 Gigabit Network Connection
driver: igb v: 5.4.0-k port: f000 bus-ID: 06:00.0
IF: enp6s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full
mac: 1c:1b:0d:ef:82:97
Drives: HDD Total Size: 1000.2GB (1.6% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST1000DX002 size: 1000.2GB temp: 29C
Partition: ID-1: / size: 909G used: 7.0G (1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
ID-2: swap-1 size: 8.54GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: No active sensors found. Have you configured your sensors yet? mobo: N/A gpu: 32.0
Info: Processes: 301 Uptime: 39 min Memory: 1963.7/7993.4MB
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35

 

Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon release notes have this advice:

It doesn't specify which issues, but you might try if this helps:

Code:

sudo apt install pavucontrol

 

Pavucontrol is already installed. I found another thread that said to install the latest kernel, but still no sound, and nothing is muted. So frustrating to have a new build and not be able to make it work.

uname -r
4.15.4-041504-generic

 

Volume shows at 100%, nothing to select "multichannel".

[email protected] ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System: Host: Jbox Kernel: 4.13.0-32-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine: System: Gigabyte product: AX370-Gaming K5 v: Default string
Mobo: Gigabyte model: AX370-Gaming K5-CF v: x.x
Bios: American Megatrends v: F3 date: 06/16/2017
CPU: Hexa core AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Six-Core (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 38398
clock speeds: max: 3200 MHz 1: 1550 MHz 2: 1550 MHz 3: 1550 MHz
4: 1550 MHz 5: 1550 MHz 6: 1550 MHz 7: 1550 MHz 8: 1550 MHz
9: 1550 MHz 10: 1550 MHz 11: 1550 MHz 12: 1550 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Device 67ef bus-ID: 09:00.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,amdgpu (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,radeon)
Resolution: [email protected]
GLX Renderer: AMD POLARIS11 (DRM 3.18.0 / 4.13.0-32-generic, LLVM 5.0.0)
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.8 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Device 1457
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 12:00.3
Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Device aae0
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 09:00.1
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.13.0-32-generic
Network: Card: Intel I211 Gigabit Network Connection
driver: igb v: 5.4.0-k port: f000 bus-ID: 06:00.0
IF: enp6s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 1000.2GB (1.6% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST1000DX002 size: 1000.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 909G used: 7.2G (1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
ID-2: swap-1 size: 8.54GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: No active sensors found. Have you configured your sensors yet? mobo: N/A gpu: 35.0
Info: Processes: 266 Uptime: 29 min Memory: 1581.0/7988.6MB
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35


There is a chance the onboard audio chip Realtek ACL1220 may have issues with the kernel. It's also been suggested to me to update the BIOS, but have never heard of such a thing until now.

(I removed 4.15 since last post).

 

I feel like I bought a piece of hardware that just doesn't have support yet. Others are telling me ALC1220 has support with the 4.13 kernel, and some others are and aren't getting audio.

(I also installed Linux Mint Cinammon 18.3 on my old build from 2012, that I was using before where everything just worked. Now, same problem, no audio. Maybe I need to go back to an earlier version of Mint to get audio back.)

 

Hi Jeremy, and welcome to the site! Not sure if I can help, but I can ask more questions!

You mention putting Cinnamon 18.3 on "an old build".... so, one thing I'm looking to confirm is that you built this system yourself. The "gaming" motherboard tends to make me think this is true also. We have run into issues before with Linux on latest-greatest gaming hardware... not just sound, but also gaming mice and keyboards. If the hardware manufacturer doesn't provide needed drivers for Linux themselves, it can take time before the Linux community can produce these things, and you may be in such a circumstance.

But, you said that your audio worked on that "old build" before installing 18.3, and that broke it.... so you definitely could be onto something here. An older version of Mint, or a different distro altogether, might well make your sound work. Even a switch from Mint Cinnamon to Mint MATE or XFCE might help. It's a good avenue to explore.

Some more questions to help clarify your situation:

1. Laptop or desktop?
2. Internal speakers or external speakers?

I'm using Mint MATE, and I'll show a couple of screenshots below of my "Sound Preferences"... hopefully similar to Cinnamon. Since your output from inxi shows two sound cards, I would check to see you have any option to switch between them in the Hardware and Output tabs of the preferences. Also check the Connector drop down box on the Output tab to see the Line Out and Headphones choices, and possibly Speakers. My own is set for Line Out and I have external speakers, but you might also try Headphones, and if necessary, plug your speakers into a Headphone jack to see if they come to life. It's just something to try out if you haven't already.

As Wizard mentioned earlier, it is normal etiquette to start your own thread to discuss your problems rather than to "hijack" an existing thread from someone else. This is just good to know for future reference... here, or on any forum. But as he also noted, this thread seems to have been abandoned almost immediately by the Original Poster, and it is quite similar to your own trouble (but a different Mint version). So, let's carry on here and hopefully get you fixed, and if the OP returns then perhaps it will help him/her as well.

Here's my Sound Preferences that I mentioned:

 

1. Desktops, "old give away" and "new". Today, both have Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.3. Both built with hardware bought off the internet.

2. External speakers, I use a smart TV for a monitor and use those speakers.

Today, the "old" machine audio works when I selected Digital Surround 5.1 from the drop down box under Device Settings. I got excited, plugged in the new desktop, selected it, but does not work.

The attachment below has audio working on the old desktop, but not the new one. Good to see it's unlikely a 18.3 problem, and probably it's a user's settings problem.



On the old machine, HDMI is plugged into the motherboard and audio works. On the new, it's plugged into a video card and audio does not under the same settings. Removing the Radeon 560 and plugging the HDMI into the motherboard produces no picture.

I'm such a terrible Linux user I'm tempted to remove the video card from the new machine, install fresh and use the motherboard video card to see it that works.

 

I'm not familiar with the nuances of HDMI cable arrangements for computing, but I am aware that it can carry both the video and audio together. I think that anything you're willing to try is helpful.... you either fix it, or you rule things out (and try to document the failures too).

Besides HDMI, I'm also unfamiliar with using a smart TV for computers, and I don't personally know of other folks using Linux to do this. Maybe there are, and I'm just in the dark. But if the video works, would it be in the realm of possibility for you to use a standard set of computer speakers, rather than trying to get HDMI to feed both signals to the TV? I don't know about your smart TV, but my built-in speakers sound terrible anyway.

 

I suspect a smart TV is the same as a computer monitor with similar display, similar built-in speakers that yes, do not have great audio as shelf speakers.

 

[email protected] ~ $ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 10: HDMI 4 [HDMI 4]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: ALC1220 Analog [ALC1220 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 1: ALC1220 Digital [ALC1220 Digital]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
[email protected] ~ $ pacmd list-sinks
2 sink(s) available.
index: 10
name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_12_00.3.iec958-stereo>
driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY
state: IDLE
suspend cause:
priority: 9058
volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB, front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
balance 0.00
base volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
volume steps: 65537
muted: no
current latency: 30.55 ms
max request: 6 KiB
max rewind: 64 KiB
monitor source: 12
sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
channel map: front-left,front-right
Stereo
used by: 0
linked by: 1
configured latency: 40.00 ms; range is 0.50 .. 371.52 ms
card: 1 <alsa_card.pci-0000_12_00.3>
module: 7
properties:
alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
device.api = "alsa"
device.class = "sound"
alsa.class = "generic"
alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
alsa.name = "ALC1220 Digital"
alsa.id = "ALC1220 Digital"
alsa.subdevice = "0"
alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
alsa.device = "1"
alsa.card = "1"
alsa.card_name = "HD-Audio Generic"
alsa.long_card_name = "HD-Audio Generic at 0xfe800000 irq 331"
alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
device.bus_path = "pci-0000:12:00.3"
sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.1/0000:12:00.3/sound/card1"
device.bus = "pci"
device.vendor.id = "1022"
device.vendor.name = "Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]"
device.product.id = "1457"
device.string = "iec958:1"
device.buffering.buffer_size = "65536"
device.buffering.fragment_size = "32768"
device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
device.profile.name = "iec958-stereo"
device.profile.description = "Digital Stereo (IEC958)"
device.description = "HD-Audio Generic Digital Stereo (IEC958)"
alsa.mixer_name = "Realtek ALC1220"
alsa.components = "HDA:10ec1220,1458a182,00100003"
module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
ports:
iec958-stereo-output: Digital Output (S/PDIF) (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
properties:

active port: <iec958-stereo-output>
* index: 13
name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_09_00.1.hdmi-surround>
driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
flags: HARDWARE DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY
state: RUNNING
suspend cause:
priority: 9050
volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB, front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB, rear-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB, rear-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB, front-center: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB, lfe: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
balance 0.00
base volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
volume steps: 65537
muted: no
current latency: 24.13 ms
max request: 14 KiB
max rewind: 63 KiB
monitor source: 15
sample spec: s16le 6ch 48000Hz
channel map: front-left,front-right,rear-left,rear-right,front-center,lfe
Surround 5.1
used by: 1
linked by: 3
configured latency: 25.00 ms; range is 0.50 .. 113.33 ms
card: 0 <alsa_card.pci-0000_09_00.1>
module: 6
properties:
alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
device.api = "alsa"
device.class = "sound"
alsa.class = "generic"
alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
alsa.name = "HDMI 0"
alsa.id = "HDMI 0"
alsa.subdevice = "0"
alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
alsa.device = "3"
alsa.card = "0"
alsa.card_name = "HDA ATI HDMI"
alsa.long_card_name = "HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfe960000 irq 329"
alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
device.bus_path = "pci-0000:09:00.1"
sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.1/0000:09:00.1/sound/card0"
device.bus = "pci"
device.vendor.id = "1002"
device.vendor.name = "Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]"
device.product.id = "aae0"
device.string = "hdmi:0"
device.buffering.buffer_size = "65280"
device.buffering.fragment_size = "32640"
device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
device.profile.name = "hdmi-surround"
device.profile.description = "Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI)"
device.description = "HDA ATI HDMI Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI)"
alsa.mixer_name = "ATI R6xx HDMI"
alsa.components = "HDA:1002aa01,00aa0100,00100700"
module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
ports:
hdmi-output-0: HDMI / DisplayPort (priority 5900, latency offset 0 usec, available: yes)
properties:
device.icon_name = "video-display"
active port: <hdmi-output-0>


I don't think this means anything, I have a youtube video playing, I cant hear anything, but I can see the bar moving under Output Devices along with the video with the Volume Control gui open.

 

So there's the motherboard built-in audio (ALC1220) and the HDMI audio from the graphics card (ATI R6xx)
Does the command below errors out, or gives any sound?

Code:

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

(That's using HDMI 0).

Not directly related to ATI HDMI, but does the audio work through headphones plugged in to the PC rear audio panel? And from front audio?

 

It may not mean anything. But it seems to mean that the audio software is recognizing the input, and it "thinks" it is sending the signal to the Output Devices. The solution may be near, but I cannot quite grasp it yet either. As I mentioned earlier, and also @nuna just above... can you try headphones and/or regular computer speakers to see if they work? It would be nice to verify that the device actually works in my old-school understanding of "normally" (hopefully ruling out kernel and driver issues). If it works "normally".... then you can focus specifically on HDMI Output device and/or settings, and maybe continue the search for a missing Mute switch.

On a slightly different note.... take a look around in your BIOS/UEFI settings. There are not typically any sound settings there, but I would look for anything sound-related or HDMI-related. A motherboard made specially for gaming may indeed have some settings in the BIOS/UEFI that could have effect. If you find anything and make changes, take notes so that you can return the values back to original if you want or need to... and also remember that you will have to save the BIOS settings when you exit the setup if you make any changes. Your mention earlier about "flashing the BIOS" is what brought this idea to mind, but I don't think that this is necessarily the solution either.... but it could be tried if an updated BIOS is available for your motherboard.