Problems with Audio device (ALC-889) - Ubuntu 16.04

Question

Okay I think I need some help with my on-board audio device and Ubuntu 16.04.

My on-board Audio device according to sudo lspci is:

*Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 06)*

aplay -l prints:

    **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 0: ALC889 Analog [ALC889 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 1: ALC889 Digital [ALC889 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

It used to work fine with Ubuntu 12.04 and 14.04 but not with the current lts version 16.04. I get no sound at all and it doesn't even show up in the "sound settings tab" so maybe it's a driver gone wrong issue with 16.04?

I tried every single suggested solution from older posts but still no luck. Any ideas?

Desktop System Specs:

• Intel Core i3 540 @ 3.07GHz
• 8.00GB DDR3
• ASUSTeK Computer INC. P7H55-M PRO (LGA1156)
• 1024MB ATI AMD Radeon R7 200 Series

Solution 1

The issue is that Ubuntu 16.04 defaults to HDMI as default audio if HDMI is present on your computer. In my case, it does see my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 card, but HDMI (from my video cards) is set as default; and the way to change that differs from how you did that in 14.04.

The files, folders and procedures almost work, but don't if you follow 14.04's "No Sound" issues because file names and locations have changed in 16.04. I get this information from a week of Googling and experimenting. But it appears that it is a known bug so an answer should be coming soon. In the mean time, I guess we both have to wait. When I need sound, I revert to a 14.04 netbook. Netbooks can't meet the system requirements of 16.04, but more than meet 14.04's requirements. That should say something.

Although I don't have an answer for you, I hope this gives you some insight into the issue we are having. If you come up with something, let me know. Thanks,

Solution 2

Don't know if you are still having issues with this, I experienced a similar problem on my mini PC. It also has the Intel Wildcat audio device; I managed to fix it by doing the following:

• Install pavucontrol (PulseAudio Volume Control); it's available on the software centre as well
• On the "Configuration" tab, check if you have 2 profiles
• Set the profile you don't need to "Off". In my case it was the one with a whole lot of analogue options

Once I did this, all the weird behaviour stopped and my audio was working on all applications (I was specifically interested in Kodi, however Rythmbox, VLC and Videos also started working). I've now got fully functional 5.1 surround. Strangely, youtube streaming on Firefox had audio before the change (and after of course :) ).

Hope this helps.

Solution 3

I was having this exact same issue after upgrading to 16.04 with my Focusrite Saffire 2i4, I finally found this and fixed it with this command, then rebooting:

sudo apt-get remove fwupd

You probably don't want to do that if you actually need fwupd, but it looks like there's already a bug report out there, hopefully it will get fixed soon.

Solution 4

I have the same issue. The funny thing is that I can hear the sound of the login screen.

What I also figured out is that VLC works if I configure audio to use ALSA. That makes me think the pulsaudio stuff is broken.

After knowing that I started pulseaudio. I switched configuration, internal device, to Analog Stereo Duplex. It was configured to use Digital Stereo IEC958.

Solution 5

Okay, it seems like Canonical fixed the problem for us with one of their latest system updates! Thanks guys!

EDIT: Input is still not working (mic/line in).

View more solutions

Comments

[John E.K.]

It's been a month and still no official solution by Canonical. This is just ridiculous!

[John E.K.]

Unfortunately that didn't help. Maybe I should try reinstalling alsa. I tried pulse but not alsa. -Edit: That made no difference either.

[John E.K.]

That didn't help either. I should probably switch back to 14.04 until 16.04 is stable enough. Too bad.

[John E.K.]

After reading the bug report: It's not the external usb device that troubles me. That works flawlessly. It's the on-board audio unit that is not showing up on the sound settings panel at all.

[John E.K.]

Thanks for the input Jef! Good to know it's a known bug. The funny thing is that the os can see my external usb audio (that for most people isn't working without removing fwupd) and simply ignores the on-board audio.

[John E.K.]

Not happening here :( 16.04 is by far the most unstable stable Ubuntu release ever!

[Christian Schmitt]

good for you, but on my machine it didn't fix anything. :(

[John E.K.]

Okay, not marked as fixed anymore then. I don't know if it's Linux or Ubuntu that messed this one up, but someone should take a look into it.

[Christian Schmitt]

ah you can fix it. I found out that it's not a ubuntu issue and that the issue only occured at my front output. Also the output list on my side is empty but as soon as I put something in, it detects it. but not in the front. this is the bug that happened: bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=81561 fix is simple hdajackretask and remap 0x1b to headphones

[Semyon Danilov]

This helped me. I had "Port" dropdown with two options: "linear output" and "analog headphones". I selected analog headphones (for frontal headphones output) and the sound was restored.

[Seandex]

this one did not fix my problem. it just gave me a dummy card after blacklisting it.