Ubuntu 18.04 No Sound Card detected

sound pulseaudio alsa 18.04 soundcard

9,664

Solution 1

Is your sound device blocked by some other processes? fuser should list the pulseaudio command only:

~$ sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC0:  justme     2067 F.... pulseaudio
/dev/snd/controlC1:  justme     2067 F.... pulseaudio
/dev/snd/pcmC1D3p:   justme     2067 F...m pulseaudio

If you see anything else than pulseaudio as the assigned command, try to get rid of and restart pulseaudio like pulseaudio -k (as user, not root). Afterwards pavucontrol should list your device again ...

Solution 2

I had a similar problems with USB card (Asus Xonar U7) on Ubuntu 18.04

I solved it using instructions from this answer https://askubuntu.com/a/1104763/354702 by João Pimentel Ferreira

1) Remove the ALSA packages.

sudo apt-get --purge remove linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils

2) Reinstall the same packages.

sudo apt-get install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils

3) Install further audio addon packages

sudo apt-get install dkms build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r` 
alsa-base alsa-firmware-loaders alsa-oss alsa-source alsa-tools 
alsa-tools-gui alsa-utils alsamixergui

4) Be sure to add the user to group audio

sudo usermod -a -G audio username

5) reboot

sudo reboot

9,664

hussien eloy

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

hussien eloy over 1 year

I upgraded to Ubuntu 18.04 and sound disappeared and showed the infamous "Dummy Output", I thought the problem was with alsa and pulseaudio so I removed them and reinstalled them but that did not fix it. I tried the command aplay -l The output was : aplay: device_list:270: no soundcards found.. I tried lspci and the output was:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Skylake Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 08)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 520 (rev 07)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 21)
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Thermal subsystem (rev 21)
00:15.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #0 (rev 21)
00:15.1 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #1 (rev 21)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI #1 (rev 21)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 21)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f1)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #6 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP LPC Controller (rev 21)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PMC (rev 21)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SMBus (rev 21)
01:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 3160 (rev 83)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 07)

As you can see without Audio device.

I ran the alsa-info script https://gist.github.com/craftyjon/902247 and This was the output:

upload=true&script=true&cardinfo=
!!################################
!!ALSA Information Script v 0.4.64
!!################################

> !!Script ran on: Sat May  5 14:11:34 UTC 2018


> !!Linux Distribution
!!------------------

> Ubuntu 18.04 LTS \n \l DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 18.04 LTS" NAME="Ubuntu" ID=ubuntu ID_LIKE=debian PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 18.04 LTS" HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/" SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/" BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/" PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy" UBUNTU_CODENAME=bionic


> !!DMI Information
!!---------------

> Manufacturer:      Dell Inc.
Product Name:      Inspiron 5559
Product Version:   
Firmware Version:  1.1.6
Board Vendor:      Dell Inc.
Board Name:        04D1V1


> !!ACPI Device Status Information
!!---------------

> /sys/bus/acpi/devices/ACPI0003:00/status   15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/ACPI000C:00/status     15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/DELLABCE:00/status     15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/DLLC6B2:00/status      15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/DLLK06B2:00/status     15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/INT33A1:00/status      15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/INT33D0:00/status      15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/INT340E:00/status      15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/INT344B:00/status      15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/INT3F0D:00/status      15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/LNXPOWER:00/status     1
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/LNXPOWER:01/status     1
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/LNXPOWER:02/status     1
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0103:00/status      15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C02:03/status      3
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C02:04/status      3
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C09:00/status      15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0A:00/status      31
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:00/status      9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:01/status      9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:02/status      9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:03/status      9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:04/status      9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:05/status      9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:06/status      9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/PNP0C0F:07/status      9
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:4e/status   15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:4f/status   15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:53/status   15
/sys/bus/acpi/devices/device:66/status   11


> !!Kernel Information
!!------------------

> Kernel release:    4.15.0-20-generic
Operating System:  GNU/Linux
Architecture:      x86_64
Processor:         x86_64
SMP Enabled:       Yes


> !!ALSA Version
!!------------

> Driver version:     
Library version:    1.1.3
Utilities version:  1.1.3


> !!Loaded ALSA modules
!!-------------------



> !!Sound Servers on this system
!!----------------------------

> Pulseaudio:
      Installed - Yes (/usr/bin/pulseaudio)
      Running - Yes


> !!Soundcards recognised by ALSA
!!-----------------------------



> !!PCI Soundcards installed in the system
!!--------------------------------------



> !!Advanced information - PCI Vendor/Device/Subsystem ID's
!!-------------------------------------------------------



> !!Modprobe options (Sound related)
!!--------------------------------

> snd_pcsp: index=-2
> snd_usb_audio: index=-2
> snd_atiixp_modem: index=-2
> snd_intel8x0m: index=-2
> snd_via82xx_modem: index=-2
> snd_atiixp_modem: index=-2
> snd_intel8x0m: index=-2
> snd_via82xx_modem: index=-2
> snd_usb_audio: index=-2
> snd_usb_caiaq: index=-2
> snd_usb_ua101: index=-2
> snd_usb_us122l: index=-2
> snd_usb_usx2y: index=-2
> snd_cmipci: mpu_port=0x330 fm_port=0x388
> snd_pcsp: index=-2
> snd_usb_audio: index=-2
> snd_hda_intel: jackpoll_ms=500


> !!Loaded sound module options
!!---------------------------


> !!ALSA Device nodes
!!-----------------

> crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  1 May  5 15:58 /dev/snd/seq
> crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 33 May  5 15:58 /dev/snd/timer


> !!Aplay/Arecord output
!!--------------------

> APLAY

> aplay: device_list:270: no soundcards found...

> ARECORD

> arecord: device_list:270: no soundcards found...

> !!Amixer output
!!-------------


> !!Alsactl output
!!--------------

> --startcollapse--
> --endcollapse--


> !!All Loaded Modules
!!------------------

> Module
ccm
vmw_vsock_vmci_transport
vsock
vmw_vmci
cmac
bnep
nls_iso8859_1
rtsx_usb_ms
memstick
uvcvideo
videobuf2_vmalloc
videobuf2_memops
videobuf2_v4l2
videobuf2_core
videodev
media
btusb
btrtl
btbcm
btintel
bluetooth
ecdh_generic
arc4
iwlmvm
mac80211
hid_multitouch
dell_laptop
dell_smbios_smm
dcdbas
dell_smm_hwmon
intel_rapl
x86_pkg_temp_thermal
intel_powerclamp
coretemp
kvm_intel
kvm
irqbypass
crct10dif_pclmul
crc32_pclmul
ghash_clmulni_intel
pcbc
aesni_intel
aes_x86_64
crypto_simd
glue_helper
cryptd
intel_cstate
iwlwifi
intel_rapl_perf
cfg80211
joydev
dell_wmi
input_leds
dell_smbios_wmi
dell_smbios
serio_raw
sparse_keymap
dell_wmi_descriptor
wmi_bmof
acpi_pad
idma64
virt_dma
shpchp
mei_me
intel_pch_thermal
mei
intel_lpss_pci
intel_lpss
dell_rbtn
mac_hid
sch_fq_codel
parport_pc
ppdev
lp
parport
ip_tables
x_tables
autofs4
rtsx_usb_sdmmc
rtsx_usb
i915
i2c_algo_bit
drm_kms_helper
syscopyarea
sysfillrect
sysimgblt
psmouse
fb_sys_fops
r8169
ahci
drm
mii
libahci
i2c_hid
wmi
hid
video
pinctrl_sunrisepoint


> !!ALSA/HDA dmesg
!!--------------

I have dealt with sounds problems many times before but at least each time the card was detected by lspci command I don't know if that is a hardware problem.

UPDATE:

I restored the default BIOS settings and the soundcard is visible now. The problem now is that in pavucontrol, the option "Analog Stereo Duplex" and "Analog stereo Input/Output" for that matter are missing. I reinstalled pulseaudio and alsa but it did not work.

CL. almost 6 years

The audio device would show up on 00:1f.3 (either HDA or I²S). Check the BIOS.
hussien eloy almost 6 years

Thanks. I restored the default BIOS settings and the soundcard is visible now. The problem now is that in pavucontrol, the option "Analog Stereo Duplex" and "Analog stereo Input/Output" for that matter are missing. I reinstalled pulseaudio and alsa but it did not work.
CL. almost 6 years

alsa-info output?
hussien eloy almost 6 years

pastebin.com/m9wFWMPb. Here it is.
CL. almost 6 years

Nothing but the HDMI output.
hussien eloy almost 6 years

Yes that is the problem. Analog disappeared from my configuration. The digital are the only ones remaining.

Derek Eden almost 4 years

what if you get no output
ChristophS almost 4 years

From man page fuser: identify processes using files or sockets. At least pulseaudio should be listed, otherwise it does not access your soundcard. In this case your problem is not a blocked device and my solution won't help.
yankee over 3 years

In my case timidity was shown as command. I killed timidity and immediately my sound card was back! I did not even need to restart pulseaudio. Weird...