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I have a Dell Latitude D630. When I reinstalled Ubuntu 15.04 from a DVD after an update, it left my laptop inoperable. Now the only sound option under audio is "Dummy Output". I have tried advice from other websites, but nothing helps. The options listed here do not apply to my 15.04 problem.

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  • so that we don't repeat the same suggestions you've already tried, can you please list the failed solutions? thanks!
    – mchid
    May 13, 2015 at 1:43
  • do you have a file /etc/pulse/default.pa?
    – mchid
    May 13, 2015 at 1:43
  • sometimes (hopefully) all you need to run is sudo service pulseaudio stop then sudo alsa force-reload and sudo service pulseaudio start
    – mchid
    May 13, 2015 at 1:46
  • if there is no service found you can run this instead sudo killall pulseaudio then sudo alsa force-reload and pulseaudio
    – mchid
    May 13, 2015 at 1:49
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    russellhoo@russellhoo-Latitude-D630:~$ alsamixer cannot open mixer: No such file or directory
    – Russell Brown
    May 13, 2015 at 2:38

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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Open the terminal and type: 

sudo touch /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf.bak
sudo cp /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf.bak  # backup alsa-base.conf
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

This will open alsa-base.conf for editing in nano text editor. Scroll down to the bottom of alsa-base.conf and add this new line to the bottom: 

options snd-hda-intel model=dell-m42

Press the keyboard combination Ctrl+O and after that press Enter to save the changes you made to alsa-base.conf. Press the keyboard combination Ctrl+X to exit nano.

Next run the following command:

sudo alsa force-reload

The next time you reboot check to find out if the changes you made held up after a reboot.

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  • yes, I just cam across a blogpost that backs this method up nathansheffield.com/wordpress/… I don't know if it's needed but was suggested to install this sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules kind of outdated though
    – mchid
    May 13, 2015 at 2:54
  • THe option "options snd-hda-intel model=dell-m22" stayed after the reboot, but I still have "dummy output".
    – Russell Brown
    May 13, 2015 at 3:00
  • I edited my answer. Try it again with dell-m42 instead of dell-m22.
    – karel
    May 13, 2015 at 3:09
  • m42 did save. When I run "sudo force-reload" I get: russellhoo@russellhoo-Latitude-D630:~$ sudo alsa force-reload Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: (none loaded). Loading ALSA sound driver modules: (none to reload). russellhoo@russellhoo-Latitude-D630:~$
    – Russell Brown
    May 13, 2015 at 3:21
  • When I run: "sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules" I get: Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done E: Unable to locate package linux-backports-modules russellhoo@russellhoo-Latitude-D630:~$
    – Russell Brown
    May 13, 2015 at 3:22
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Ubuntu uses ALSA as a sound driver, but PulseAudio acts as a man in the middle, interfacing between ALSA and the various programs on the computer. PulseAudio is supposed to be able to, for lack of a nicer term, "hijack" the sound card. However to to so requires that PulseAudio be the only program accessing the sound card directly.

The first thing I would do is try restarting PulseAudio using pulseaudio -k.

If there are other programs accessing the sound card, they need to either stop accessing the card, or be shut down. The best way to find out which programs are accessing the sound card is to run sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*. You should see the names and PIDs of any programs using your sound card. If you see anything other than PulseAudio, you can shut it down using the kill command. Assuming the problematic PIDs are 12345 and 67890, you can use kill 12345 67890. If the programs accessing your sound card are being run by some user other than you, you may need to use sudo to run kill with root privileges.

PS: The Arch Linux wiki has a very detailed article on troubleshooting PulseAudio. If none of the above works for you, maybe something there will.

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Try to boot from any of the Linux LiveCDs as @TSJNachos117 suggested in the comments.

On my Toshiba Tecra A8 I tried Puppy Linux 4. I couldn't hear any sound when I booted from the Puppy Linux 4, but when I rebooted to my Ubuntu 15.04 the sound was back. And in the audio settings there were "Built-in Speakers" instead of "Dummy Output" as my speakers.

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