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.
3 Answers
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.
-
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kind of outdated though– mchidMay 13, 2015 at 2:54 -
THe option "options snd-hda-intel model=dell-m22" stayed after the reboot, but I still have "dummy output". May 13, 2015 at 3:00
-
-
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:~$ 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:~$ May 13, 2015 at 3:22
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.
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.
/etc/pulse/default.pa
?sudo service pulseaudio stop
thensudo alsa force-reload
andsudo service pulseaudio start
sudo killall pulseaudio
thensudo alsa force-reload
andpulseaudio