I have had this problem for a while now. I have looked around in many places for solutions. But none have worked.
The OS is running on an old Sony Vaio Laptop, model: VPCEB3F4E.
I have used the alsa information script to gather info. Output is here:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=48f08f47664104fbec921ac7d0be4ca94be3ef35
When running the script the following is displayed before it saves the file:
cat: /proc/asound/version: No such file or directory
grep: /proc/asound/cards: No such file or directory
cat: /proc/asound/cards: No such file or directory
cat: /proc/asound/modules: No such file or directory
grep: /proc/asound/cards: No such file or directory
/usr/sbin/alsactl: save_state:1590: No soundcards found...
cat: /tmp/alsa-info.2TnPpLYBxa/alsactl.tmp: No such file or directory
I have tried adding:
options snd-hda-intel model=auto
To the bottom of /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf but it doesn't help.
I have tried reinstalling the modules and alsa files using the large command:
sudo apt-get update;sudo apt-get dist-upgrade; sudo apt-get install pavucontrol linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils lightdm ubuntu-desktop linux-image-`uname -r` libasound2; sudo apt-get -y --reinstall install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils lightdm ubuntu-desktop linux-image-`uname -r` libasound2; killall pulseaudio; rm -r ~/.pulse*; ubuntu-support-status; sudo usermod -aG `cat /etc/group | grep -e '^pulse:' -e '^audio:' -e '^pulse-access:' -e '^pulse-rt:' -e '^video:' | awk -F: '{print $1}' | tr '\n' ',' | sed 's:,$::g'` `whoami`
From https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshootingProcedure
Except ofc editing it to remove desktop gui elements as I am on a server.
I have tried adding myself to the audio group.
I have tried deleting alsa-base.conf, purging alsa-base and reinstalling it.
I have tried looking in the bios to see if anything is disabled. But as with most laptop BIOS options, they suck. Only able to change time, boot order, and C3/C6 support for the CPU.
I have had some progress manually loading snd_hda_intel using:
sudo modprobe snd_hda_intel
That at least gets me an audio device and some more entries under /dev/snd but when playing a file its just static that I hear.
Any help and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks in advance =)