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I purchased a Windows laptop and replaced Windows with Ubuntu 16.

I experienced the low audio volume issue, where sound is only about 25% as loud in Ubuntu as it was in Windows, even with all settings at their max (with sound > 100% enabled as well). Since the other AskUbuntu solutions I found for this issue didn't work, I tried to install RealTek's linux codecs, as that is was is used in Windows.

Following the instructions in the INSTALL file, I ran ./configure then make then make install and rebooted. Now I have no sound whatsoever and in the Sound Settings menu the "Default audio device" which appeared before under "Play sound through..." has been replaced with "Dummy output".

At this point I would be happy just to go back to the way things were before.

How can I restore the defaults?

I tried following https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshooting but when I get to step 5 and run

sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-`uname -r` linux-generic

The packages are not found.

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package linux-restricted-modules-4.4.0-47-generic
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'linux-restricted-modules-4.4.0-47-generic'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-restricted-modules-4.4.0-47-generic'

I also tried following the advice from a thread on Ubuntu Forums saying to remove and reinstall these packages, then reboot. It didn't work:

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

For reference, here's the output from lspci -v | grep -A7 -i "audio":

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
  Subsystem: Lenovo 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller
  Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 255
  Memory at f1510000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
  Capabilities: <access denied>
  Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev c4) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
  Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16

Based on the output above I think my module name is snd-hda-intel. Under that assumption I tried to follow the Manual Installation section of the SoundTroubleshooting link above. It did not go well:

sudo modprobe snd-hda-intel

modprobe: ERROR: ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:192 kmod_module_parse_depline() ctx=0x563319b75030 path=/lib/modules/4.4.0-47-generic/kernel/sound/pci/hda/snd-hda-codec.ko error=No such file or directory modprobe: ERROR: ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:192 kmod_module_parse_depline() ctx=0x563319b75030 path=/lib/modules/4.4.0-47-generic/kernel/sound/pci/hda/snd-hda-codec.ko error=No such file or directory modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'snd_hda_intel': Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

However, someone just correctly pointed out that troubleshooting guide is very old anyway.

I just tried installing the DKMS driver as per https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/UpgradingAlsa/DKMS and rebooted. Didn't seem to do anything.

I have no further ideas on how to fix this.

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  • lspci should show the name of your sound card. Your first link linux-restricted-extras states it is mostly outdated as of 2012 so you can ignore those tips. Nov 27, 2016 at 0:01
  • @WinEunuuchs2Unix Thanks; just made a related edit to the question
    – Hack-R
    Nov 27, 2016 at 0:05

3 Answers 3

10

At LONG last I figured out how to reset everything:

sudo aptitude --purge-unused reinstall linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils linux-image-`uname -r` linux-ubuntu-modules-`uname -r` libasound2

If you encountered an error E: Unable to locate package linux-modules-ubuntu-..., this command can help:

sudo aptitude --purge-unused reinstall linux-modules-`uname -r` linux-modules-extra-`uname -r`
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  • 6
    Command didn't work for me on 16.04
    – akahunahi
    Jun 16, 2017 at 22:06
  • 2
    Neither for me ... cannot find linux-ubuntu-modules
    – Rafael
    Jul 11, 2017 at 11:18
  • @Rafael You have to include the -uname -r part (with backticks, like in my answer, but which can't appear in this comment due to syntax misinterpretation) to get the correct package name. But it's also possible that you just have a different problem. It would take a lot more information to know. You should start your own question if correcting the package name doesn't do the trick. Also make sure your sources are complete and up to date.
    – Hack-R
    Jul 11, 2017 at 17:49
  • @Ligemer If you give a link to your question with the background on your problem, what you've tried, and system info then I will try to help you.
    – Hack-R
    Jul 11, 2017 at 17:52
  • 1
    Thanks, worked for me as well after a long time searching for a solution (with slight modification from aptitude to apt)!
    – 2xMax
    Nov 19, 2018 at 4:06
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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 official documentation https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshootingProcedure

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  • This didn't work for me - I mentioned it in the original question
    – Hack-R
    Nov 19, 2018 at 15:54
2

Thank you Hack-R, I had your very same problem on Kubuntu 18.10, and you saved me with this last command that is not mentioned in the Troubleshooting page:

sudo aptitude --purge reinstall linux-modules-`uname -r` linux-modules-extra-`uname -r`

(I had the error of not found packages with the previous "standard" command). BUT, for other users, I must note that as of december 2018, on Kubuntu but I also think on Ubuntu, the command worked replacing --purge with --purge-unused option (--purge itself is not anymore recognized). Also, you have to reboot the system to have effects applied.

I tried your same route, Hack-R, because it seemed to me that the audio quality on Kubuntu was worse than on Windows. Now I restored the system defaults, but how to achieve the "Realtek High definition audio" quality in the end? I tried with the solution from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/UpgradingAlsa/DKMS and, I would say to perceive better quality, but I'd not swear.

Best regards

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