Ubuntu froze and I was forced to shut it down with brute force (holding the power button). Ever since then the sound settings have disappeared and I am not able to adjust the volume / select the output and etc. There is sound, the only thing missing is the settings for it. Here is a pic:
(Linux Ubuntu 14.04 with GNOME desktop environment)
killall pulseaudio -KILL
and thenpulseaudio -D