Linux (Kubuntu) Sound issues

Parabellum117 · September 3, 2021

Hey, all... Gonna get this out of the way: I am new to Linux, so still figuring things out. I have managed to sort out pretty much all the issues that have come my way, except for this one: my speakers don't show up. Sound is obviously important, so I would love to get this working. Nothing pops up in any of the settings menus, as well as advanced config menus. I have tried rebooting alsa to no avail. Finally, I tried modifying the "Element Headphone" config data in the analog-output-speaker.conf text file, but no results.

One thing to note: for some reason, it shows my GPU as my sound card in Konsole. No idea how to change this, as I have seen no working options to do so.

Thanks SO MUCH for any help! I am looking to learn.

grg994 · September 3, 2021

Hey! First check if your sound card is properly detected:

$ sudo lspci -v
[...]
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Ice Lake-LP Smart Sound Technology Audio Controller (rev 30) (prog-if 80)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 3840
[...]
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel, snd_sof_pci_intel_icl

Find your sound card here (https://www.alsa-project.org/wiki/Matrix:Main) and check if your system is using the correct driver.

Next check if ALSA (the low-level audio utility) can access it:

$ aplay -l

card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC236 Analog [ALC236 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
[...]

And finally for high-level configuration as far as I know all Ubuntu flavors use PulseAudio as their userspace sound server. Use pactl to check if it is configured correctly.

You will be facing new concepts like sinks, profiles, ports, etc. Don't panic! If you need to modify a setting, you can always check the manpage for how to do it:

$ man pactl

So check your sound card first:

$ pactl list cards

Card #0
	Name: alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1f.3
	Driver: module-alsa-card.c
	Owner Module: 6
	Properties:
		alsa.card = "0"
		alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
[...]
	Profiles:
		input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Input (sinks: 0, sources: 1, priority: 32833, available: yes)
		output:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 39268, available: yes)
		output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Duplex (sinks: 1, sources: 1, priority: 39333, available: yes)
		output:hdmi-stereo: Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 5900, available: no)
		output:hdmi-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output + Analog Stereo Input (sinks: 1, sources: 1, priority: 5965, available: yes)
[...]
	Active Profile: output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
	Ports:
		analog-input-internal-mic: Internal Microphone (type: Mic, priority: 8900, latency offset: 0 usec, availability unknown)
			Properties:
				device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
			Part of profile(s): input:analog-stereo, output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-stereo+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-stereo-extra1+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround-extra1+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71-extra1+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-stereo-extra2+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround-extra2+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71-extra2+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-stereo-extra3+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround-extra3+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71-extra3+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-stereo-extra4+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround-extra4+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71-extra4+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-stereo-extra5+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround-extra5+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71-extra5+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-stereo-extra6+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround-extra6+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71-extra6+input:analog-stereo
		analog-input-mic: Microphone (type: Mic, priority: 8700, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Properties:
				device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
			Part of profile(s): input:analog-stereo, output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-stereo+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-stereo-extra1+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround-extra1+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71-extra1+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-stereo-extra2+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround-extra2+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71-extra2+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-stereo-extra3+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround-extra3+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71-extra3+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-stereo-extra4+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround-extra4+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71-extra4+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-stereo-extra5+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround-extra5+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71-extra5+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-stereo-extra6+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround-extra6+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71-extra6+input:analog-stereo
		analog-output-speaker: Speakers (type: Speaker, priority: 10000, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Properties:
				device.icon_name = "audio-speakers"
			Part of profile(s): output:analog-stereo, output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
		analog-output-headphones: Headphones (type: Headphones, priority: 9900, latency offset: 0 usec, available)
			Properties:
				device.icon_name = "audio-headphones"
			Part of profile(s): output:analog-stereo, output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
		hdmi-output-0: HDMI / DisplayPort (type: HDMI, priority: 5900, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Properties:
				device.icon_name = "video-display"
			Part of profile(s): output:hdmi-stereo, output:hdmi-stereo+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround, output:hdmi-surround+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71, output:hdmi-surround71+input:analog-stereo
		hdmi-output-1: HDMI / DisplayPort 2 (type: HDMI, priority: 5800, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Properties:
				device.icon_name = "video-display"
			Part of profile(s): output:hdmi-stereo-extra1, output:hdmi-stereo-extra1+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround-extra1, output:hdmi-surround-extra1+input:analog-stereo, output:hdmi-surround71-extra1, output:hdmi-surround71-extra1+input:analog-stereo
[...]

Here verify that the "Active Profile" is the one that you need. You can look up your speakers in "Ports", check it's "Part of profile(s)" includes your active profile.

Check the audio sink provided by your sound card:

$ pactl list sinks

Sink #0
	State: RUNNING
	Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo
	Description: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
[...]
	Ports:
		analog-output-speaker: Speakers (type: Speaker, priority: 10000, not available)
		analog-output-headphones: Headphones (type: Headphones, priority: 9900, available)
	Active Port: analog-output-headphones
	Formats:
		pcm

Verify that it has the correct "Active Port".

Then check if PulseAudio is actually outputting the sound to the audio sink provided by your sound card and not just in the void:

$ pactl info
[...]
Default Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
Default Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Default Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo
Default Source: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo

Verify that "Sample Spec" and "Channel Map" looks correct and "Default Sink" is set to the audio sink provided by your sound card ("Name" from the previous listing).

What type of computer (motherboard, sound card) or laptop are you using btw?

dag_dg · September 4, 2021

Your video card is showing up because of the digital audio via HDMI. Typically if a sound card isn't detected most Linux distributions with pulseaudio and the like will default to the HDMI output. Some motherboards have a digital audio out(IEC938/SPDIF) that can make it a little confusing when you're looking at sound options.

grg994 has some solid recommendations; lspci is a great place to start to see what your Linux distro is recognizing your sound card as.

I know some of the newer distributions including Fedora are switching from PulseAudio to the "PipeWire" project but I'm not sure if this has happened on (K)Ubuntu yet. I had an issue with one of my machines running PipeWire playing nice with the sound card even though ALSA would detect it; I wound up switching back to pulseaudio for the time being.