Sound card shown as Dummy Output in Ubuntu 18.04
Dummy output is showing in Settings -> Sound in Ubuntu 18.04.
Dummy Output
I tried:
sudo alsa force-reload
It does nothing. I am not sure what else to try.
$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Release: 18.04
Codename: bionic
$ lsmod | grep snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_intel 40960 3
snd_hda_codec 126976 4 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hda_core 81920 5 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_pcm 98304 4 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_core,snd_hda_codec_hdmi
snd 81920 18 snd_hda_intel,snd_hwdep,snd_seq,snd_hda_codec,snd_timer,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_pcm
$ lspci -nnk | grep -A2 Audio
00:1f.3 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H HD Audio [8086:a170] (rev 31)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Sunrise Point-H HD Audio [1462:fa15]
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel
$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
# autoloader aliases
install sound-slot-0 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-0
install sound-slot-1 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-1
install sound-slot-2 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-2
install sound-slot-3 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-3
install sound-slot-4 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-4
install sound-slot-5 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-5
install sound-slot-6 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-6
install sound-slot-7 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-7
# Cause optional modules to be loaded above generic modules
install snd /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-ioctl32 ; /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq ; }
#
# Workaround at bug #499695 (reverted in Ubuntu see LP #319505)
install snd-pcm /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-pcm $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-pcm-oss ; : ; }
install snd-mixer /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-mixer $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-mixer-oss ; : ; }
install snd-seq /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-seq $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq-midi ; /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq-oss ; : ; }
#
install snd-rawmidi /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-rawmidi $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq-midi ; : ; }
# Cause optional modules to be loaded above sound card driver modules
install snd-emu10k1 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-emu10k1 $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-emu10k1-synth ; }
install snd-via82xx /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-via82xx $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq ; }
# Load saa7134-alsa instead of saa7134 (which gets dragged in by it anyway)
install saa7134 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install saa7134 $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist saa7134-alsa ; : ; }
# Prevent abnormal drivers from grabbing index 0
options bt87x index=-2
options cx88_alsa index=-2
options saa7134-alsa index=-2
options snd-atiixp-modem index=-2
options snd-intel8x0m index=-2
options snd-via82xx-modem index=-2
options snd-usb-audio index=-2
options snd-usb-caiaq index=-2
options snd-usb-ua101 index=-2
options snd-usb-us122l index=-2
options snd-usb-usx2y index=-2
# Ubuntu #62691, enable MPU for snd-cmipci
options snd-cmipci mpu_port=0x330 fm_port=0x388
# Keep snd-pcsp from being loaded as first soundcard
options snd-pcsp index=-2
# Keep snd-usb-audio from beeing loaded as first soundcard
options snd-usb-audio index=-2
options snd-hda-intel model=auto
Tried also:
$ pacmd list-cards 0 card(s) available. $ aplay -l aplay: device_list:270: no soundcards found...
I will further note: When I use USB sound card it does not work on boot it does not show at all. When I disconnect it and connect it again it starts working. How can I establish which application captures the sound cards?
Solution 1:
Just wanted to add to this, I followed similar instructions to have sound work briefly after a reboot with a dell XPS 13 running Ubuntu cosmic (18.10). Switching between 'auto' and 'generic' didn't change much
sudo alsa force-reload
worked for me.
Solution 2:
Dummy Output
I realize this is an older question but following the suggested fixes did not work for me. I was running 16.04 just fine but did a fresh install of 18.04 and lost audio. I further upgraded to 18.10 and still did not have audio.
Profile
After a bit of searching, I found help on this forum. When running pacmd list-cards I noticed that although it saw my audio card, the active profile was off. To fix this, I ran:
pacmd set-card-profile alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0 output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
As soon as I did this, my Sound Preferences showed Built-in Audio Analog Stereo under the output tab instead of Dummy Output.
Solution 3:
Some other service might be capturing the default audio output before pulseaudio is able to reserve it. Leaving only a "Dummy Output" as (useless) fallback.
Check via two commands if there's a discrepancy between what aplay and what pulseaudio sees:
$ aplay -l
$ pacmd list-cards
If the second command does not include your analog output, but aplay lists it, then something is grabbing the analog outputs, preventing pulseaudio from using them. Do you have timidity installed? Try stopping or removing it.