How to repair PulseAudio

Solution 1:

Sure, to replace the missing files in pulse audio run the following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install --reinstall -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confmiss" pulseaudio

To list all pulseaudio files (including missing files), run the following command:

dpkg -L pulseaudio

Also, it may help to delete your user's pulseaudio profile and then reboot:

rm $HOME/.config/pulse/*

Additionally, for some reason, it often helps to install the pulseaudio volume control app:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install pavucontrol

Now, search for pavucontrol or "pulse audio volume control" in your list of installed applications or just run the pavucontrol commmand. You may get an error of "missing file" or "failed to start". If so, leave the app open and run the following instructions.

If you are still missing the files (and to actually download a copy of the files), run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
mkdir ~/Downloads/PULSE
cd ~/Downloads/PULSE
apt download pulseaudio
dpkg-deb -x pulseaudio*deb ./
sudo rm -R /etc/pulse/*
sudo cp -R etc/pulse/* /etc/pulse/

You can access the copies of these files in your Downloads directory and pulseaudio should start up automatically when the needed files are replaced.