Restore default audio drivers in Ubuntu 16

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.

Solution 1:

At LONG last I figured out how to reset everything:

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

Solution 2:

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

Solution 3:

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