Audio only works sometimes
 

I am running an Artistx distro, based on Ubuntu 12.04.

Sometimes when I start up, the audio works. Othertimes, it doesn't, and in settings/sound it lists for output, 'dummy output', for input, it is blank, and for hardware, it is also blank.

I went through heck, trying to get sound working before, with a lot of forum hopping. Then on one boot, It was working, and I thought the problem was solved. The next day though when I booted, there was no sound again. since then it sometimes works but mostly doesn't.

I don't wan't to use my windows dual boot, except to once in awhile update the OS, and anti-virus. I've been hoping to just use Linux, but am ready to give up.

Please, will someone help me? I am getting burnt-out.

probably you have 2 (or more) audio devices and the default device is not the same

Do you have more than one sound device? If you don't know, "aplay -l" will tell you. It could then be that the devices are being numbered in a different order. In that case, this thread may help:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...me-4175457373/

only one device
 

I should probably have mentioned, that I am on a laptop. I've done aplay, and about everything else, That has been mentioned in a lot of different foums, but here in the result from The command 'aplay -l"

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: CONEXANT Analog [CONEXANT Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: Conexant Digital [Conexant Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0


******* *********

I might add that my sound is working on this boot. and I am spending time reading through the results from a ( "dummy output" linux sound ) search.

Try aplay again when sound doesn't work, and see if analog is still 0 and digital 1.

No difference
 

It is the same whether I have sound or not. If I give the command 'pulseaudio -k', then I will have sound on reboot, but the next time I boot after that, there will again be no sound. Another person had the same problems as me, in an old (about 6 mo.) forum discusion, but it wasn't shown to have been resolved.

I still have search results, to look over, but I'm burnt and taking a break from it for awhile. At least I know how to have sound, for the next boot. I just have to enter the command to kill pulseaudio in a terminal, before shutting down.

Appreciate your trying to help.

I found quite a few niggles with ArtistX: I found Ubuntu Studio was better.

Problem solved (maybe)
 

I downloaded 'pulseaudio-alsa-2-2-any.pkg.tar.xz' from 'http://pkgs.org/download/pulseaudio-alsa'. The file inside it, is 'asound.conf'. I copied this file to '/etc', and rebooted. I've only had one boot since then that didn't have sound. I'm not sure why, but I can deal with the one time. I guess my problem can be considered solved (I hope).

Thanks to those that worked their brain to try to solve this, even if you didn't have the solution.