I am running Linux Mint 19.3 on an Asus Netbook. The speaker emits no sound, but there is sound in the headphones, and the alsamixer page shows that the file is being played.

I installed pavucontrol, and the speaker slider is also right up. I wonder if something is muting the speaker?

Help welcome!

Alok Rai

Hi Alok Rai,

Perhaps you can gain some knowledge from my experience...

I've had the same issue ever since switching to Linux on June 10th; happens every time. So, I went to YouTube, and found out about the Alsa Mixer, and downloaded it. It's a lifesaver. In my case I know that the "default sound card" is producing my sound. So, what I did today, I double clicked on every icon, until I got to the default output one. Also, I have "HP/Speaker Auto Detect" checked.

I hope this helps you out...

Pen guin

If you are using alsa, alsamixer will show you if it is muted (MM) or not, & F6 will allow you to select a different card if you have more than one.

1 members found this post helpful.

Tried these suggestions.

in alsamixer, F6 shows one "default" and one HDA Intel sound card. This is the one selected - and which produces no sound. But alsamixer doesn't allow me to select the "default" option.

I checked and the speaker is not muted. So right now, I'm pretty much stuck where I was - in a Covid-hit soundlessness!

Still, thanks.

Alok Rai

Further: there is sound in the headphones, so at some level the sound card is doing its job, and producing audio signals - but these are not getting transferred - or recognized - by the speaker.

AR

another command line option to consider could be pactl. man pactl will show you the myriad options, but in your situation it seems like pactl info would help you see the default sink and source. pactl list sink (or source) can then show you the volumes associated with either. from there you would have options to set-sink-volume (or source - something along the line of pactl set-sink-volume 0 25%) or set-default-sink (or source) if you have an alternate you want to try.

Could you post the model?

Make sure you do not have anything plugged in the head phone jack when you are trying to sound out of the speakers.

Here is the response from pactl info. ( I think it contains the information about the model number of the Asus EEE PC as well.

Will await further advice. Meanwhile, this:

Server String: unix:/run/user/1000/pulse/native
Library Protocol Version: 32
Server Protocol Version: 32
Is Local: yes
Client Index: 10
Tile Size: 65496
User Name: alok
Host Name: alok-1015CX
Server Name: pulseaudio
Server Version: 11.1
Default Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
Default Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Default Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
Default Source: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
Cookie: ed29:ea92


Thanks, Alok

if you want to try and use pactl to raise the volume, it would be helpful to know the present level to see if anything is off or set too low. your sound card is called a sink by pulseaudio. to check it's volume level you can run pactl list sinks | grep -i volume.

Thanks. Here is the output from running the suggested pactl command:

Volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB, front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
Base Volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY


I see a suspect "MUTE" there! Is that any help?

AR

Check out this link, it might give you an idea: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=269239

Or this one: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=264829

i'm no pulseaudio expert, but i read that as saying you can mute your audio with some piece of hardware. on my system i believe it is one of the f keys. your question did point me to a setting i missed. pactl list sinks | grep -i mute will check your mute setting. if you want to see all of the settings, you can just run pactl list sinks. it does spit out a lot of info though.

I have been advised that providing the output of some commands will enable knowledgeable people to get a clearer idea of what it is that ails my system. Here they are:

*

$ inxi -Fxz
System: Host: alok-1015CX Kernel: 4.15.0-106-generic i686
bits: 32 gcc: 7.5.0
Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 (Gtk 2.24.31) Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Machine: Device: laptop System: ASUSTeK product: 1015CX v: x.x serial: N/A
Mobo: ASUSTeK model: 1015CX v: x.xx serial: N/A
BIOS: American Megatrends v: 1015CX.0801 date: 03/29/2012
Battery BAT0: charge: 40.8 Wh 96.0% condition: 42.4/47.5 Wh (89%)
model: ASUS 1015CX status: Charging
CPU: Dual core Intel Atom N2600 (-MT-MCP-)
arch: Saltwell rev.1 cache: 512 KB
flags: (nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3) bmips: 6385
clock speeds: max: 1600 MHz 1: 609 MHz 2: 711 MHz 3: 857 MHz
4: 926 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel Atom Processor D2xxx/N2xxx Integrated Graphics Controller
bus-ID: 00:02.0
Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 )
drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1024x600@60.02hz
OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 9.0, 128 bits)
version: 3.3 Mesa 19.2.8 Direct Render: Yes
Audio: Card Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Def. Audio Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-106-generic
Network: Card-1: Broadcom and subsidiaries BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter
driver: wl bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR8152 v2.0 Fast Ethernet
driver: atl1c v: 1.0.1.1-NAPI port: e000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 352.1GB (14.4% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST9320325AS size: 320.1GB temp: 48C
ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: Card_Reader size: 32.0GB temp: 0C
Partition: ID-1: / size: 293G used: 48G (18%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 69.0C mobo: 26.8C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 0
Info: Processes: 201 Uptime: 2:18 Memory: 416.0/922.1MB
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.5.0
Client: Shell (bash 4.4.201) inxi: 2.3.56

*
$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269VB Analog [ALC269VB Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

*
pacmd list-sinks
1 sink(s) available.
* index: 0
name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo>
driver: <module-alsa-card.c>

*

That's a lot of stuff I understand not!

Thanks,

AR

Sorry, the output from the last command was incomplete. Here is the full output:

$ pacmd list-sinks
1 sink(s) available.
* index: 0
name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo>
driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY
state: SUSPENDED
suspend cause: IDLE
priority: 9039
volume: front-left: 61870 / 94% / -1.50 dB, front-right: 61870 / 94% / -1.50 dB
balance 0.00
base volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
volume steps: 65537
muted: no
current latency: 0.00 ms
max request: 0 KiB
max rewind: 0 KiB
monitor source: 0
sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
channel map: front-left,front-right
Stereo
used by: 0
linked by: 0
configured latency: 0.00 ms; range is 0.50 .. 371.52 ms
card: 0 <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0>
module: 7
properties:
alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
device.api = "alsa"
device.class = "sound"
alsa.class = "generic"
alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
alsa.name = "ALC269VB Analog"
alsa.id = "ALC269VB Analog"
alsa.subdevice = "0"
alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
alsa.device = "0"
alsa.card = "0"
alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel"
alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel at 0xdff00000 irq 26"
alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
device.bus = "pci"
device.vendor.id = "8086"
device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
device.product.id = "27d8"
device.product.name = "NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller"
device.form_factor = "internal"
device.string = "front:0"
device.buffering.buffer_size = "65536"
device.buffering.fragment_size = "32768"
device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
device.description = "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo"
alsa.mixer_name = "Realtek ALC269VB"
alsa.components = "HDA:10ec0269,10438437,00100100 HDA:80862880,80860101,00100000"
module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
ports:
analog-output-speaker: Speakers (priority 10000, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
properties:
device.icon_name = "audio-speakers"
analog-output-headphones: Headphones (priority 9000, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
properties:
device.icon_name = "audio-headphones"
active port: <analog-output-speaker>

Responding to Cordx: it appears that something is "mute" when I run the command. Here is the output. But what can I do about it?

$ pactl list sinks | grep -i mute
Mute: no
Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY