Steps needed to get Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.1 sound working with my soundcard (intel)? Alsa information provided.
 

I have tried installing various drivers, programs and looked at a lot of forum and help pages. I managed to get the ALSA information on my computer setup uploaded so other people can see what is wrong? I am bluffing my way through this so bear with me.

I have a dual boot laptop PC which has Mint Cinnamon 18.1 and Windows 10. When I installed Mint from a purchased CD the sound went on both operating systems - however after using a USB jack splitter for headphones to listen to sound on Windows, then rebooting, the sound came back on for windows and the internal speakers work. However, there is no sound whatsover on the Mint system and none when using headphones or using headphones with the USB jack splitter. I just have a "Dummy Output" in the sound settings.

After doing some command line stuff after looking around forums, I managed to identify my sound card but it appears that it is not recognised by the software and updates I downloaded.

Anyway, I have technical information uploaded to the following link via Alsa project. It means very little to a non technical person like me, but it might be useful for someone else to have a go:

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=bf...33c887ed706515

I am thinking of getting an external USB sound card with adaptor, to link with exteral speakers, to get round this problem. In theory this should work but is this just a shot in the dark or taking a chance? I may be missing some steps in setting this up. I would rather get my original internal sound card working for both Mint Cinnamon and Windows 10 operating systems if at all possible.

Best Wishes,

Nezzabezza

As a starting point, install the pulse audio volume control(pavucontrol):

https://community.linuxmint.com/soft...ew/pavucontrol

You can get a really great breakdown of what's happening with your sound using this tool. If your sound worked when you first installed and then went south after you used the jack splitter, you probably have a configuration problem which should be pretty easy to troubleshoot with the above tool.

arch has a good wiki source
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...d_Architecture

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/sound_system

if you do not want to install pulse audio

another source
https://superuser.com/questions/3572...configure-alsa

He's running Mint; it comes with pulseaudio installed bydefault but pauvcontrol is not installed by default.

oh i see where you are going with that thought... coolz

Obviously Mint is not finding the sound card. You say you've identified it, but what is it? If you say what it is (or even the computer model) that might enable some-one to give you the solution.

An external usb device will work. I have usb speakers and they just use a generic kernel module, snd_usb_audio. They can be controlled via pavucontrol.

I had the exact same problem with my Mint and Ubuntu and the USB to mini phone plugs (microphone and headphones) has worked.
My oldest installation is Precise and my newest is Yakkety and Mint 18.

Unfortunately, audio doesn't seem to find its way to the HDMI output. The USB adapter or Windows deals with that.