For most people, it’s usually a pretty easy problem to resolve. This is because most problems stem from an issue with services running on the system. In this article we go through a few simple fixes you can try. You don’t necessarily have to try them all. Just start at the top of the list and work your way down.
Install Volume Control for PulseAudio
PulseAudio is a default sound service for Ubuntu as well as a few others. It’s open source and generally reliable, working with ALSA and OSS drivers to make sure the sound signals your system generates get passed on to your speakers. But while applications and desktop environments come with their own volume controls for PulseAudio, it’s not that granular and doesn’t let you control each playback stream individually. Pavucontrol gives you more control over each audio device on your PC, so you can play around with those sliders to make sure that your speaker or headphone volume is set to what it should be, for instance. To install pavucontrol, open the Terminal and enter the following commands: After that, run pavucontrol either from the terminal or looking up “PulseAudio Volume Control” in your desktop environment’s launch menu. Go to the “Output Devices” tab and make sure your default speakers are selected.
Check Your Speaker Settings
When experiencing sound issues on your Ubuntu machine, you first need to is check out your headphones and speakers for connection problems. It could be that a audio cable is connected to the wrong port or not connected at all. If you’re using a Bluetooth device, check to see if it’s paired correctly. Don’t forget to take a look at the volume controls of your devices to make sure they’re at acceptable levels. You should also verify that the output volume is not muted on your computer and that the correct output device is selected.
Check the ALSA Mixer
Under the hood PulseAudio uses ALSA, a kernel module that directly controls your sound devices. If you need more fine-grained control over your ALSA-level volume, follow the steps below: Note: when you mute or unmute a control, pulseaudio may pick it up and mute and unmute other controls as well. Make sure to confirm that the relevant controls as well as the master control are unmuted before exiting.
Reload ALSA
Another thing you can try if the sound issue persists is to reload ALSA. To do that, use the following command in the terminal: The output looks like the following image. Once it’s done, if you still have trouble getting the sound working, try You may have trouble after reloading ALSA if pulseaudio does not register that the modules were reloaded. If you’re still not getting audio, try this one-shot ALSA command directly:
Reinstall ALSA and PulseAudio
If the above methods did not fix your issue, try reinstalling ALSA and PulseAudio in the following manner. Open your terminal and enter the following commands: Reload ALSA again and reboot your computer.
Advanced Troubleshooting
To properly troubleshoot your audio after all else fails, we have to get our hands just a bit dirtier and go into more advanced troubleshooting:
Your Output Might Trigger ALSA but Not PulseAudio
Ultimately, if PulseAudio mutes an output, it doesn’t matter what ALSA says. The sound coming out to your devices will be processed through ALSA but won’t be served to them through PulseAudio. To get around this, we need to force ALSA to talk to PulseAudio when the master volume shifts to ensure that the latter follows along. Devices whose volume can only interact with ALSA for some odd reason will also interact with PulseAudio.
Are You Sure It’s Not Just One Application?
A misbehaving application can cause more problems than you think in ways that would surprise you. It may even be an application you didn’t open! To have a look at everything using your audio control, type: If you want to be more surgical about it, type: In my case, as in the image, Firefox is the only thing I’m listening to. If you used grep to narrow down the output in terminal, use the original command again and pay attention to the values “muted:”, “index:” and “volume:”. You might have had volume in the application and it could still be muted or on zero volume! To fix a muted application, type (replace application_index with the index number you found in “index:”): To fix applications with unusually low volume, type:
No Audio When Resuming After Suspend/Sleep
Sometimes PulseAudio just isn’t in the mood to wake up with the rest of your computer. In this case, running brings your audio back from the dead, but don’t get too excited. This will not survive another reboot or suspend/sleep. Carefully follow this mini-guide to make the problem go away permanently: to create a systemd service manager file. Paste (Ctrl + Shift + V for terminal paste) this into it: Remember to replace your_username with the appropriate value.
Are You Running Timidity?
If you run the timidity package in Ubuntu (check by running apt search timidity and checking for [installed] at the end of the appropriate entry), you may have problems running PulseAudio with it due to the funky way it handles audio processing. To get timidity to run properly, start by adding it to autostart (sometimes called Startup Applications in desktop environments like GNOME) and modifying the command that runs the application to be: Taking things a little further, type the following to add root to the pulse-access group Once you reboot, your audio should work fine. If it still fails, the only other solution within reach is to remove timidity from Ubuntu. Now you’ll have a service that’s meant to run only when you resume after suspend, immediately shutting down once it’s done its job to avoid adding bloat.
1. Can I remove ALSA and keep PulseAudio?
Tread very carefully here! PulseAudio needs a kernel-level audio module to work. If you’re planning on replacing ALSA with something else that operates in the kernel (like Open Sound System), then by all means, go ahead and do that. The process is a bit more complex than replacing a Realtek kernel module for networking, so be aware that you may be sitting for a very long time trying to sort out issues.
2. Does PulseAudio have alternatives?
Yes! The most popular (and most viable, if you plan on using a desktop) alternative to PulseAudio is PipeWire. It contains better integrated support for Bluetooth devices and improves PulseAudio’s wonky way of handling sampling and post-processing. Many distributions now make it available in official repositories, and its stability has improved significantly in recent years. If you want a more professional setup with your audio, however, you may want to opt for something like JACK.
3. Can I run PulseAudio alongside other services?
While some services have libraries and setup options in place to get PulseAudio working with them, it’s highly recommended that you stick to one service on your system at a time. Most services will simply compete with PulseAudio for your system’s applications, and it can cause unpredictable behavior. Others will simply not work at all without getting rid of PulseAudio entirely. (PipeWire uses the pipewire-pulse service, which replaces pulseaudio.) Hopefully, the advice we’ve provided here got the sound running on Ubuntu again, so that you can start enjoying your operating system again. Have you tried turning a website into an app in Linux and casting the screen of your Android phone to Linux?
