Failed to Read Mixer for 'default Detected Output': No Such Mixer Control: Pcm

An outcome often faced by Ubuntu users after installing Ubuntu or upgrading to a new version is the audio problem, or more specifically, the "no-audio" problem. This tin can happen for a diversity of reasons. Sometimes it is related to a misconfiguration in the speaker settings, or peradventure your hardware is not well-supported.

For most people, it'due south usually a pretty piece of cake problem to resolve. This is considering most bug stem from an issue with services running on the system. In this article we go through a few elementary fixes yous can try. You don't necessarily accept to try them all. Merely showtime at the acme of the listing and work your way down.

Install Volume Command 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 up with their ain volume controls for PulseAudio, it'south not that granular and doesn't let y'all control each playback stream individually. Pavucontrol gives you more command over each audio device on your PC, so you can play around with those sliders to make sure that your speaker or headphone book is prepare to what it should exist, for instance.

To install pavucontrol, open the Final and enter the following commands:

pulseaudio            --offset            sudo            apt            install            pavucontrol

After that, run pavucontrol either from the concluding or looking upwardly "PulseAudio Volume Control" in your desktop surround'southward launch menu. Go to the "Output Devices" tab and brand sure your default speakers are selected.

Bank check Your Speaker Settings

When experiencing sound issues on your Ubuntu machine, you showtime need to is check out your headphones and speakers for connection issues. Information technology could be that a sound cable is connected to the wrong port or not connected at all.

If you're using a Bluetooth device, check to see if it'southward paired correctly. Don't forget to take a look at the volume controls of your devices to brand sure they're at acceptable levels. You should too verify that the output volume is not muted on your estimator and that the correct output device is selected.

Bank check the ALSA Mixer

Nether the hood PulseAudio uses ALSA, a kernel module that direct controls your sound devices. If you need more fine-grained control over your ALSA-level volume, follow the steps beneath:

Open the final.
Type alsamixer and press the Enter fundamental. You will see the following output in your terminal.

Select your correct sound carte past pressing F6. For me, the defaults work just fine, just feel free to endeavor other options if information technology doesn't piece of work.
Use the left pointer and correct pointer keys to select a volume command. The currently selected item is shown in reddish at the bottom.
Employ the up arrow and down arrow keys to increase and decrease volume levels for each control.
When a mixer command is muted, "MM" appears beneath the volume bar. Note that a bar tin can be 100% full but still exist muted, so practice check for this. You tin unmute a control by pressing the one thousand fundamental. This changes "MM" to "OO."
To get out alsamixer, printing the Esc cardinal.

Note: when you lot mute or unmute a control, pulseaudio may pick it up and mute and unmute other controls as well. Make sure to ostend that the relevant controls as well as the primary control are unmuted earlier exiting.

Reload ALSA

Some other thing y'all tin can effort if the audio issue persists is to reload ALSA. To do that, apply the following command in the final:

The output looks like the following image.

Once it's done, if you notwithstanding accept trouble getting the sound working, effort

pulseaudio            -k            &&            pulseaudio            -D

Y'all may take problem later on 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 straight:

Reinstall ALSA and PulseAudio

If the to a higher place methods did not fix your issue, effort reinstalling ALSA and PulseAudio in the following manner. Open up your last and enter the following commands:

            sudo            apt            remove            --purge            alsa-base pulseaudio            sudo            apt            install            alsa-base of operations pulseaudio

Reload ALSA again and reboot your computer.

Advanced Troubleshooting

To properly troubleshoot your audio later on 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, information technology doesn't affair what ALSA says. The sound coming out to your devices will be candy through ALSA only won't be served to them through PulseAudio.

To become effectually this, we need to force ALSA to talk to PulseAudio when the master volume shifts to ensure that the latter follows along.

amixer            -D            pulse sset Main toggle

Devices whose volume can only interact with ALSA for some odd reason will also interact with PulseAudio.

Are You lot Sure It'south Not Just Ane Application?

A misbehaving application can crusade more problems than you remember in ways that would surprise you. Information technology may even exist an application you didn't open!

To take a look at everything using your sound control, type:

If you lot want to be more surgical about it, type:

pacmd list-sink-inputs            |            grep            application.name

In my case, as in the image, Firefox is the only thing I'm listening to. If y'all used grep to narrow downwardly the output in terminal, utilise the original command again and pay attention to the values "muted:", "alphabetize:" and "volume:".

You might have had book in the application and information technology could still be muted or on null volume!

To fix a muted awarding, blazon (supplant application_index with the index number you lot found in "index:"):

pacmd set-sink-input-mute application_index            false

To fix applications with unusually low book, type:

pacmd ready-sink-input-volume application_index 0x10000

No Sound When Resuming After Suspend/Sleep

Sometimes PulseAudio only isn't in the mood to wake upward with the rest of your calculator. In this case, running

brings your sound back from the expressionless, simply don't go besides excited. This will not survive some other reboot or suspend/sleep. Advisedly follow this mini-guide to make the problem get away permanently:

In the terminal, type

            sudo            touch            /etc/systemd/system/pulseaudio-sleep-fix@.service

to create a systemd service manager file.

Open the file for editing:

            sudo            nano            /etc/systemd/system/pulseaudio-sleep-prepare.service

Paste (Ctrl + Shift + V for concluding paste) this into it:

            [Unit]            Clarification=Fix PulseAudio later resume from            suspend            After=suspend.target            [Service]            User=%I            Type=oneshot            Surroundings="XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/%U"            ExecStart=/usr/bin/pasuspender            /bin/            truthful            [Install]            WantedBy=suspend.target

Press Ctrl + Ten to exit and Y in the prompt asking you lot whether y'all want to save the modified buffer.
Type the following to register this as a systemd service.

            sudo            systemctl            enable            pulseaudio-sleep-ready@your_username.service

Think to replace your_username with the appropriate value.

Are You Running Timidity?

If y'all run the timidity packet in Ubuntu (check by running apt search timidity and checking for [installed] at the end of the appropriate entry), yous may have problems running PulseAudio with it due to the funky manner it handles audio processing.

To become timidity to run properly, start by adding it to autostart (sometimes called Startup Applications in desktop environments similar GNOME) and modifying the command that runs the application to be:

Taking things a picayune further, type the following to add root to the pulse-access group

            sudo            usermod            -a            -One thousand            pulse-access root

Once y'all reboot, your audio should work fine. If information technology still fails, the just other solution within reach is to remove timidity from Ubuntu.

At present you'll have a service that's meant to run only when you resume afterward suspend, immediately shutting down once it's done its job to avoid calculation bloat.

Oftentimes Asked Questions

1. Can I remove ALSA and keep PulseAudio?

Tread very carefully here! PulseAudio needs a kernel-level audio module to work. If yous're planning on replacing ALSA with something else that operates in the kernel (like Open Sound System), and then by all ways, go alee and exercise that. The process is a fleck more complex than replacing a Realtek kernel module for networking, so exist aware that you may be sitting for a very long time trying to sort out issues.

ii. Does PulseAudio have alternatives?

Yes! The nigh popular (and most viable, if yous plan on using a desktop) alternative to PulseAudio is PipeWire. It contains amend integrated back up for Bluetooth devices and improves PulseAudio's wonky manner of handling sampling and mail service-processing. Many distributions now make it available in official repositories, and its stability has improved significantly in recent years.

If y'all want a more than professional setup with your audio, all the same, you may want to opt for something like JACK.

three. Can I run PulseAudio alongside other services?

While some services take libraries and setup options in place to go PulseAudio working with them, it'due south highly recommended that y'all stick to i service on your system at a time. Most services will but compete with PulseAudio for your system's applications, and information technology 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 hither got the sound running on Ubuntu once again, so that you can start enjoying your operating organization again. Have you lot tried turning a website into an app in Linux and casting the screen of your Android phone to Linux?

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Miguel Leiva-Gomez

Miguel has been a business growth and engineering practiced for more than a decade and has written software for even longer. From his piddling castle in Romania, he presents cold and belittling perspectives to things that touch on the tech world.

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