No sound. Always boots to mute

[andrewabc]

I am running 64bit ubuntu 9.04, on ext4.
I have realtek sound card (HDA Intel).
It is possible to have sound for short amount of time, but it rarely works.

I start computer, and master volume is muted and turned down all the way. It is like this every time I restart, even if I change the settings.

When the computer starts and desktop loads, if I am very quick, I unmute master volume, turn up master volume to say 50%, sometimes PCM is turned down all the way (or muted, it is random) so I have to turn it back up all the way. I start music player and music plays (and I hear it). But if I pause music for more than 5 seconds or so, the sound stops and does not start again when I unpause music. I've tried different sound settings (alsa, pulseaudio etc) in system->preferences sound

So for whatever reason, sound is possible, but rarely works.
Master volume is muted on boot 99.9% of time.
PCM is muted or turned down all the way on startup.

I have tried alsa mixer, but that does same thing as gnome one.

Why does it always start muted?
Sound worked fine from 6.06 to 8.10
I've read most threads and tried lots of stuff but nothing works.

I enabled proposed updates, and there was a sound update but it did nothing. Even the new kernel did not prevent the system shutdown beep (which it was supposed to fix).

aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC888 Digital [ALC888 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

lspci -v

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. Device 0cef
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 22
Memory at efff4000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

[andrewabc]

After a couple hours of testing, it seems that music program Sonata and MPD were messing with sound. If playing, then left on pause and then computer restarted, there sound would always start muted and never work. If I stopped sonata music before shutdown it works normally on reboot.
I also switched everything in system->preferences->sounds to pulseaudio, but I think it now works with autodetect as well.

So for now I guess I will switch to audacious and hope to have no more problems.

EDIT:
I left audacious open and paused and restarted and there is no sound on reboot. So it seems you cannot have any program using sound running while shuting down computer?
EDIT:
Turns out it was sonata+mpd again messing it up.

[NTolerance]

I'm also having this problem. I'm using ampache and mpd. When I stop mpd playback and clear the playlist, the master volume is muted.

[andrewabc]

I'm also having this problem. I'm using ampache and mpd. When I stop mpd playback and clear the playlist, the master volume is muted.

Hi. I stopped using MPD and the problem went away.

I think it could have because I had MPD using custom alsa preferences which was messing things up. These custom settings had worked fine in Intrepid 8.10.

I'd recommend stop using MPD for now if you want sound. I am using audacious. Hopefully it will be fixed in 9.10. Maybe try a liveusb or something to see if it works on it.

[NTolerance]

Hi. I stopped using MPD and the problem went away.

I think it could have because I had MPD using custom alsa preferences which was messing things up. These custom settings had worked fine in Intrepid 8.10.

I'd recommend stop using MPD for now if you want sound. I am using audacious. Hopefully it will be fixed in 9.10. Maybe try a liveusb or something to see if it works on it.

I actually just fixed this problem. Edit /etc/mpd.conf and change

mixer_type                      "alsa"

to

mixer_type                      "software"

[nortexoid]

I have *part* of your problem. Whenever I set the volume unmuted and restart, it goes back to being muted at the beginning. I have no other problems with sound however, so it's not that big a deal, but still, what's the deal?

[parul1234]

Thanks for the help . I also had the same problem with my ubuntu installation on my laptop.

[Wlerin]

I have *part* of your problem. Whenever I set the volume unmuted and restart, it goes back to being muted at the beginning. I have no other problems with sound however, so it's not that big a deal, but still, what's the deal?

I have this problem as well. It's not too serious, but it shouldn't be happening either.

[sideaway]

I have this issue as well, however, I do not have MPD installed?

[Wlerin]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...29&postcount=4

This is also mentioned in the third sticky.