I've lost sound

[CanyonRoss]

Hi,

I had sound working on my laptop yesterday but today it appears to have stopped working! There was an update earlier but I can't remember what that included.

I have gone into system settings > hardware > multimedia but I can't see anything which would indicate the sound should be off! Any thoughts?

Thanks

[Don B. Cilly]

That happened to me a couple of times, and reinstalling pulseaudio fixed it.
It might do that for you too. Except:
Last time I advised someone to do that, uninstalling pulseaudio also uninstalled some crucial stuff on his system. Which it didn't do on mine (I would have noticed ;·)

So, I don't know, maybe the code in the last post works, or maybe it's better with muon - or even Discover.

[vinnywright]

pactl list sources

if this returns a lot of output indicating sources for sound capture and playback then it's just something silly , like your outputting to the wrong source or muted or the like .

VINNY

[Don B. Cilly]

Here it returns a lot of stuff (like two screenfuls) and the sound works fine...

[CanyonRoss]

That happened to me a couple of times, and reinstalling pulseaudio fixed it.
It might do that for you too. Except:
Last time I advised someone to do that, uninstalling pulseaudio also uninstalled some crucial stuff on his system. Which it didn't do on mine (I would have noticed ;·)

So, I don't know, maybe the code in the last post works, or maybe it's better with muon - or even Discover.

Thank you, I will uninstall and reinstall using Discover when I get home in about an hour and hope that works!

pactl list sources

if this returns a lot of output indicating sources for sound capture and playback then it's just something silly , like your outputting to the wrong source or muted or the like .

VINNY

Unfortunately it definitely isn't this...I've checked and checked and the audio is turned up to full as well as within the 3 different programmes I have tried with audio.

I will report back by 8pm!

Thanks again for your help!

[vinnywright]

Unfortunately it definitely isn't this...I've checked and checked and the audio is turned up to full as well as within the 3 different programmes I have tried with audio.

I will report back by 8pm!

Thanks again for your help!

with 1 of the programs playing audio , click the speaker icon in the system tray , click the "applications" tab , click and drag the application , as soon as you start to drag it you will switch back to the "devices" tab , drop the application on the output you want .

did this get you your sound back ?

you can also install "pavucontrol" (Pulse Audio Volume Control)

sudo apt install pavucontrol

it gives a slightly easier to understand control GUI for the sound server .

after installing you will find it in the Multimedia section of your application menu.

VINNY

[CanyonRoss]

Well, I've started the system... And the sound works! 8t seems rebooting it has solved it! Weird.

I had already tried the "applications" bit and the sound was already right up so it wasn't that.

I shall keep an eye on it (or rather an ear...) and hopefully it continues to work!

Thanks once again.

[Snowhog]

One needs to pay attention to what the system/upgrade process informs you of. Often, you will be told that a reboot is necessary to complete the update process, and if you ignore that message, things 'unexpected' are bound to happen.