Kernel sound modules missing in fresh installation. How do I install them?

[MartinB105]

I installed Kubuntu 20.04 last night, without updates. Everything worked fine except for the sound . I ran the updates to see if it would solve the issue, but nothing changed; sound still not working.

After some investigation, I discovered that sound modules are missing for kernel version 5.8.0-36-generic, which is what my Kubuntu 20.04 system is configured to boot by default.

martin@elise:~$ ls /lib/modules/5.8.0-36-generic/kernel/sound/ -l
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 jan 10 16:15 core
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 jan 10 16:15 drivers
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 jan 10 16:15 pci
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16969 jan 6 10:31 soundcore.ko
martin@elise:~$

By comparison, if I check the modules of an older kernel version on the system, then I find lots more folders and modules:

martin@elise:~$ ls /lib/modules/5.4.0-60-generic/kernel/sound/ -l
total 76
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6889 jan 5 17:51 ac97_bus.ko
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 jan 10 16:14 core
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 jan 10 16:14 drivers
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 jan 10 16:14 firewire
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 jan 10 16:14 hda
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 jan 10 16:14 i2c
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 jan 10 16:14 isa
drwxr-xr-x 26 root root 4096 jan 10 16:14 pci
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 jan 10 16:14 pcmcia
drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 4096 jan 10 16:14 soc
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16313 jan 5 17:51 soundcore.ko
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 jan 10 16:14 synth
drwxr-xr-x 9 root root 4096 jan 10 16:14 usb
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 jan 10 16:14 x86
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 jan 10 16:14 xen
martin@elise:~$

So I tried rebooting and editing the grub command to load 5.4.0-60-generic instead, and then the sound is working as expected.

But this does not solve my issue on the current/default kernel version.

Thus, I'm wondering if anyone has a suggestion on how to install the missing sound modules for 5.8.0-36-generic?

Thanks!

[claydoh]

The 5.8 kernel upgrade seems to be seriously broken for many, may even most Ubuntu 20.04 users, so you may be seeing this. ( I have a feeling that this was sent out by mistake/bug/error) There does not seem to be any fix at the moment.

[devintheamateurdevin]

I had a similiar problem and I fixed it thank to this thread. All I had to do was install the missing modules with the command:

sudo apt install linux-modules-extra-5.8.0-50-generic

Now the sound works with the latest version of the kernel so I don't have to load a different version every time. I hope it works for you too.

I'm kind of surprised such important modules are left out of the latest versions. Is there a reason for this?