[Solved] Debian 10 - No sound card available to Pulseaudio

[Azgu]

Hey,

I have a problem with sound on my laptop that has Buster, which I upgraded to from Stretch. In Stretch I had no problem with sound.

My troubleshooting began, when I noticed that the sound output options only has "Dummy Output". After Ducking a bit I found that I should check the status of Alsa, but that gave me this result:

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root@buster:/# alsactl init
bash: alsactl: command not found

So it seems that for some reason I don't have Alsa - could someone help me with this problem? I've been unable to find any instructions as to what I should do.

Here are the outputs of some of the other commands, that might be useful:

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root@buster:/# lsmod | grep snd
snd_hrtimer            16384  1
snd_seq_midi           16384  0
snd_seq_midi_event     16384  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_rawmidi            40960  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                81920  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device         16384  3 snd_seq,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi
snd_soc_skl           114688  0
snd_soc_skl_ipc        73728  1 snd_soc_skl
snd_soc_sst_ipc        16384  1 snd_soc_skl_ipc
snd_soc_sst_dsp        36864  1 snd_soc_skl_ipc
snd_hda_ext_core       28672  1 snd_soc_skl
snd_soc_acpi_intel_match    24576  1 snd_soc_skl
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     57344  1
snd_soc_acpi           16384  2 snd_soc_acpi_intel_match,snd_soc_skl
snd_soc_core          253952  1 snd_soc_skl
snd_hda_codec_generic    86016  1
snd_compress           24576  1 snd_soc_core
snd_hda_intel          45056  4
snd_hda_codec         151552  3 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_core           94208  6 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_ext_core,snd_hda_codec,snd_soc_skl
snd_hwdep              16384  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm_oss            61440  0
snd_mixer_oss          28672  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm               114688  9 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_ext_core,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_soc_core,snd_soc_skl,snd_hda_core
snd_timer              36864  4 snd_seq,snd_hrtimer,snd_pcm
snd                    94208  21 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_timer,snd_compress,snd_pcm_oss,snd_soc_core,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_mixer_oss
soundcore              16384  1 snd

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root@buster:/# lspci -nnk | grep -A2 Audio
00:1f.3 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio [8086:9d71] (rev 21)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio [17aa:3837]
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel, snd_soc_skl

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root@buster:/# dpkg -l alsa*
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version      Architecture Description
+++-==============-============-============-=================================================
un  alsa-base      <none>       <none>       (no description available)
ii  alsa-tools     1.1.7-1      amd64        Console based ALSA utilities for specific hardwar
ii  alsa-utils     1.1.8-2      amd64        Utilities for configuring and using ALSA

[ruwolf]

As you can see it, you have not installed alsa-base package...

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sudo apt-get install alsa-base

[Head_on_a_Stick]

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bash: alsactl: command not found

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=142973

[sunrat]

As you can see it, you have not installed alsa-base package...

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sudo apt-get install alsa-base

Package is deprecated - https://packages.debian.org/search?keyw ... ection=all

[vbrummond]

The command alsactl is in: alsa-utils

[L_V]

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ii  alsa-utils     1.1.8-2      amd64        Utilities for configuring and using ALSA

alsa-utils => /usr/sbin/alsactl

Either launch /usr/sbin/alsactl
or

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PATH=$PATH:/usr/sbin/
alsactl

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Either launch /usr/sbin/alsactl
or

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PATH=$PATH:/usr/sbin/
alsactl

Or use the su command correctly, as explained in my [FAQ] link.

[Azgu]

I was able to run the command, but that did not fix the problem:

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root@buster:~# alsactl init
Found hardware: "HDA-Intel" "Realtek Generic" "HDA:10ec0230,17aa3820,00100002 HDA:8086280b,80860101,00100000" "0x17aa" "0x3837"
Hardware is initialized using a generic method

It seems, that even thought the operating system sees the sound card, it is not available to Pulseaudio, for some reason:

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antti@buster:~$ pacmd list-cards
0 card(s) available.

Alsa-base is deprecated, so I can't re-install it. I tried purging and re-installing Pulseaudio, but that did not fix the problem.

[Azgu]

After Ducking some more about this issue, I found a solution here:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu ... g#No_cards

For some reason I had a program called Timidity installed on my machine, and it was hogging the snd-files, so they were not available to Pulseaudio. The issue was fixed thusly:

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apt remove timidity

[ShujaRafi]

After Ducking some more about this issue, I found a solution here:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu ... g#No_cards

For some reason I had a program called Timidity installed on my machine, and it was hogging the snd-files, so they were not available to Pulseaudio. The issue was fixed thusly:

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apt remove timidity

I've updated from Stretch to Buster, Sound didn't work, removing the timidity fixed my problem.
Thank you.

[sunrat]

I've updated from Stretch to Buster, Sound didn't work, removing the timidity fixed my problem.
Thank you.

Holy crap, that timidity problem was around over a year ago and I thought it was long gone so it didn't even cross my mind. There are several threads on this forum about it.
The issue then was that timidity would add itself to the audio group which made audio unavailable to anything else. Not sure if it's still the same issue - https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... bug=901931

[michapma]

I've updated from Stretch to Buster, Sound didn't work, removing the timidity fixed my problem.
Thank you.

This fixed the no-sound-after-upgrade-to-Buster problem for me as well. Worked immediately, no logout needed. Thanks.