No sound after upgradiing to Kubuntu 20.04

[hstoellinger]

Hello,
Around a month or so ago I upgraded from Kubuntu 19.10 to 20.04. I am not really sure - but, always updating operating/applications software to the latest level - all of a sudden sound doesn't function anymore within the browsers.
Using the latest stable and snapshot versions of Vivaldi, Chrome and Firefox as browsers I cannot play any sound anymore on both the Chromium-based browsers (i.e. Chrome and Vivaldi). It DOES play o.k. on Firefox, or - for that matter in Skype and when playing mp4-files with vlc. Is anybody aware of this situation. Thanks for any hints.

Below - the hardware connection of Audio...
Regards
H. Stoellinger
(1) Connection of Sound Device: inxi -F returns...
Audio: Device-1: Intel 82801I HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-29-generic
(2) Sound is NOT blocked in any of the browsers
(3) NO apps have disabled speaker?
sudo alsactl init returned...
Found hardware: "HDA-Intel" "Realtek ALC889" "HDA:10ec0889,104d3300,00100005 HDA:14f12c06,104d1700,00100000 HDA:10de0003,10de0101,00100000" "0x104d" "0x9040"
Hardware is initialized using a generic method

Regards
H. Stoellinger

[Avi512]

Try below:

On Terminal:
kate /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

Add this line to the end of the file:
options snd-hda-intel dmic_detect=0

Save - Enter root password.
------
Reboot system

[hstoellinger]

Thanks for the quick answer! Unfortunately it didn't make any difference!
Regards
H. Stoellinger

[XandarKablandar]

I just helped a friend with this very same issue. Do you have Timidity installed by any chance? Because if so, it is blocking the system from using its built-in audio hardware. The solution is simple: either disable it or uninstall it with:

sudo apt purge timidity timidity-daemon

I had also tried all the tips on this page, but they didn't work. They might work for you though.

[hstoellinger]

Thanks a lot! Your post made me optimistic for altogether something like two minutes - until I saw that I have NOT got timidity installed. Also, I have already tried the tips on the page you suggested - to NO avail! The search must go on...
Regards from Austria
H. Stoellinger

[jglen490]

It's either a driver issue or a configuration issue.

sudo alsactl init returned...
Found hardware: "HDA-Intel" "Realtek ALC889" "HDA:10ec0889,104d3300,00100005 HDA:14f12c06,104d1700,00100000 HDA:10de0003,10de0101,00100000" "0x104d" "0x9040"
Hardware is initialized using a generic method

So in a search for this problem, I found this on Ask Ubuntu which might be helpful. Also, have you installed PulseAudio Volume Control, which should show up in Muon or Synaptic, and is a very useful config tool.

[hstoellinger]

Thanks a lot! It now works. I followed the suggestions in
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1165...n-ubuntu-18-04
In principle it meant removing/purging and reinstalling alsa-base and pulseaudio,then mv ~/.config/pulse ~/.config/pulse.bak and sudo reboot.
Unfortunately the Audio section in my "Systems Settings" has vanished. I can help myself by running pavucontrol, but this is
not ideal. Any idea how I can get the Miniprogram back to Systems Settings and the control bar?
Thanks again!

[jglen490]

That should be Phonon. Maybe one of the removal instructions somehow whacked it. Bummer ...

Open a terminal and enter

apt policy phonon

If anything comes back, post it here.

[XandarKablandar]

Hey congratulations! As for getting back Audio in System Settings, all I can do is suggest looking through /var/log/apt/history.log and see which packages were removed when you purged alsa-base and pulseaudio. If you can't spot it, post the results here.

[hstoellinger]

Thanks! Here comes the pertinent log... Imagining that it might have to do with plasma, I did an "apt install plasma-pa pavucontrol-qt". Audio is back in systems settings again! Heureka! I wonder whether I should also "re-install" some of the remaining packages - such as kubuntu-desktop? Any idea?

Start-Date: 2020-06-03 16:25:56
Commandline: apt remove alsa-base pulseaudio
Requested-By: hs (1000)
Remove: alsa-base:amd64 (1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5), plasma-pa:amd64 (4:5.18.5-0ubuntu0.1), pulseaudio:amd64 (1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.2), pavucontrol-qt:amd64 (0.14.1-1ubuntu2), kubuntu-desktop:amd64 (1.398), libcanberra-pulse:amd64 (0.30-7ubuntu1), pulseaudio-module-bluetooth:amd64 (1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.2)
End-Date: 2020-06-03 16:26:44

Start-Date: 2020-06-03 16:27:16
Commandline: apt purge alsa-base pulseaudio
Requested-By: hs (1000)
Purge: alsa-base:amd64 (), pulseaudio:amd64 ()
End-Date: 2020-06-03 16:27:26

Start-Date: 2020-06-03 16:27:41
Commandline: apt install alsa-base pulseaudio
Requested-By: hs (1000)
Install: alsa-base:amd64 (1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5), pulseaudio:amd64 (1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.2)
End-Date: 2020-06-03 16:28:01

[jglen490]

Unless you're having other specific issues, there is no need to re-install anything else. The kubuntu-desktop, is a meta-package used during install. It creates dependencies which which bring in all the required stuff for the desktop - once it has done it's job it's not needed anymore. At least that's my understanding.

Pretty much don't mess with success!

[hstoellinger]

Thanks again! Yes, as per "Don't change a winning team"!