Sound Through HDMI on Ubuntu 18.04 – How to Fix Audio Issues

18.04hdmipulseaudiosound

I have had an issue with sound ever since I installed Ubuntu. On boot up I can select HDMI sound and it works, when the monitor sleeps one of two things happen.

Either the sound reverts to another source and I have to switch back to it in the settings, which is annoying but not unrecoverable, or the sound stays on the HDMI source but I get no sound and have to reboot to get it back.

throughout this the HDMI source is always available and I can select it. but I always have one of the two issues.

I am loving the experience with Linux at the moment but this is starting become a deal breaker, can someone please help ?

thanks

Best Answer

Simple Solution

When signal is lost to HDMI (during sleep) Pulse Audio is automatically configured to active source (your laptop's speakers). Upon resume the sound device is still your laptop. To override this setting, tell Pulse Audio to never switch sound devices automatically:

edit the file /etc/pulse/default.pa
find the line load-module module-switch-on-port-available
insert a # at the beginning of the line to disable automatic port switching
save the file and reboot.

Complex Solution

Before I learned of the simple solution, I used a more complex solution based on systemd suspend/resume hook:

Ubuntu changing default audio output after suspend

An even more complex solution for when HDMI TV is unplugged and replugged is based on udev rule:

Switch between internal and HDMI speakers automatically

Extensive Forum Thread

In Linux Mint forum there is an extensive thee page thread on this topic:

HDMI + Sound + Mint 18

Related Solutions

Disable Sound Through HDMI Permanently – How to Guide

Ubuntu 10.10 is somehow not really up-to-date which makes it a bit hard to confirm the default pulseaudio installation there. However it may be worth to see if you have the module-switch-on-port-available loaded.

In case it is there, then try to disable it by commenting out (#) the following line in your /etc/pulse/default.pa:

# load-module module-switch-on-port-available

After the next restart of the pulseaudio server (e.g. with pulseaudio -k in a terminal) we should no longer switch to a different audio port when this becomes available (e.g. by plugging in your HDMI cable).

Ubuntu – Sending sound only through HDMI (kubuntu)

I'm a Kubuntu user too and since I connect to my TV using HDMI to watch movies I had to deal with transporting the sound from my PC to my TV only, so what I've done is this (and has worked out so I can hear sound coming from my TV only).

Right click on the volume icon in the System Tray.
Opened "Audio Setup" from Kmix menu.
Clicked on the "Audio Hardware Setup" tab.
Selected the best option from the Profile drop-down list.

In my case I selected the Digital Stereo (HDMI) output or the Digital Stereo (HDMI) output + Analog Stereo Input, clicked on Apply and the problem was solved.