Ubuntu – Analog audio recognized by ALSA, but not by PulseAudio

12.04alsahdmipulseaudiosound

I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 on Zotac ID84

sudo aplay -l:

card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC892 Digital [ALC892 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

sudo aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav:

Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono

the sound is really played on the speakers!

But in the list of devices on PulseAudio GUI control panel I see only

  • Digital Output (S/PDIF)
  • HDMI / DisplayPort

When I select HDMI, I hear sound through HDMI correctly. When I select Digital Output, I hear nothing (as expected). Can somebody tell me please how to find the "Analog Output" option?

UPDATE I reinstalled the system from scratch. Now I still see no "Analog Output" option in the list of devices, but while no device is selected in the list, I enjoy listening sound through speakers. If now I choose anything from the list, then I cannot "unselect" it and sound won't play again… so my question is still relevant.

Best Answer

Fixed it on my box. I think there's something wrong with pulse audio and the sound card (maybe problems with an updated driver) or maybe something with the pavucontrol application. Either way, I had to tell PulseAudio to stop looking for my sound card and just play everything through Alsa.

I ran aplay -l | grep card to find the specific sound card I wanted, then I edited /etc/pulse/default.pa and added a line load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,0 where the 'hw:0,0' corresponds to the card found in the aplay -l command. Restart PulseAudio or reboot the system and give it a shot.

Note: I noticed Pulse doesn't recognize my built-in webcam or the audio at the moment either. sigh

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