Ubuntu – How to reinstall PulseAudio (Ubuntu 12.04)

12.04pulseaudiosound

I was trying to fix my audio problems using suggestions from this forum. One of the comments suggested I execute this and only this:

killall pulseaudio

So I did, and I restarted my computer just in case, but all it did was remove my soundcard and I still couldn't hear anything. Now I don't know how to get my soundcard back.

Please note that I am extremely inexperienced when it comes to Ubuntu.

Best Answer

From a forum thread, open a terminal and type:*

sudo apt-get purge pulseaudio
sudo apt-get clean && sudo apt-get autoremove

Reboot. Open a terminal again and type (ignore any errors with the rm command):

rm -r ~/.pulse ~/.asound* ~/.pulse-cookie ~/.config/pulse
sudo apt-get install pulseaudio
sudo alsa force-reload
pavucontrol

The last command should restart the PulseAudio server and launch a desktop application for its settings. Another thread notes that there might be conflicts with IPv6. If so, then edit /etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf and set use-ipv6 to no:

[server]
use-ipv4=yes
use-ipv6=no

Restart the avahi-daemon (e.g., reboot again).

Make sure that the audio devices are not muted.

*Note: Using apt instead of apt-get may work as well.

See also:

Related Question