[jaunty] initscript fails to (re)store mixer settings due to check for nonexistent /sbin/alsactl (inadvertently moved to /usr/sbin/alsactl ?)

Could you please state what sound hardware you have? Please check for any audio or multimedia controllers in the list that is output from the "lspci" command, as well as the contents of
/proc/asound/cards.

Thanks.

 affects ubuntu/alsa-driver
 status invalid

 affects ubuntu/alsa-utils
 status incomplete

From lspci:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)

From /proc/asound/cards:
 0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
                      HDA Intel at 0xfa200000 irq 22

Btw. problem appeared recently.

Same here. Also many channels are muted. Maybe it's alsactl not saving state?

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)

 0 [I82801DBICH4 ]: ICH4 - Intel 82801DB-ICH4
                      Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with AD1981B at irq 11

# cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
                      HDA Intel at 0xfe220000 irq 17

As noted in my comment on Bug 301261, after a reboot, running alsamixer -c 0, and looking at [Playback]:

  Master: 100 [db gain=0.00]
  Headphone: off
  PCM: 0<>0 [dB gain=-58.50, -58.50]
  Mic: 0<>0 [dB gain=-34.50, -34.50]
  Mic Boost: 0<>0
  IEC958: 100 [dB gain=0.00, 0.00]
  IEC958 Default PCM
  IEC958 Playpack Source [PCM]

I also find the headphone and speaker switches turned off.

After using the Volume Control to change the PCM level to 100 (which I see reflected in alsamixer) and to turn on the speaker switch, I get sound, as verified by playing a movie through totem and with VMware (using oss-compat to provide /dev/dsp).

Just confirming that, yes, after each reboot the switch settings for headphones and speakers are disabled, and the volume levels for PCM and BEEP are set to 0.

Could you please attach /var/lib/alsa/asound.state:
   a) after a clean boot and...
   b) ...after setting up the volumes with alsamixer -c 0 (so you can hear sound)
        and running "sudo -H alsactl store"
Thanks!

This symptom is caused by a (mis-)merge from Debian. Ubuntu is supposed to ship /sbin/alsactl, but it was somehow moved/reverted in the jaunty merge cycle to /usr/sbin/alsactl.

This bug was fixed in the package alsa-utils - 1.0.18-1ubuntu3

---------------
alsa-utils (1.0.18-1ubuntu3) jaunty; urgency=low

  * debian/rules: Move alsactl to /sbin, accidentallyd droped in previous
    merges. (LP: #299093)

 -- Luke Yelavich <email address hidden> Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:36:01 +1100

Just confirming that Daniel's diagnosis and proposed fix works. While waiting for the new version, I've tested by creating a (temporary) symlink from /sbin/alsactl to /usr/sbin/alsactl, and audio works again after a reboot.

Thanks, Daniel! :-)

---

Matteo, there was no asound.state prior to my manually doing a store, and nothing would have been restored, which all makes sense, given the nature of the defect. But all works now.

I can confirm that this is now fixed.

Thanks

Fix has sorted out my sound settings (after a reboot) but if I go to System-Preferences-Sound and click on Test (any of the devices) I get no sound at all.

Kevin, I have seen that same behavior. Would you please open a new bug report for it?

Kevin, see Bug 302699 for the Sound Applet issue.

I confirm also it's fixed.

I'm hit by this bug again. (cleanly installed 8.10 and upgraded to Jaunty). "Front" control is always set to 0 on startup.

Adam, see bug 316430.

I also still have this bug. Recently updated to 9.04 and alsa-utils 1.0.18-1ubuntu11.
The master is always set to "Mute" on bootup.
I am running on an MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum with nForce 3 onboard sound.

This bug affects everything, not just Master, so you've probably got something
else going on.