Jaunty, Pulse Audio and two sound cards
- Details
- Created: Thursday, 10 September 2009 03:40
- Last Updated: Saturday, 24 November 2012 23:35
- Written by David McKenzie
- Hits: 4049
If you have two sound cards in a Jaunty Jackalope installation the default configuration may point to the wrong card, leading to the dreaded "Pulse Audio I have no sound" problem.
There are two things that need to be done to fix this, neither obvious in my opinion.
1. Change the default sound card.
This is done via the Pulse Audio Volume Control Applet found (if installed, and it is not by default) found in the Applications/Multimedia menu
If it is not installed, install it:
sudo apt-get install pavucontrol
The interface is confusing, but the output tab should show both cards (or more if more)
After the card icon for each card there is a description of the card and then three icons, a speaker icon, a shield and a down arrow. These are clickable and very important.
The first. the speaker icon allows you to mute the device.
The second, the sheild allows you to turn the card on or off.
The third, the doen aroow allows you to select one of the cards as the default. Select the card you want sound to come from as the default.
2. Move streams.
This is so easy it is frustrating. If your configuratin pointed to the wrong sound card, you still will not have sound after step 1. You need to move the stream.....
You need to have something playing that you expect to produce sound. Click on the playback tab and you will see the appllication that should be producing sound listed. Right click on the stream that is playing and follow to the "Move Stream" entry and move it to the correct sound card. Pulse Audio should remember this setting from now on.