"Dummy Output" Acer Aspire A315-34

Hardware Support
1

Hey guys, I'm totally new to Zorin OS and coding in general.

I totally got rid of Windows on my Laptop and am really enjoying learning how to use Linux. However, I'm having an issue with my sound. There's no sound coming out of my laptop speakers. I've followed all the prompts on the "Sound Setup" page, downloaded PulseAudio, checked for additional drivers. I'm a bit lost as to what to try now. I can't access my alsamixer anymore for some reason? It says "cannot find card '0' " and "No such file or directory"

If anyone would be willing to walk me through what to do that would be a major help.

Thanks so much

2

Hello,

Let's see if it can be found;
inxi -Aa

3

Hello and welcome,
try this

  1. Check whether the kernel sees any sound cards
  • Run:
    aplay -l
cat /proc/asound/cards
  • If both show "no soundcards" or are empty, kernel modules aren’t loaded.
  1. Inspect kernel messages for audio-related errors
  • Run:
    dmesg | grep -iE 'snd|alsa|hda|sof|audio|deferred probe'
  • Note lines mentioning snd_hda_intel, snd_sof_pci, snd_soc_avs, or "deferred probe" — they indicate driver binding problems.
  1. Try loading Intel audio modules manually
  • Run:
    sudo modprobe snd_hda_intel
sudo modprobe snd_hda_codec
sudo modprobe snd_hda_core
  • Recheck aplay -l and /proc/asound/cards.
  1. If your machine uses Intel/SDW/SOF (newer Intel audio), try the DSP driver option
  • Create a config and reboot:
    echo 'options snd_intel_dspcfg dsp_driver=1' | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/snd-intel-dspcfg.conf
sudo update-initramfs -u   # Debian/Ubuntu only; on other distros run the equivalent
sudo reboot
  • Alternative values to try if 1 doesn’t work: 0, 3, or 4 (common suggestion: dsp_driver=4 for SOF fallback). After each change, reboot and re-check aplay -l.
  1. If you see "couldn't bind with audio component" or SOF errors, try forcing the legacy driver
  • Example forcing legacy (common on Ice Lake/Cannon Lake):
    echo 'options snd_intel_dspcfg dsp_driver=0' | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/snd-intel-dspcfg.conf
sudo update-initramfs -u
sudo reboot
  1. Check loaded modules and card files
  • Run:
    lsmod | egrep 'snd|sof|sound'
ls /dev/snd
  • /dev/snd should show devices; if missing, kernel modules aren’t present or failed to initialize.
  1. If modules load but alsamixer still errors, try resetting ALSA state
  • Run:
    sudo alsa force-reload    # on Debian-based systems
sudo alsactl init
  • Or remove user Pulse/ALSA configs:
    mv ~/.config/pulse ~/.config/pulse.bak   # for PulseAudio/pipewire
rm -rf ~/.config/alsa
reboot
  1. Verify PipeWire/PulseAudio status (if using them)
pactl info
pw-cli info 0   # or `systemctl --user status pipewire pipewire-pulse`
  • If PipeWire/PulseAudio is running but no cards, the underlying ALSA drivers are still the issue.
  1. Reinstall ALSA/firmware and related packages
sudo apt update
sudo apt install --reinstall alsa-base alsa-utils linux-firmware
sudo reboot
1 Like
4

Welcome to the Forum!

Are Secure Boot and Fast Boot in BIOS disabled?

You mean Pulse Audio Volume Control? What Options offer the Configuration and Output Tab's?

When You connect external Speakers, do they work?

5

Hi, so after I ran the code to inspect kernel messages it said "read kernel buffer failed: Operation not permitted"

Not sure if I should continue with the rest of the steps

6

sorry i forgot the sudo
type

sudo dmesg | grep -iE 'snd|alsa|hda|sof|audio|deferred probe'
7

Audio:
Device-1: Intel Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor High Definition Audio
vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: snd_soc_avs v: kernel
alternate: snd_sof_pci_intel_apl,snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:0e.0
chip-ID: 8086:3198 class-ID: 0401
API: ALSA v: k6.17.0-29-generic status: kernel-api
tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active tools: pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Server-2: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: off (using pipewire-pulse)
tools: pacat,pactl,pavucontrol

8

[ 0.040142] software IO TLB: area num 2.
[ 0.890283] pps_core: Software ver. 5.3.6 - Copyright 2005-2007 Rodolfo Giometti giometti@linux.it
[ 0.982590] PCI-DMA: Using software bounce buffering for IO (SWIOTLB)
[ 0.982593] software IO TLB: mapped [mem 0x000000006dd60000-0x0000000071d60000] (64MB)
[ 1.355874] integrity: Loaded X.509 cert 'Microsoft Windows Production PCA 2011: a92902398e16c49778cd90f99e4f9ae17c55af53'
[ 1.355899] integrity: Loaded X.509 cert 'Microsoft Corporation UEFI CA 2011: 13adbf4309bd82709c8cd54f316ed522988a1bd4'
[ 11.989834] snd_soc_avs 0000:00:0e.0: bound 0000:00:02.0 (ops intel_audio_component_bind_ops [i915])
[ 12.167404] snd_soc_avs 0000:00:0e.0: bad FW version 9.22.3.4908, expected 9.22.1.4323 or newer
[ 12.167418] snd_soc_avs 0000:00:0e.0: invalid firmware data: -22
[ 12.167456] snd_soc_avs 0000:00:0e.0: firmware boot failed: -22

9

no soundcards found...

10

Can I have the output of

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

and

uname -a