Sound stopped working on both 14.04 and 15.04

[Kevin O'Gorman]

On Sun, Aug 23, 2015 at 11:22 PM, Petter Adsen <petter at synth.no> wrote:

> On Sun, 23 Aug 2015 14:59:04 -0700
> "Kevin O'Gorman" <kogorman at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I use sound on Linux so seldom I can't really say when it stopped
> working,
> > but it was within the last 2 months.  I really don't fool with it, so I
> > don't think I blundered it away.
> >
> > I'm pretty clueless about sound software, so at this point I'm stuck.
> > HELP!!
>
> The first test to do is always to open alsamixer (and pavucontrol, if
> you have pulseaudio) and check that sound isn't muted and the right
> outputs are selected. That is by far the most common problem.
>
> Petter
>

I need help finding the right control to use.

On my main machine, sound is not muted.

In both alsamixer and pavucontrol there are just 2 outputs listed: built-in
sound which is what I want, and HDMI which I don't want because while my
monitors have HDMI, they don't have speakers.  When I play sound, only the
HDMI one shows activity in pavucontrol.  I don't see a control to turn that
off and turn on builtin sound; both look like they're enabled but only HDMI
shows activity.

The good thing about this is I realized in checking this that the monitors
have headphone outlets.  They work, and I can hear the sound now.  But I
still want to be able to use the buitin mobo sound.

I can't run without HDMI because my mobo has only HDMI outputs (and DP and
mDP which amount to the same thing).  So the software will always see HDMI,
and perhaps choose it by default.  I want a way to change the default or
override it sometimes.

My laptop is not running Linux right now, but I'm hoping if I solve this on
the main desktop, I'll wind up knowing enough to apply the lessons to the
laptop.

-- 
Kevin O'Gorman
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