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Quick Check

# Check if volume is muted
amixer get Master
 
# List sound cards
aplay -l
cat /proc/asound/cards
 
# Check PipeWire service
systemctl --user status pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber

Ubuntu 26.04 Audio Architecture

Ubuntu 26.04 uses PipeWire as the default audio server, replacing the older PulseAudio. The layer hierarchy:

Application
  |
PipeWire (audio server)
  |
ALSA (kernel audio driver)
  |
Hardware sound card

PipeWire Troubleshooting

Check service status

systemctl --user status pipewire
systemctl --user status pipewire-pulse
systemctl --user status wireplumber

Restart PipeWire

systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber

View audio devices

# List audio output devices
wpctl status
 
# View default output device
wpctl inspect @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@
 
# Set volume
wpctl set-volume @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@ 0.8
 
# Unmute
wpctl set-mute @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@ 0

Switch output device

# List all sinks (output devices)
wpctl status | grep -A 20 "Audio"
 
# Set default output (replace ID with actual device ID)
wpctl set-default <DEVICE_ID>

Reset PipeWire configuration

rm -rf ~/.config/pipewire ~/.local/state/pipewire
systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber

ALSA Layer Troubleshooting

Check sound card driver

# List sound cards
cat /proc/asound/cards
 
# If it shows "no soundcards found", the sound card driver is not loaded
sudo dmesg | grep -i "snd\|sound\|audio\|hda"

ALSA Volume Control

alsamixer

In alsamixer:

  • Press F6 to select the sound card
  • Press M to toggle mute/unmute (MM means muted)
  • Use up/down arrow keys to adjust volume
  • Make sure Master, PCM, and Speaker channels are all unmuted

Save ALSA settings:

sudo alsactl store

Reload sound card driver

# Intel HDA sound card
sudo modprobe -r snd_hda_intel
sudo modprobe snd_hda_intel
 
# If loading fails
sudo dmesg | tail -20

Common Scenarios

No HDMI audio

# Check HDMI audio output
aplay -l | grep HDMI
 
# Switch to HDMI output in PipeWire
wpctl status
wpctl set-default <HDMI_DEVICE_ID>

You can also select HDMI output in GNOME Settings > Sound.

No sound from Bluetooth headset

# Confirm Bluetooth audio device is connected
wpctl status | grep -i bluetooth
 
# If there is a codec issue, install additional support
sudo apt install libspa-0.2-bluetooth
 
systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber

No sound only in browser

Some Snap applications may have permission issues:

# Check browser audio permissions
snap connections firefox | grep audio
 
# Ensure the audio interface is connected
sudo snap connect firefox:audio-playback

Microphone not working

# Check recording devices
arecord -l
 
# Test the microphone
arecord -d 5 -f cd test.wav
aplay test.wav
 
# Check input devices in PipeWire
wpctl status | grep -A 10 "Sources"
wpctl set-mute @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SOURCE@ 0

Digging Deeper into PipeWire

Ubuntu 26.04 no longer ships the PulseAudio daemon, so “falling back to PulseAudio” is no longer possible — PipeWire provides a fully compatible PulseAudio interface through pipewire-pulse. For stubborn problems, troubleshoot PipeWire itself directly:

# Fully restart the user audio stack
systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber
 
# Inspect PipeWire / WirePlumber logs to locate errors
journalctl --user -u pipewire -u pipewire-pulse -u wireplumber -b --no-pager
 
# Inspect the live graph (nodes, links, devices)
pw-top        # top-like live view
pw-cli ls Node
wpctl status

If the configuration is corrupted, reset the user config and restart (see “Reset PipeWire Configuration” above):

rm -rf ~/.config/pipewire ~/.local/state/pipewire ~/.config/wireplumber
systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber
Note

You can still drive PipeWire with familiar PulseAudio tools such as pactl and pavucontrol; they work through the pipewire-pulse compatibility layer with no need to install PulseAudio.

Collecting Diagnostic Information

# Generate a complete audio diagnostic report
sudo apt install alsa-utils
alsa-info.sh --upload

The output link can be shared with the community for help.

  • Audio & Video — Installing and configuring audio and video players on Ubuntu
  • Bluetooth Issues — Troubleshooting Bluetooth device connection failures and disconnections
  • Codecs — Installing multimedia codecs to support more audio and video formats
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