How to get audio output on Ubuntu - speakers silent?

[Liam Proven]

On Sun, 21 Feb 2021 at 16:31, Bo Berglund <bo.berglund at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I have an HP Elitebook Workstation 8440 laptop which I used for Windows earlier.
>
> Since last spring I have installed Ubuntu 18.04 Mate LTS on it and mainly used
> it via SSH (PuTTY) and VNC for admin and development tasks.
>
> Now I wanted to arrange a function to process video including audio on it. But
> to my surprise when I go to Youtube using FireFox and play a video from there I
> cannot get any audio output!
>
> I have tried to check the sound settings and all seems to be enabled but still
> there is no audio output...
>
> What can I look for in order to fix this problem?

Question: why the older release? 20.04 is the current LTS and is
nearly a year old now.

Things to try:
• Check both built-in speakers *and* headphones
• Try other sound sources, e.g. local MP3 files
• Try other distros off live USB keys in case it's an Ubuntu-only issue
• Check your firmware is current; if not, update it
• check your mixer settings; sometimes they can set outputs as muted
by default. I don't like MATE and don't have any MATE installs here so
I do not know how to open the audio mixer in MATE and can't offer
guidance

• Check the list history -- someone else reported analogous problems
before, some months ago.


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