PulseAudio is a powerful cross-platform (meaning that it can be used in different operating system environments) sound server. You can use it to directly access your audio hardware and carry the audio signals to output devices. Or, because of how it’s designed, you can use it as a front-end for the existing, much older, and mature sound servers, such as ALSA (primarily an API for accessing audio drivers), OSS, etc. This guide will teach you how to uninstall or remove PulseAudio from Ubuntu Linux.
The thing about PulseAudio is that (at least in my experience) it gives you all these awesome features, but for some reason, it has never worked that well for me. But ALSA, on the other hand, has always been an extremely stable one and has worked on all of my audio hardware devices.
A few years ago, they decided to use PulseAudio as the default sound server in Ubuntu Linux. But since PulseAudio cannot directly communicate with the audio hardware, it still needs tools like ALSA to function. So what happens is that, after mixing the audio (on the software level), PulseAudio simply ‘hands it over to ALSA, and ALSA takes it from there.
Anyhow, in my case, I suspect that it’s this, the poor communication between ALSA -> PulseAudio is the reason for most of these issues because every time I enable “audio amplification” in PulseAudio, my audio output mutes (update: This is no longer true. PulseAudio works well under my new Dell notebook).
In the past, I used to use the PulseAudio Configuration window to disable this audio amplification, but in Ubuntu, Pulse just automatically enables this audio amplification. So most of the time, I end up with no sound outputs.
However, out of these frustrations, I thought, “to hell with it!” (many bad words were filtered :D). “I’m gonna remove PulseAudio and just use ALSA.” I just did it, and now all my audio outputs work perfectly fine!
So if you’re also having the same or any other similar issues with PulseAudio in Ubuntu, then perhaps you can do the same, and who knows, it might save your day ;-). But remember, if you remove PulseAudio, you no longer will get that pretty looking “Volume Indicator applet” anymore. And if PulseAudio is working just fine for you, then I highly recommend that you stick with it.
Remove PulseAudio in Ubuntu
1. First, let’s remove PulseAudio from your Ubuntu OS. I don’t remember when Ubuntu used to come installed by default, but in most versions like 18, 20, and 22, the below command should remove it.
sudo apt-get autoremove pulseaudio
2. Now do a reboot since PulseAudio daemon (system service) is also running from the background. So it’s better to let the OS update everything.
3. The next time you log in to your Desktop, you won’t see the Volume Icon around the system tray area.
Now ALSA is installed by default in Ubuntu but since we have to have a GUI for configuring audio mixing, let’s install the default tool that came in Gnome desktop called: “Gnome-ALSA-Mixer” (a GTK+ front-end).
For that, please use the below command.
sudo apt-get install gnome-alsamixer
4. I’m not sure whether this is necessary, but just to make sure, reboot your PC again, so the configuration is updated.
5. As said before, for various reasons, I have to disable the audio amplification; otherwise, the audio is muted. So if you too not getting any audio outputs after running Totem, for instance, then simply open your Terminal window and enter the below command.
gnome-alsamixer
This should open a new window, similar to the one below. Simply remove the “check” mark from its window that says “External Amplifier”, which should solve most of your issues.
Update: If you have an amplifier, try leaving the “External Amplifier” enabled first. If you don’t get any sounds with it enabled, then you can try disabling it (thanks ‘Chris’ for pointing it out).
Oh, and make sure Master output, PCM, etc., aren’t muted.
Well, that’s pretty much it. If everything goes according to plan, you should hear your speakers screaming! That’s it, and good luck.
174 Comments
Thank you for these instructions. I had gone to the extent of a fresh install (Ubuntu 11.10). Everything worked great – until it picked up its frist round of updates. Afterward, the audio was horrible when playing anything – youtube, mp4, flash, and didn't depend on the player (Banshee, VLC, whatever). I followed your instructions, and the audio is once again smooth. Thanks!
Sam, Logan IA USA
Hey Sam,
Glad it helped you out!, lol.
It happened to my system as well with one of the updates a couple of days ago. Although I'm using 11.10 for a few months now and never had problems with sound. I have realtek alc892 integrated sound card and one day it started delaying all sounds the system tries to play, it's like the performance of sound driver isn't enough. And then it ends up producing some high frequency noise together with 2-3 secs delayed sound stream. The strange thing is that if I redirect my sound to the HDMI output device – all this evil is gone. So it happens only if I use analog output of my sound card.
And of course, if I remove pulseaudio and replace it with alsa-mixer – it works much better even with analog output.
Hello Leo,
My sound card is also a Realtek one. However after using that old & heavy laptop for about 4-5 years, I got a new one (I love that old one, a lot! :D), so pulse audio is working fine with it.
However, I honestly don't know why PulseAudio makes such a mess sometimes, perhaps as said above, it's having issues while communicating with Alsa.
But most of the time, although it's a bit overlooked by many, ALSA is still one of the most durable & robust sound servers around that rescues dudes like you and me ;-).
Anyway, glad it it helped you out!.
Thank You Very Much, I Also Have A Realtek Sound Driver And PulseAudio Had Been Giving My Problems With Programs Such As Wine.
Since Following Your Tutorial, I Havent Had Any Problems So Far With My System.
Thank You Very Much
Sincerely, Anonomous
You are welcome! :).
Hi Gayan,
Followed all instructions. Sounds are played but not the drums at startup neither the desktop tune.
Any idea?
Ubuntu 11.10
Hi Henk,
Well, I cannot be sure but, it could be perhaps because when you remove Pulseaudio, another package called "libcanberra-pulse" is also removed.
"libcanberra" is a special library that uses Pulseaudio (also supports other backends such as gstreamer, alsa etc too) in Ubuntu for event audio playback such as the desktop login sounds etc and it could be the removal of "libcanberra-pulse" is the reason for this issue.
Anyhow, as a fix, you can try the below steps and hopefully it should do the trick for you.
1. First, open your Terminal window and enter the below command (don't used "sudo", run it as a normal user).
2. This should open a window that lets you configure startup applications.
If you see an entry called "Gnome Login Sound", then make sure it's enabled (by putting a "check" mark before it). If it's not there (which should be the case here), then click on the "Add" button.
3. From the next window you get, fill it using the below values.
Name: Gnome Login Sound
Command: /usr/bin/canberra-gtk-play –id="desktop-login" –description="GNOME Login"
Comment: (you can leave this field alone or type a small description if you like, but again, it's optional)
After filling it, click on the "Save" button and make sure you've put a "check" mark on the newly created startup entry (so it's enabled).
Now reboot your PC and the login sound should work.
I have also uploaded a small screenshot of the startup entry as well 🙂 (click on the below link to open it). Hope this helps to fix your issue.
https://hecticgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012…
Good luck.
Oh man I didn’t even have this installed, I was worried because I had a USB DAC I used, but this worked like a charm. Thank you so much for your helpfulness.
No problem ‘Josh’ :).
Thanks Gayan!
Was trying to get Skype working (under Ubuntu 11.10) on an 8 yr old PC which will be donated to my parents. The sound was awful under PulseAudio… Tried loads of "fixes" wasted hours of my time.
Your instructions are spot on! Would just add one thing if I may.. I have an amplifier on my system so left External Amplification ticked… It may be worth pointing out that some users may actually want this in your tutorial.
I'm sure that one day PulseAudio may be the answer, but not in my case. So thanks again!!
Chris
Hey Chris,
Thanks mate. I updated the post :).
I had an ubuntu 11.10 issue (driver dissapeared from pulse audio while setting up skype). Alse solved it.
thx
No problem! :).
Yep, you can forget about this method now either.
Removing pulseaudio in ubuntu 12.04 now removes the package ubuntu-desktop so if you try this you're effectively done with ubuntu.
It must be said the ubuntu devs are very good in enforcing the use of crap packages.
Same problem with the crap syslogger ubuntu uses. You can' t revert to another one or ubuntu-desktop will be removed.
Thanks ubuntu devs!
Hello ike,
Well, you can still get rid of 'pulseaudio' using this method, and removing the 'ubuntu-desktop' won't affect your system.
However, according to its 'description', Ubuntu recommends that you keep it by saying that …
I haven't had any issues after doing so and unless you're 'upgrading' (won't affect the 'updates') to a new version of Ubuntu, it's compeletely safe to remove this package as it's a 'meta-package' that makes sure all the default apps that come with Ubuntu are installed and 'upgraded" to the new Ubuntu version.
I never upgrade my Ubuntu system (don't think most do it as well), I always remove the old version and perform a clean installation, whenever Ubuntu releases a new version every 6 months.
So, if you're not going to 'upgrade' your system, then it's completely safe to remove this 'ubuntu-desktop' package and again, it won't affect your 'updates' for the current release.
I think you know this already (I can guess it from your comment :D), I put that description for all the new users to Ubuntu, so they'd have a clear picture (hopefully). Thank you for the comment though, appreciate it.
Gayan
just to add you method resolve an issue with vmware 8 running in windows 7 64 bit
the issue was no audio at all ..removing the pulse audio fix it ..
thanks a lot.
Glad to hear that 'mids'!. And you're welcome too :D.
I did this just to check if it made any improvement in my sound quality. Alsa-mixer worked fine, but no significant quality difference (I have to say, pulseaudio works fine in my case). So I decided to roll back to pulseaudio, so I would have the pretty looking “Volume Indicator applet” back.
So i did
apt-get autoremove gnome-alsamixer
apt-get install pulseaudio
Rebooted, but no pretty looking applets (yes, i know there was a clear warning about it!)
So after a bit of poking around, I found to restore it:
apt-get install indicator-sound
Another reboot, and job done! Pretty looking applet is back.
Ref:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1713628
Spot on Neo!. 'indicator-sound' should do the trick (only for those who wanna switch back to 'PulseAudio' that is :)).
… im left with nothing
alsa wont work
only the test sounds works
pulse audio did not work
and alsa does not work, i did everything you said
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg535/scaled.php?s…
thats the pic of Gnome alsamixer
please help.
Hi 'Danny',
Sorry about the bit 'late' response. First of all, the image URL does not work, so I cannot see the settings etc.
However, check the following things if, both 'Alsa' and 'PulseAudio' give audio outputs when using the 'Test Sound' button.
*. Have you installed all the proprietary codecs ? (otherwise, you won't be able to play most audio/video files in Ubuntu).
*. Make sure your media players aren't muted (if so, you'll see a small cross-mark on the audio icon)?
If those don't help and since you've installed 'Alsa', then try the below trick (it might or might not work, but hey, you've got nothing to lose :)).
Step 1: Put the below command in your Terminal.
Step 2: Now, from the next window that you get, click on the 'Audio' tab (selected by default) and go to: 'Defaul Output' -> 'Plugin'.
Then click on the drop down menu for the 'Plugin' option, and choose 'ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Server)'.
If you use, 'PulseAudio' then choose 'Pulseaudio Sound Server' option.
Step 3: Then,
If you choose 'ALSA …'
Then under the 'Device' option, try if you can find an option that goes by the name of your soundcard (I have 'CONEXANT Analog'), if you can find it then choose that.
If you use HDMI output, then choose HDMI, Or, if you cannot find any of those, then simply choose 'Default' (you can also try all of them, one at a time with the below 'Step 4' too).
If you choose 'PulseAudio …'
Then try choosing the second option below the 'Default' one.
Step 4: Then click on the 'Test' button, and it should open a test sound output, if you can hear a beep playing, then close the settings window and try playing a file with one of your media players.
This might not fix your issue, but it sometimes does help.
By the way, what is the name of your SoundCard? …
also tried reinstalling pulse audio by the comment a few above this one
this is what comes out
[/code]danny@danny-linux:~$ apt-get autoremove gnome-alsamixer
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock – open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?
danny@danny-linux:~$ apt-get autoremove gnome-alsamixer
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock – open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?
danny@danny-linux:~$ apt-get install pulseaudio
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock – open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?
danny@danny-linux:~$ apt-get install indication-sound
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock – open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?
[/code]
Danny, you gotta use those commands with 'administrative' ('sudo') privilages.
For removing the alsomixer and re-installing pulseaudio, use the below commands.
Step 1: Enter the below command in your Terminal window to uninstall Alsa mixer.
Step 2: Then enter the below ones to re-install pulseaudio.
Now reboot your PC and you should have PulseAudio :).
Hi Gayan,
I like the sound of this procedure of removing pulseaudio you've left for all us, however I would like some possible advice before going through with it myself. My sound issues are limited to what seems to be just wine-loaded programs. Any game I've installed and ran with wine has crackly sound for 10-30 seconds and then the audio cuts out completely. Messing with in-game sound options or winecfg audio settings doesn't help, and I've been through several sound troubleshooting guides but none of them have targetted this specific problem. From what I've read I Think that removing or disabling pulseaudio should help. Would you concur? Running ubuntu 12.04 and sound card is hda intel ALC268. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Hi BrycePuddin,
To be honest, the last time I tried 'Wine' was about 7-8 years ago!. This is mostly because I use both Windows and GNU/Linux at the same time so I can always use Windows to run its programs. As a result, I'm not extremely familiar with 'Wine' and its audio configuration options etc (sorry about that :)).
Now, you said you've tried playing with the 'winecfg' settings, but just in case (just trying to help you out, lol), have you tried making 'Wine' use 'ALSA', without uninstalling 'PulseAudio' from the OS?
After using this method, 'PulseAudio' will still be available for other applications but 'Wine' will directly communicate with 'ALSA' (which is the same thing that we're trying to achieve by removing 'PulseAudio' completely).
If you haven't, then please visit the below link and try it.
http://wiki.winehq.org/WineAndPulseaudio
If it doesn't help, you can also try installing 'pavucontrol' utility and play with it as well (it lets you adjust few more settings in 'PulseAudio').
https://hecticgeek.com/2011/12/advanced-pulse-…
If nothing works, then I too agree that you might wanna completely remove 'PulseAudio' and try using 'ALSA'. Good luck mate :).
Ah, thanks for your advice and helpful links. I wasn't able to set wine to use ALSA within 'winecfg' like I had been trying, however that wiki article has solved my problems. I suppose this means I should polish my googling skills 🙂
Thanks Gayan, that was a week-long headache for me haha. Cheers
You are welcome mate :).
My question is relating to bit-perfect output so I haven't really been having trouble with the two file server services. I use Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. installed on an intel D510MO motherboard with onboard intel audio. I use it as a music server to feed an external DAC and amplifier with flac encoded audio files. (standard CD 44.1K-16bit) Thus I use an optical toslink between computer and DAC.
I've tried several Ubuntu based media players before finally settling on one. But, in any event, one thing I had noticed with some media players is that even when I was able to choose the ALSA driver there seemed to be some preprocessing or resampling of the audio taking place.
I hadn't been able to glean a satisfactory answer other than wading through some back and forth debates about what was happening with the PulseAudio/ALSA combination. But I do swear that the audio became much clearer once I selected the ALSA dirver (and found a media player that allowed me to select ALSA).
I'll probably try removing Pulseaudio myself to see if it effects my computer experience, but I'm curious about your thoughts regarding anything that might be happening (resampling) going on between Pulseaudio and ALSA?
As an audiophile, I do hear differences between Pulseaudio and ALSA. There are details in things like the decay and resonance of instuments that just don't come through when I listen with Pulseaudio selected. It makes the recordings sound artificial to me, kind of what one would call colored (like what excessive EQing will do). I don't know what it was but somethings was going on there.
Hello there!,
Well, I'm not entirely sure if this can help, but below is one thing that you can try (if you haven't done it already, lol).
ALSA uses a software mixer that resamples to 48K by default (PulseAudio uses the 44.1K) and perhaps this mismatch might be the reason that makes you say that ALSA is up to something 'in-between' ;-).
One way to fix this is to open your Terminal and enter the below command.
Then inside the 'alsa.conf' file, search for the following term
Be careful while copying the text using the mouse, as sometimes it could add an additional 'space' after '48000' and the editor won't find the setting as a result.
If it happens, then delete the additional 'space' in the search box (I know you know these, but just in case).
Anyway, once you've found this setting, simply change the '48000' value to '44100' (obviously) and save your changes and close the editor.
Then try playing something and perhaps that might be able to fix it (thought not necessary, but if it doesn't work the first time, then try restarting the PC).
Did it help?
Unfortunately I can't hear a change. I suspect my problem must be down to what the media players themselves are doing differently. I use a player called Audacious because this seems to be the only player that appears to (sounds like) it's not doing anything goofy with the audio files.
I was trying to use Clementine specifically because of the better file management. And in general its improved interface. Unfortunately, even though I'm able to choose the ALSA plugin, the playback in Clementine isn't as clean as the Audacious playback. I've tried quite a few different players.
However, I do have to say that of all the other media players Clementine seems the next best sounding to Audacious. Clementine just doesn't sound quite as clean and clear as the Audacious playback. There's graininess in the treble where Audacious is quite smooth and revealing. Or rather Audacious may just be allowing my external DAC and amp do their jobs.
I'm actually expecting to use my computer as a transport for the audio files. I guess it may not be the Ubuntu configuration itself but just whatever preprocessing media player's themselves might be doing? I don't know. To bad too cause Clementine has a really good interface.
Well, I'm sorry to hear that. You can still disable the 'Enable Replay Gain' under the 'Audio Output Settings' section and also make sure the 'Sample Rate Converter' is disabled under the 'Plugings' section as well.
And lastly you can try changing the 'Buffer Size' (increasing/decreasing) under the 'Audio Output' section and see if it helps. Other than that, well I'm almost out of ideas mate :).
However, since even if you use 'ALSA' in 'Audacious', it still uses 'PulseAudio' for the mixing etc, there's an intersting article that you can read from here which talks about manually editing a 'PulseAudio' configuration file so the buffering timing of the audio output is equal to your hardware which helps to overcome some glitchering and delays.
But the 'PulseAudio' man page says this about this option …
Still, you can try it out, after all you've got nothing to loose :).Also before editing this file, make sure to write down the default values of those two options (just in case).
I'm not sure if it helps but, I'd first suggest that you play with the 'Buffer Size' in 'Audacious' first. Good luck.
Worked great for me with 12.04 and an older Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card. Thanks!!! All is now right with the world.
Hey 'Joe',
I know the feeling mate ;-).
I had no problems with sound untill I recently bought SB wireless headset. The sound would work like from a minute to about half an hour. After that only reboot helped for getting sound back. So I decided to try this out and for now it has worked pefectly 🙂
I googled the net to find a solution but found only people with problems having usb sound devices.
So thanks 😀
Lol, :D!.
I ran across a horrible sound delay when streaming video using Veetle. I uninstalled Pulse and now it works like a charm. The only that sucks now is that my volume and mute button on my Thinkpad no longer work 🙁 Anyway I can get them working again?
Hey 'Joshua',
That's actually pretty simple to achieve :). If all you want is to set your keyboard keys to up/down and mute/unmute the master volume, then follow the below steps.
1. Open 'System Settings' window and click on the 'Keyboard' icon under the 'Hardware' sub heading.
2. Then, click on the 'Shortcuts' tab.
3. Now, from the left side choose, 'Sound and Media' and you'll see three settings called 'Volume mute', 'Volume down' and 'Volume up' at the top (to your right-side) with few other shortcuts.
4. Now under 'Volume mute', you'll see its shortcut is listed as 'Audio mute' to the right edge of the window (it might change according to your keyboard type)
Now simply click on it and it will change into 'New accelerator …', when that happens, click the 'Backspace' button on your keyboard and now it should say 'Disabled'.
Do the same thing to the other two options so their existing keyboard shortcuts are also disabled.
5. Now after that, again from the the left bottom side, click on 'Custom Shortcuts'. Then click on the '+' icon to add a new one.
Setting a mute/unmute shortcut
After clicking the '+' icon, you should get a new small window and under the 'Name' field, simply type 'Volume mute' (you can use any name you want). But under the 'command' field, copy and paste the below command.
Now click on the 'apply' button. Since we haven't applied a shortcut, it should have a 'disabled' text to under the shortcut. Now simply click on the 'disabled' text and when it changes to 'New accelerator …' press your keyboard combination for the audio mute/unmute. That it!.
Setting volume up shortcut
Again use the '+' to add a new shortcut. This time under name choose 'Volume up' and for the command use the below one.
The '10+' represents a 10% increase. So if it's too much for you, then you can change the number but leave the '+' alone ;-).
Then click on the 'apply' button and again assign a shortcut key to it (as said above), and this time, use the volume up keyboard shortcut combination that you want.
Setting a volume down shortcut
Again click on the '+' to add a new shortcut and under the name use 'Volume down' and for the command, use the below one (again, you can change the '10' value but leave the '-' sign alone).
Then click on the 'apply' button and assign a new keyboard shortcut and this time when asked use the preferred volume down keyboard shortcut that you need.
Well, that's pretty much it :).
Dude you are the man! Thanks so much!
lol! :D.
I have another question. Is there anyway to disable the low battery warning popups on Ubuntu. It seems like I get them every 2 minutes even if the battery is fully charged. My battery isnt great but it gets the job done.
Joshua,
Please red the answer below (I had to move my comment there because there's little space remaining in this 'nested' comment area :).
hey im totally new to the world of linux and i started off by installing ubuntu 12.04 on my computer already running windows 7. Everything works fine except when i try to play any song or movies. i get a crackling sound when i try to do these stuff. on the other hand when i open youtube i dont have any problem and on windows also when i play the same stuff i dont face any problem. please help me out of this mess im in cause im at my wits end…..
Hello 'Ananyabrata',
Well it's a bit difficult for me to guess the issue from this end :).
Question 1: Anyway, just to make sure, you manually installed the audio/video codecs in Ubuntu 12.04 right?, because other than very few, by default Ubuntu cannot play almost all the popular audio/video formats.
If you don't know how to do it, then open your Terminal and enter the below commands.
The above command will let you play almost all the proprietary codecs, except the playback of encrypted DVDs. For that, enter the below command first ….
Then the next one.
And the below one.
And lastly the next one.
Okay that should do it.
If this haven't resolved your issue, then there's another thing that you can try before removing 'PulseAudio', but it might be a bit difficult. Anyway, just let me know what happened.
hey thanks i did all that you had stated and now everything works like a charm. thanks a bunch!
You are welcome!. Enjoy your 'Ubuntu', while it's free (kidding! :D).
This also seems to help make jack more stable. I've removed pulseaudio in previoous versions of Ubuntu Studio for this very reason (now running 12.04)
Excellent!.
figured out what was going on with qjackctrl – wrong sound card specified in setup (even though I disabled the onboard audio in bios it was still being detected).
Okay cool, have you tried enabling 'PulseAudio' again to see whether if its working now?
My ubuntu 12.04 server/desktop wouldn't run my asus xonar dx card until I followed your simple steps. I tried reinstalling alsa, reinstalling pulse audio, and about everything else–even reinserted the card. Pulse audio is troublesome. Thank you.
:D!.