Sound stopped working with fresh install

Issues & Assistance
1

Hi community. Yesterday I decided to switch from Ubuntu. Everything worked fine when I tested the compatibility using the USB bootable version. But after the actual install, the only thing not working is the sound.

I already tried stuff from here. Everything looks ok on the Volume Control UI ( I see several output devices and the bars moving when sound is playing). And I already toggle all the options I could find on Alsamixer

image
image420×400 21.7 KB

Some relevant outputs:

  • Kernel Version
7.0.2-2-cachyos
  • Pipewire status
❯ systemctl status --user pipewire
 pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Fri 2026-05-01 17:33:51 -05; 24min ago
 Invocation: 3108c2de53974746929737d92cf432e7
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire.socket
   Main PID: 3478 (pipewire)
      Tasks: 3 (limit: 18738)
     Memory: 15.9M (peak: 49.8M)
        CPU: 10.408s
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pipewire.service
             └─3478 /usr/bin/pipewire

may 01 17:33:51 crisefd-cachyos systemd[3339]: Started PipeWire Multimedia Service.
may 01 17:33:51 crisefd-cachyos pipewire[3478]: mod.rt: could not set nice-level to -11: Permission denied


❯ pacman -Qs pipewire
local/gst-plugin-pipewire 1:1.6.4-1.1
    Multimedia graph framework - pipewire plugin
local/kpipewire 6.6.4-1.1 (plasma)
    Components relating to pipewire use in Plasma
local/libpipewire 1:1.6.4-1.1
    Low-latency audio/video router and processor - client library
local/libwireplumber 0.5.14-1.1
    Session / policy manager implementation for PipeWire - client library
local/pipewire 1:1.6.4-1.1
    Low-latency audio/video router and processor
local/pipewire-alsa 1:1.6.4-1.1
    Low-latency audio/video router and processor - ALSA configuration
local/pipewire-audio 1:1.6.4-1.1
    Low-latency audio/video router and processor - Audio support
local/pipewire-pulse 1:1.6.4-1.1
    Low-latency audio/video router and processor - PulseAudio replacement
local/wireplumber 0.5.14-1.1
    Session / policy manager implementation for PipeWire
  • Audio card

❯ inxi -A
Audio:
Device-1:Intel Raptor Lake-P/U/H cAVSdriver:sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl
API:ALSAv:k7.0.2-2-cachyosstatus:kernel-api
Server-1:PipeWirev:1.6.4status:active

~

  • Speaker Test

    speaker-test 1.2.15.2

    Playback device is default
    Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 1 channels
    Using 16 octaves of pink noise
    Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
    Buffer size range from 128 to 2097152
    Period size range from 64 to 1048576
    Periods = 4
    was set period_size = 12000
    was set buffer_size = 48000
    0 - Mono
    Time per period = 1,996832
    0 - Mono
    Time per period = 3,007969
    0 - Mono
    Time per period = 2,986734

2

I recommend installing qastools, for specifically the qasmixer GUI type program.
It’s a lot like alsamixer but a bit easier to use after you browse through the settings of it. Also, be sure to check the “View” menu to show device selection.
It will look similar to this: (qasmixer)

recent-qasmixer
recent-qasmixer1046×744 67.1 KB

The area in the upper right corner is clickable and editable. You can switch over to the pipewire section/screen by clicking on that area.

Also, there’s a tiny control panel gearbox icon below that area which is clickable. It will reveal some technical info about your audio hardware that you might need, such as the “address” (what the hardware and software both use despite other human-readable names). That’s helpful if you ever need to type in something like “hw:0” in a more vendor-device-specific way.

Ironically, on my system pipewire/alsa work, but for some reason the pipewire fader resets to all the way down ever since I had a system crash while adjusting something in a buggy program and running EasyEffects. Nevertheless, I still get audio in all my programs, so I just ignore that bug and use these faders in qasmixer for setting my levels.

I still use pavucontrol and pwvucontrol (pipewire volume) to set my levels initially, and if there are obnoxious errors, but i mostly use qasmixer as my main volume tool. I don’t even use the XFCE volume control anymore.

In conconlusion, all three of those programs along with alsamixer ought to be enough to find out which thing is muted somewhere. Also, make sure you’re not routing to HDMI or something unless you need to be routed to HDMI. But in general, there have been wierd times I’ve seen firefox or whatnot suddenly get muted. It’s rare, but I’ve seen it and fixed it this way.

Sorry if my post is confusing or irrelevant. I hope this is helpful somehow.

3

Thanks a lot. That did the trick. Like magic