No sound - 'Dummy Output' on Debian 9 fresh install

Question

I have had no sound out of my laptop since I installed Debian overtop of Windows 10. Sound worked just fine in Windows, but nothing I have done has been able to bring it back since the install.

I'm running Debian 9 on a Dell XPS 15 (9570) with XFCE on top of lightdm.

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Sample Commands:

aplay:

trevor@xps:~$ aplay -l
aplay: device_list:270: no soundcards found...

pacmd:

trevor@xps:~$ pacmd list-cards
0 card(s) available.

lspci:

trevor@xps:~$ lspci -nnk | grep -A1 Audio
00:1f.3 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:a348] (rev 10)
    Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:087c]

lsmod:

trevor@xps:~$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_hda_intel          36864  0
snd_hda_codec         135168  1 snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_core           86016  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_hwdep              16384  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm               110592  3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_core
snd_timer              32768  1 snd_pcm
snd                    86016  5 snd_hda_intel,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_codec,snd_timer,snd_pcm
soundcore              16384  1 snd

groups:

trevor@xps:~$ groups trevor
trevor : trevor cdrom floppy audio dip video plugdev netdev bluetooth lpadmin scanner bumblebee

I see a common fix of killing pulseaudio and restarting it. I have tried this, and it does nothing. PulseAudio dies, restarts, and behaves the exact same way it did before.

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Does anyone have any ideas as to why my audio isn't working?

Answer 1

As said by ipor in the comments:

echo 'deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main contrib non-free' >/etc/apt/sources.list.d/stretchbackports.list

apt-get update

apt-get install linux-image-4.17.0-0.bpo.3-amd64

Maybe you will have some dependencies problem, if that is your case, try aptitude install linux-image-4.17.0-0.bpo.3-amd64 , and select 'n' until you get a good solution, then press 'y'.

Reboot at the new kernel

Good lucky

Answer 2

had this on a few workstations: not sure why but here is how I fixed it;

-open terminal

-type: alsamixer

you will see a graphical representation of channels and sound levels

Check on the bottom to see if 'M' is present--> if it is --> means 'mute' press M on your keyboard and voila! sound is back.