Audio not working, only "dummy output"

recently i started having audio problems. at first, the speakers stopped working unless i first plugged in headphones. sound would play through the headphones and then, when i unplugged the headphones, it would play through my laptop's speakers. but today, i can't get it to play through either headphones or laptop speakers. in the sound preferences there is now only the option "dummy output". to my knowledge i have not changed this at all, although i do the updates when they appear.

i am a basic user, i have ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS with mate 1.20.1. i can no longer see what the audio hardware is on my laptop, but until today it was working ... i've had a look in the forums & see other people who have encountered the "dummy output" but none of the solutions are appropriate for my situation.

I found this you can give a try.

thanks very much! i installed pavucontrol & restarted, & now i have sound again BUT i still had to first plug in headphones.

  • on start up, there is no sound from the laptop speakers
  • i plug in headphones and can hear sound in the headphones
  • i unplug the headphones, and the sound comes from the laptop speakers

i can live with this, but it is wierd ...

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Odd, well hopefully it stays fixed.

well, it is still working but only after i have plugged in & removed the headphones. i've had a look in the forums but not found any other reports of this problem, so i guess i'll just have to keep doing this workaround.