I'm running Sparky 8 with MATE.
I did a normal system upgrade on 2023-08-27. Ever since, I haven't been able to get any sound from my system, no matter what I do with the sound preferences in mate-volume-control.
I have tried to figure out which upgraded package might have caused the problem. I believe the kernel was updated from linux-image-6.4.7-1-sparky8-amd64 to 6.4.12-1. And libasound2 was updated from 1.2.9-1 to 1.2.9-2.
I don't see any other upgraded packages that look like they're related to sound.
Two more system upgrades and reboots didn't solve the problem.
Right now, I'm just wondering if I am the only person who has this problem, or whether someone else has solved it and saved me a lot of work!
Thanks...
Fixed:
Edit /etc/pulse/default.pa
Comment-out this line:
load-module module-suspend-on-idle
pulseaudio --kill
pulseaudio --start
I have sound again. That was a pretty obscure issue. I have no idea why it was triggered by a system upgrade.