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I have installed Debian 8 on fairly recent barebones PC hardware (Intel® NUC Kit NUC6i7KYK with integrated sound) and I am having issues with mute audio output.
Running pavucontrol shows that audio is being processed when running a youtube video, yet there is no sound output through headphone out or HDMI. alsamixer shows that all levels are up and unmuted. I have been able to get audible tone via headphones during startup.

Below is output of commands I've run in gathering info under Debian:

cat /etc/issue
Debian GNU/Linux 8 \n \l

uname -a
Linux Debbie 3.16.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.7-ckt25-2+deb8u3 (2016-07-02) x86_64 GNU/Linux

lspci -v
... 00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Device a170 (rev 31) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device 2064 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 32, IRQ 141 Memory at dc240000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K] Memory at dc220000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K] Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [60] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+ Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel ...

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices **** card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC233 Analog [ALC233 Analog] Subdevices: 0/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC233 Digital [ALC233 Digital] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

I'm not clear if problem is due to driver support on 3.x kernel or software misconfiguration (less likely as no audio settings changed prior to sound problem). I am also not sure about how integrated these drivers are with the kernel (I need to upgrade whole kernel?) or how I would go about installing a more appropriate audio driver.

-- Update --
I've booted from an Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS image and sound drivers work without a hitch.
uname -a
Linux ubuntu 4.4.0-31-generic #50-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jul 13 00:07:12 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Can anyone see anything wrong with Debian set up or make a suggestion?

Thank you

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I had a similar issue with my NUC5i5ryh (LMDE2) recently, it turned out to be the output setting with PulseAudio not Alsamixer. Check to see if it set to "Duplex", if it is, change to Analogue Stereo Output. (I have external speakers) or Built-in Audio.

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Ubuntu is derived from Debian unstable some half a year before, while Debian stable is already quite old. Probably Ubuntu just supports the Skull Canyon components, which are quite recent and have posed some compatibility problems, specially about power management.

For desktop use, I usually recommend Debian testing, which ends up functioning as Debian’s rolling release. This is specially relevant for such recent components.

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  • Thank you, I would like to try Debian testing. Is it only a matter of changing the apt sources list and doing an upgrade or is there more to it than that? I am considering installing Ubuntu for better support of this hardware.
    – user1330734
    Commented Sep 25, 2016 at 2:57
  • Yes, changing sources & upgrading should do it. Running that setup right now.
    – Leandro
    Commented Nov 2, 2016 at 14:25
  • lfd, am I correct with the idea that Debian is a lot more rigid in their stance towards proprietary software? That is, if a manufacturer does not release open source drivers for hardware, Debian will not include the software with the distro and the user must fend for themselves?
    – user1330734
    Commented Nov 2, 2016 at 14:31
  • Yes, but on the long run free software drivers just work better. One of the reasons, perhaps the main one, for me to buy the NUC6i7KYK is because it is well supported by official free drivers. I only had to first cable it for network until I could install the wireless interface blobs, and that was it. In other words, yes, you are right, but this is irrelevant for the Skull Canyon because Intel has reasonable free software support, while AMD and nVidia still have not.
    – Leandro
    Commented Nov 2, 2016 at 14:49
  • I understand the philosophy to persuade vendors to provide driver source code but I feel an innocent user may suffer when the vendor is unwilling to do so, driving them to Windows or a different distro. I am new to GNU/Linux but feel more comfortable here than with Windows though it's a shame there is quite a bit of fragmentation in the Linux distro ecosystem. I chose Debian hoping for a lightweight distro after good experiences with Kali. I don't mind minor OS tweaking but I had to get things going so after a few weeks I installed Ubuntu. Wi-Fi, sound and video 'just worked' out of the box.
    – user1330734
    Commented Nov 2, 2016 at 15:01

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