0

FIXED (I missed options word below). Popping sounds heard when starting audio files; setting power_save=0 works but only until reboot

Similar to: How to stop speaker random popping noise on Ubuntu 22.04

This workaround works but only until the next reboot: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/loud-popping-sound-on-headphones-when-playing-all-media/74731/4

$ echo 0 > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save

I.e. this has no effect: "You can make it permanent by adding this text to /etc/modprobe.d/audio_disable_powersave.conf"

EDIT, sound is now fixed permanently after my attempts, prompted by @vanadium :

I had missed the word options in these instructions:

This setting will last until you reboot. You can make it permanent by adding this text to /etc/modprobe.d/audio_disable_powersave.conf:

options snd_hda_intel power_save=0

After correctly adding that options text line, I restarted Ubuntu, and now there are no more sound pops on starting media files,

End EDIT.

Have tried following these:

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/audio-popping-sound-when-playback-is-started-or-stopped/100879

Annoying click/popping sound on Ubuntu 20.04

https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2024/10/configure-audio-wireplumber-ubuntu-24-04/

https://support.system76.com/articles/serval-dac/

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install-pipewire-on-ubuntu-linux

but either they have no effect or yield errors.

The linuxconfig page fails for me at step 4:

$ systemctl --user daemon-reload
Failed to connect to bus: No medium found

My env:

SHELL=/bin/bash
COLORTERM=truecolor
SUDO_GID=1000
LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
LC_ADDRESS=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_NAME=en_GB.UTF-8
SUDO_COMMAND=/usr/bin/su
LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8
SUDO_USER=[anon]
PWD=/home/[anon]
LOGNAME=root
XAUTHORITY=/run/user/1000/gdm/Xauthority
HOME=/root
LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_PAPER=en_GB.UTF-8
LS_COLORS=rs=0:di=01;34:ln=01;36:mh=00:pi=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=40;31;01:mi=00:su=37;41:sg=30;43:ca=00:tw=30;42:ow=34;42:st=37;44:ex=01;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arc=01;31:*.arj=01;31:*.taz=01;31:*.lha=01;31:*.lz4=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.lzma=01;31:*.tlz=01;31:*.txz=01;31:*.tzo=01;31:*.t7z=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.dz=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.lrz=01;31:*.lz=01;31:*.lzo=01;31:*.xz=01;31:*.zst=01;31:*.tzst=01;31:*.bz2=01;31:*.bz=01;31:*.tbz=01;31:*.tbz2=01;31:*.tz=01;31:*.deb=01;31:*.rpm=01;31:*.jar=01;31:*.war=01;31:*.ear=01;31:*.sar=01;31:*.rar=01;31:*.alz=01;31:*.ace=01;31:*.zoo=01;31:*.cpio=01;31:*.7z=01;31:*.rz=01;31:*.cab=01;31:*.wim=01;31:*.swm=01;31:*.dwm=01;31:*.esd=01;31:*.avif=01;35:*.jpg=01;35:*.jpeg=01;35:*.mjpg=01;35:*.mjpeg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*.pbm=01;35:*.pgm=01;35:*.ppm=01;35:*.tga=01;35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.tif=01;35:*.tiff=01;35:*.png=01;35:*.svg=01;35:*.svgz=01;35:*.mng=01;35:*.pcx=01;35:*.mov=01;35:*.mpg=01;35:*.mpeg=01;35:*.m2v=01;35:*.mkv=01;35:*.webm=01;35:*.webp=01;35:*.ogm=01;35:*.mp4=01;35:*.m4v=01;35:*.mp4v=01;35:*.vob=01;35:*.qt=01;35:*.nuv=01;35:*.wmv=01;35:*.asf=01;35:*.rm=01;35:*.rmvb=01;35:*.flc=01;35:*.avi=01;35:*.fli=01;35:*.flv=01;35:*.gl=01;35:*.dl=01;35:*.xcf=01;35:*.xwd=01;35:*.yuv=01;35:*.cgm=01;35:*.emf=01;35:*.ogv=01;35:*.ogx=01;35:*.aac=00;36:*.au=00;36:*.flac=00;36:*.m4a=00;36:*.mid=00;36:*.midi=00;36:*.mka=00;36:*.mp3=00;36:*.mpc=00;36:*.ogg=00;36:*.ra=00;36:*.wav=00;36:*.oga=00;36:*.opus=00;36:*.spx=00;36:*.xspf=00;36:*~=00;90:*#=00;90:*.bak=00;90:*.crdownload=00;90:*.dpkg-dist=00;90:*.dpkg-new=00;90:*.dpkg-old=00;90:*.dpkg-tmp=00;90:*.old=00;90:*.orig=00;90:*.part=00;90:*.rej=00;90:*.rpmnew=00;90:*.rpmorig=00;90:*.rpmsave=00;90:*.swp=00;90:*.tmp=00;90:*.ucf-dist=00;90:*.ucf-new=00;90:*.ucf-old=00;90:
XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=ubuntu:GNOME
LESSCLOSE=/usr/bin/lesspipe %s %s
LC_IDENTIFICATION=en_GB.UTF-8
TERM=xterm-256color
LESSOPEN=| /usr/bin/lesspipe %s
USER=root
DISPLAY=:0
SHLVL=1
LC_TELEPHONE=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_TIME=en_GB.UTF-8
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin
SUDO_UID=1000
MAIL=/var/mail/root
LC_NUMERIC=en_GB.UTF-8
_=/usr/bin/env

System Details:

# System Details Report
---

Report details


    

  • Date generated:                              2025-05-14 12:57:00
    • 



Hardware Information:


    

  • Hardware Model:                              LENOVO IdeaPad Z580
    • 

  • Memory:                                      8.0 GiB
    • 

  • Processor:                                   Intel® Core™ i7-3520M × 4
    • 

  • Graphics:                                    Intel® HD Graphics 4000 (IVB GT2)
    • 

  • Disk Capacity:                               1.0 TB
    • 



Software Information:


    

  • Firmware Version:                            5FCN91WW
    • 

  • OS Name:                                     Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
    • 

  • OS Build:                                    (null)
    • 

  • OS Type:                                     64-bit
    • 

  • GNOME Version:                               46
    • 

  • Windowing System:                            X11
    • 

  • Kernel Version:                              Linux 6.8.0-59-generic
    • 



aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC269VC Analog [ALC269VC Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [BenQ GL2450H]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

sudo lspci -v gave, among other things:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
    Subsystem: Lenovo 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 29
    Memory at f0710000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
    Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
    Capabilities: [60] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
    Capabilities: [70] Express Root Complex Integrated Endpoint, MSI 00
    Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
    Capabilities: [130] Root Complex Link
    Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
    Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel
UBuser
  • 11
  • 4

1 Answers1

1

I fixed this by eventually carefully following the answer in Making the sound card's power_save parameter permanent :

Make a file in the /etc/modprobe.d directory, named: audio_disable_powersave.conf
Put this line in it: options snd_hda_intel power_save=0
save/exit and reboot.

How I ultimately did this (I have Intel sound hardware):

  1. sudo su
  2. use echo to create the file with the line "options snd_hda_intel power_save=0"

echo "options snd_hda_intel power_save=0" > /etc/modprobe.d/audio_disable_powersave.conf

  1. exit the su:

exit

  1. check again to make sure the file has "options snd_hda_intel power_save=0"

cat /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save

  1. restart the system

My initial error was forgetting the "options" word, and not checking enough, until user vanadium prompted me to check.

I had meanwhile started looking for other causes, and had used lspci to view all the PCI devices (to also confirm I had Intel sound hardware):

sudo lspci -v | less

and did notice it showed:

libkmod: ERROR ../libkmod/libkmod-config.c:712 kmod_config_parse: /etc/modprobe.d/audio_disable_powersave.conf line 1: ignoring bad line starting with 'snd_hda_intel'

but stupidly did not relate this to my missing "options", I just thought "oh that didn't work, what else might work?"

So, after step 5. above I also re-used lspci to check there were no other errors.

sudo lspci -v | less

which lets me search for lines containing audio with /audio or error with /error in addition to scrolling up and down the output.

UBuser
  • 11
  • 4