Hello,
I have just installed Debian Trixie on a Dell Precision 5860 workstation
that initially had Ubuntu on it. The installation went well but there
are two issues. This post is about the first of these.
I cannot get sound through the speakers in my monitors (I have two;
sound on either one would be fine) through HDMI. The system finds the
appropriate sinks:
--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ uname -a
Linux dt2025 6.12.69+deb13-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.12.69-1
(2026-02-08) x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ pactl list sinks
Sink #56
State: SUSPENDED
Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo
Description: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
[...]
Sink #409
State: SUSPENDED
Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_55_00.1.hdmi-stereo
Description: HDA NVidia Digital Stereo (HDMI)
[...]
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
(both showing as suspended currently as I'm not listening to anything)
If I direct sound to the analog-stereo sink (the speaker or headphones
on the system box), this works. If I direct the sound to the
hdmi-stereo sink, nothing comes out. All indications are that it should
(via pavucontrol or alsamixer) and I have checked the actual volume
controls on the monitors.
I have no idea how to debug this further. The HDMI cables are fine and
sound through HDMI worked with the ubuntu installation.
Any suggestions welcome!
Thank you,
eric
--
Eric S Fraga via gnus (Emacs 31.0.50 2026-02-11) on Debian 13.3
