Today, if you remove PulseAudio, Mate will install PipeWire (and other way round).
If you remove them both, Mate will automatically enable ALSA for mate-settings-daemon and mate-volume-control-status-icon (sound applet in the tray)

$ sudo apt-get purge pulseaudio pulseaudio-utils pavucontrol pulseaudio-module-bluetooth pipewire pipewire-bin pipewire-pulse

This will also remove "mate-desktop-environment". It is a meta-package which can be safely removed.
Then, you have to reboot, or kill pulseaudio and reload ALSA

$ sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils force-reload
Shutting down ALSA...done.
Setting up ALSA...done. 

On Linix Mint MATE, you should also remove pipewire-alsa, etc.

➤ fuser -av $(find /dev/snd -type c 2>/dev/null)
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC0:  igor       2245 F.... mate-settings-d
                     igor       2344 F.... mate-volume-con
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0c:
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p:   igor       3166 F...m firefox-esr
/dev/snd/seq:
/dev/snd/timer:      igor       3166 f.... firefox-esr

➤ ps -A u | grep mate-volume-con
igor      2344  0.0  0.7 483040 59088 ?        Sl   16:27   0:10 mate-volume-control-status-icon

➤ ps -A u | grep mate-settings-d
igor      2245  0.1  0.6 968348 53544 ?        Sl   16:27   0:28 /usr/bin/mate-settings-daemon

➤ apt-file find /usr/bin/mate-volume-control-status-icon 
mate-media: /usr/bin/mate-volume-control-status-icon

➤ apt info mate-media
Package: mate-media
...
Description: MATE media utilities
 MATE media utilities are the audio mixer and the volume
 control applet.

See also:
_https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=49837#p49837

Last time I installed Devuan and chose Mate in the software section, it automatically included pulseaudio. Really IMO no "sound server" should be included on install of any DE, but at the least Devuan ought to de-couple pulseaudio from the Mate metapackage and at least use pipewire instead.

Me I never run anything but pure alsa. Works just fine.

It seems that the problem was in pulseaudio.

Repeated for truth! It has always been so from day one!

#New installation - everything works flawlessly.

fuser -av $(find /dev/snd -type c 2>/dev/null)
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC0:  vrgovinda   2397 F.... pulseaudio
/dev/snd/hwC0D0:
/dev/snd/hwC0D2:
/dev/snd/pcmC0D5p:
/dev/snd/pcmC0D4p:
/dev/snd/pcmC0D3p:
/dev/snd/pcmC0D31p:
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0c:
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p:   vrgovinda   2397 F...m pulseaudio
/dev/snd/pcmC0D7c:
/dev/snd/pcmC0D6c:
/dev/snd/seq:
/dev/snd/timer:

inxi -A
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-LP Smart Sound Audio
    driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-10-amd64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: active

 
# Old installation - no microphone input

fuser -av $(find /dev/snd -type c 2>/dev/null)
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC0:  vrgovinda   2761 F.... pulseaudio
/dev/snd/hwC0D0:
/dev/snd/hwC0D2:
/dev/snd/pcmC0D5p:
/dev/snd/pcmC0D4p:
/dev/snd/pcmC0D3p:
/dev/snd/pcmC0D31p:
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0c:   vrgovinda   2761 F...m pulseaudio
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p:   vrgovinda   2761 F...m pulseaudio
/dev/snd/pcmC0D7c:
/dev/snd/pcmC0D6c:
/dev/snd/seq:
/dev/snd/timer:

inxi -A
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-LP Smart Sound Audio
    driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-10-amd64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: active

fuser -av $(find /dev/snd -type c 2>/dev/null)

inxi -A

inxi: everything you need to know about your computer
_https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/p/inxi.html

sudo apt install inxi

I had recently installed Devuan Daedalus on another partition. Instead of tweaking /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf, I just installed firmware-sof-signed. Everything is working perfectly. I get a neat click-and-choose options beneath the volume icon and I can just choose the input and output devices. That's super convenient.

I tried this in the other partition which had Daedalus and on which I was trying to play around. But microphone input still doesn't work. Maybe I have forgotten all that I have changed and don't know how to get back to the default configs.

So my mantra is : Next time I install Devuan on an Intel machine, I'll first install firmware-sof-signed and check if everthing is alright. If some issues exist, I'll try other options. Don't know what is the mantra for AMD machines.

Hello vrgovinda,
patience be with us!
the archlinux sound documents are very excellent, the main two documents.

Oh yes! I'm very patient. At the same time, excited too. No problem. I'm also loving this learning. Else, I would've settled with the pre-installed OEM Ubuntu.

With Linux, one has to be patient and that is “mode of goodness”, according to the Bhagavad-gita.
At least, I got the HDMI sound output. That's a good deal.

Thank you so much Andy. You are a good soul.

Marking this post as solved, albeit partially. [HDMI only]

Regards,

I am actually trying to 'configure' my new mini-pc (with it's spurious codec,) at the moment, so my input here is actually in practice say.
I don't think I am going to get sound line-out AND HDMI, I think I may have to settle for one or the other, we will see.

The last twenty-five years alsamixer has been good to me, pulseaudio is new to me.
I have apt-get --no-install-recommends install pavucontrol pulseaudio which pulls in all the required packages.
In addition I have made a folder _pa and in that folder I have downloaded the two packages pavucontrol and pulseaudio.
When I want to certainly work on alsa I, dpkg -P pavucontrol pulseaudio.
And when I want to work on pulseaudio I, dpkg -i -R _pa.
So I can keep trying, and don't have to be online.
When I do use pulseaudio I'm always in user not root, and I always pulseaudio --start | --kill
I always run alsamixer as it changes when I install/uninstall pulseaudio.
The sound file I work with is FILE.WAV, aplay in alsa plays WAV file.
vrgovinda, please keep trying with all those too many settings in alsamixer.
All this quasi pain is worth it to advance learning howto configure sound. I think!
Andrew.

Just curious: Does the sound work in devuan when using /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf from ubuntu?

Tried that too!

Doesn't work.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Advanc … leshooting

Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS
On Intel Cannon Lake (eg. HP ZBook 15 G6), the integrated sound chipset requires ALSA firmware, and the following kernel module parameters are required:

options snd-hda-intel dmic_detect=0
options snd-hda-intel model=laptop-amic enable=yes

That should enable both sound and microphone.

Read through all the links that you have sent. Changed the kernel module parameters. Built-in Microphone still doesn't work. All that I get is some noise when I try to record the mic input.

Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS
On Intel Cannon Lake (eg. HP ZBook 15 G6), the integrated sound chipset requires ALSA firmware, and the following kernel module parameters are required:

options snd-hda-intel dmic_detect=0
options snd-hda-intel model=laptop-amic enable=yes

That should enable both sound and microphone.

https://thesofproject.github.io/latest/ … ction.html

Every time I create a change I run alsamixer --view all and it will be different

On my BMAX B1 Plus mini-pc which has a pig codec es8336, I am trying to get sound line-out and HDMI.

My next step is to install pavucontrol & pulseaudio, and see what I am offered,
then /etc/modprobe.d/snd.conf options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=3
and see what I am offered.
dsp_driver=1 & dsp_driver=2 terminally breaks sound.

It's amazing how computers are like cars in many ways, you look at them under a 40X microscope and they're full of crap & flux and that, like under the bonnet (hood,) another, 'chipset' change, reminds me of changing a wheel bearing and in the end I did it in the car parts car park because there was like five variants.
And here I am, twenty-five years later, clean install Windows 98SE and what's the first thing to do, see if the piece of shit sound is working.
And we've had HDMI for like twenty years plug and play and we pay hard earned money for this shit.
I guess without SOF we'd certainly be up shit creek without a paddle.
IMO options snd-hda-intel model=whatever is questionable pissing in the wind.

# autoloader aliases
install sound-slot-0 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-0
install sound-slot-1 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-1
install sound-slot-2 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-2
install sound-slot-3 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-3
install sound-slot-4 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-4
install sound-slot-5 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-5
install sound-slot-6 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-6
install sound-slot-7 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-7

# Cause optional modules to be loaded above generic modules
install snd /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-ioctl32 ; /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq ; }
#
# Workaround at bug #499695 (reverted in Ubuntu see LP #319505)
install snd-pcm /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-pcm $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-pcm-oss ; : ; }
install snd-mixer /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-mixer $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-mixer-oss ; : ; }
install snd-seq /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-seq $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq-midi ; /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq-oss ; : ; }
#
install snd-rawmidi /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-rawmidi $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq-midi ; : ; }
# Cause optional modules to be loaded above sound card driver modules
install snd-emu10k1 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-emu10k1 $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-emu10k1-synth ; }
install snd-via82xx /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-via82xx $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq ; }

# Load saa7134-alsa instead of saa7134 (which gets dragged in by it anyway)
install saa7134 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install saa7134 $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist saa7134-alsa ; : ; }
# Prevent abnormal drivers from grabbing index 0
options bt87x index=-2
options cx88_alsa index=-2
options saa7134-alsa index=-2
options snd-atiixp-modem index=-2
options snd-intel8x0m index=-2
options snd-via82xx-modem index=-2
options snd-usb-audio index=-2
options snd-usb-caiaq index=-2
options snd-usb-ua101 index=-2
options snd-usb-us122l index=-2
options snd-usb-usx2y index=-2
# Ubuntu #62691, enable MPU for snd-cmipci
options snd-cmipci mpu_port=0x330 fm_port=0x388
# Keep snd-pcsp from being loaded as first soundcard
options snd-pcsp index=-2
# Keep snd-usb-audio from beeing loaded as first soundcard
options snd-usb-audio index=-2

[Please recollect that I have two partitions -- Ubuntu [pre-installed OEM Linux Image] & Devuan. Although the microphone works in Ubuntu, it doesn't work in Devuan. I am presenting the alsa-base.conf in the /etc/modprobe.d/ directory of the Ubuntu Partition so that it can be easy to analyze the issue.]

The /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf from the Devuan partition contains only one line:

 snd-hda-intel dmic_detect=0