Ubuntu guests sound doesn't work in Windows 7 host. Looking for alternate workarounds.

[quiettime]

I have an issue described here and here where sound doesn't work in Ubuntu guests on a Windows host:

A device ID has been used that is out of range for your system.

Sound will be disconnected.

The "solution" is to install Realtek drivers (I have a Realtek sound card) but I had trouble with those drivers which is why I uninstalled them and have the default MS drivers, and so I have no "stereo mix" option.

Is there any way that I can get sound in my Ubuntu 16 LTS and 18 LTS guests without installing the Realtek drivers? I'm thinking it must be possible because other guests work fine and I get sound.

Thanks

[parmarr]

Is he audio working on the host machine? If yes, then it could be a driver issue on the guest

[Scillonian · Accepted solution]

I think this is caused by a bad interaction between the implementation of the Pulse Audio sound system in some Linux distributions and VMware Workstation.

What I have often found to work with Linux VMs that exhibit this behaviour is to install pavucontrol in the Linux VM. (For Ubuntu and Ubuntu based installations run apt install pavucontrol from a terminal prompt.)

Once installed run pavucontrol and select Analogue Stereo Output on the Configuration tab.

Hope this helps.

[quiettime]

It works! Thanks. Do you know why echo $'\a' doesn't work (pc beep) or do you think that is unrelated?

[bluefirestorm]

Isn't 0xa represent line feed? Bell/beep ASCII value should be 7.

Anyway, it looks like bell/beep in VMware VMs is no longer supported in Workstation 12.x and later. You can look at this thread Passthrough internal beep speaker

[SmartGeek]

Thank you!