Can't connect to PulseAudio server

when installing software I'm seeing a lot of errors that look like this, perhaps this is the reason the audio stopped working?

(gconftool-2:2854): GConf-WARNING **: Client failed to connect to the D-BUS daemon:
Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

ps shows me:

jm 1650 0.0 0.0 32224 2268 ? Ss 21:22 0:00 dbus-daemon --fork --session --address=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-LBnHNbroMR

so it does appear to be running

 42.996443] hda-intel 0000:02:00.1: Enabling via VGA-switcheroo
[ 42.996703] snd_hda_intel 0000:02:00.1: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 42.999612] HDMI ATI/AMD: no speaker allocation for ELD
[ 43.299758] HDMI ATI/AMD: no speaker allocation for ELD
[ 43.600595] HDMI ATI/AMD: no speaker allocation for ELD
[ 43.901447] HDMI ATI/AMD: no speaker allocation for ELD
[ 44.202260] HDMI ATI/AMD: no speaker allocation for ELD
[ 44.503122] HDMI ATI/AMD: no speaker allocation for ELD
[ 44.803909] HDMI ATI/AMD: no speaker allocation for ELD
[ 45.104750] HDMI ATI/AMD: no speaker allocation for ELD
[
[ 49.489676] init: plymouth-stop pre-start process (1375) terminated with status 1
[ 52.782373] hda-intel 0000:02:00.1: Disabling via VGA-switcheroo
[ 52.997025] [drm] Disabling audio 0 support

post output of

xrandr --verbose

do the stereo HDMI codec really need speaker allocation from your HDMI tv ?

Codec: ATI R6xx HDMI
Address: 0
AFG Function Id: 0x1 (unsol 0)
Vendor Id: 0x1002aa01
Subsystem Id: 0x00aa0100
Revision Id: 0x100200
No Modem Function Group found
Default PCM:
    rates [0x70]: 32000 44100 48000
    bits [0x2]: 16
    formats [0x1]: PCM
Default Amp-In caps: N/A
Default Amp-Out caps: N/A
State of AFG node 0x01:
  Power states: D0 D3
  Power: setting=D0, actual=D0
GPIO: io=0, o=0, i=0, unsolicited=0, wake=0
Node 0x02 [Audio Output] wcaps 0x201: Stereo Digital
  Converter: stream=1, channel=0
  Digital: Enabled
  Digital category: 0x0
  IEC Coding Type: 0x0
Node 0x03 [Pin Complex] wcaps 0x400381: Stereo Digital
  Control: name="HDMI/DP,pcm=3 Jack", index=0, device=0
  Control: name="IEC958 Playback Con Mask", index=0, device=0
  Control: name="IEC958 Playback Pro Mask", index=0, device=0
  Control: name="IEC958 Playback Default", index=0, device=0
  Control: name="IEC958 Playback Switch", index=0, device=0
  Control: name="ELD", index=0, device=3
  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
  Pin Default 0x18560010: [Jack] Digital Out at Int HDMI
    Conn = Digital, Color = Unknown
    DefAssociation = 0x1, Sequence = 0x0
  Pin-ctls: 0x40: OUT
  Unsolicited: tag=01, enabled=1
  Connection: 1
     0x02

Hi Raymond -- thank you very much for taking the time to look at this.

after many hours of fiddling and reading...
I finally Uninstalled PulseAudio ...

and now sound works great! not really the correct answer, but at least I finally have a usable system.

>> do the stereo HDMI codec really need speaker allocation from your HDMI tv?

I don't understand the question... I do often hook up my laptop to a tv, but it was not hooked up when I collected the bug data. The settings you see are default values.

Also there is a bug in that the laptop monitor exists twice in the display config, but I don't see how this has a bearing on the problem with sound.

HDMI-1-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

seem bug of the graphic driver to inform audio about hdmi is plugged

control.1 {
  iface CARD
  name 'HDMI/DP,pcm=3 Jack'
  value true
  comment {
   access read
   type BOOLEAN
   count 1
  }
 }

the hdmi codec only support stereo or digital passthrough, and does not support multichannel LPCM

this require your hdmi tv support AC3 decode for multi channel using digital passthrough

Node 0x02 [Audio Output] wcaps 0x201: Stereo Digital
  Converter: stream=1, channel=0
  Digital: Enabled
  Digital category: 0x0
  IEC Coding Type: 0x0
Node 0x03 [Pin Complex] wcaps 0x400381: Stereo Digital
  Control: name="HDMI/DP,pcm=3 Jack", index=0, device=0
  Control: name="IEC958 Playback Con Mask", index=0, device=0
  Control: name="IEC958 Playback Pro Mask", index=0, device=0
  Control: name="IEC958 Playback Default", index=0, device=0
  Control: name="IEC958 Playback Switch", index=0, device=0
  Control: name="ELD", index=0, device=3
  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
  Pin Default 0x18560010: [Jack] Digital Out at Int HDMI
    Conn = Digital, Color = Unknown
    DefAssociation = 0x1, Sequence = 0x0

seem graphic driver complain about your LVDS no spaker allocation in EDID because your LG does not support audio

LVDS connected 1600x900+0+0 (0x47) normal (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 382mm x 215mm
 EDID:
  00ffffffffffff0030e47a0200000000
  00130103802615780aa8c09d58509a26
  1c505400000001010101010101010101
  0101010101012f2640b860840c303030
  23007ed7100000190000000000000000
  00000000000000000000000000fe0000
  00004c47446973706c61790a000000fe
  004c503137335744312d544c433300c2

Manufacturer: LGD Model 27a Serial Number 0
Made week 0 of 2009
EDID version: 1.3
Digital display
Maximum image size: 38 cm x 21 cm
Gamma: 2.20
Supported color formats: RGB 4:4:4, YCrCb 4:2:2
First detailed timing is preferred timing
Established timings supported:
Standard timings supported:
Detailed mode: Clock 97.750 MHz, 382 mm x 215 mm
               1600 1648 1696 1784 hborder 0
                900 902 905 912 vborder 0
               -hsync -vsync
Manufacturer-specified data, tag 0
ASCII string:
ASCII string: LP173WD1
Checksum: 0xc2 (valid)
EDID block does NOT conform to EDID 1.3!
 Missing name descriptor
 Missing monitor ranges
 Detailed block string not properly terminated

I tihink, I've got the same problem.

Was running Kubuntu 14.04 as of 19th March 2014 and everything worked perfectly.
I then installed audacity to record something but it would only show the Splash screen and hang there.

After that every program trying to access the soundcard would hang. Even after several reboots. KDE then said "Sound Device unavailable, switching to Default". And the taskmanager would show 4 processes of pulseaudio 2 of which were always "active on harddrive".

Tried it with Xubuntu as well. Same Problem even without audacity installed.

I've got a HP Elitebook 850 G1 with Intel / AMD hybrid graphics running with Dynamic dGPU poweroff by default.
Could the dynamic switching be the problem?

Best regards!

why is this marked incomplete? I provided the info you requested.

why do you keep talking about HDMI?? what does that have to do with audio? HDMI is not enabled because it's not hooked up.

Yes, I do use an external tv sometimes, when I want to watch a video. But that has nothing to do with this bug that I know of, 90% of the time I am using the internal speaker and monitor (this is a laptop) or else plugging an analog headset into the audio out jack.

But in fact you can't do any of that as long as pulseaudio is running...

HDMI-1-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
 Identifier: 0x44
 Timestamp: 20320
 Subpixel: horizontal rgb
 Clones:
 CRTCs: 2 3 4 5
 Transform: 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000
             0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
             0.000000 0.000000 1.000000
            filter:
 dither: off
  supported: off, on
 audio: auto
  supported: off, on, auto

It affects a non-essential hardware component (removable network card, camera, web-cam, music player, sound card, power management feature, printer...).

@alberto: so audio is considered to be non-essential in a consumer computer??? I could see that being the case for servers, but computers with gui interfaces ought to consider audio to be essential to that experience, see for instance PC-98 spec.

I did eventually find a work-around for this problem. After I login, if I restart Pulse Audio then it works....

So this is likely to be either a race condition or a permissions problem.

Big problem for me also. Xubuntu 14.04, 64bit, fresh install giving no sound. "pulseaudio server connection failure connection refused" hence no Skype.

My previous installation of the same system on the same hardware gave no problems at all. If no one has a fix I'll try another install, failing that, another OS.

2020 and i am having the same issue with hdmi. tried uninstally pulseaudio, but then i don't have sound. any alternatives to pulseaudio?

Yes you can skip PulseAudio by compiling/configuring your apps for ALSA instead. Then they will talk directly to the kernel, but apps will be unable to share the audio devices like they can in PulseAudio.