Newbi here needs help troubleshooting

[LazyGuy]

on an unrelated note, the software updater is prompting that 4 important updates are avilable but when i click on it it stops in the middle with message "software update has been canceled"

Updates aren't designed to work when booted from Live media.

system is not even trying to produce sound through HDMI. what could cause this?

Don't know - sorry.
If I have an active audio application on the Playback tab set at 0dB and an active Port on the Output Device tab also set at 0dB, the levels match and sound is produced.
Any if either the Playback or Output tabs level settings are changed, the system behaves exactly as expected.

I did not mean from live usb, the update in general are getting terminated in the middle. there are 4 updates that do not get installed something called noble and ppa.
As for the sound problem, i am going to download older versions of LL and install them on a old laptop HDD i have for rainy days like these.
please do not close this thread as i will post update.