Comprehensive Sound Problem Solutions Guide

Hello, what to do if there is no sound card listed after command lspci -v ?
In BIOS it's enabled and in Windows it works fine. I have onboard ICH5 Intel sound card. Thanks.

SteveHoffmanUK - from the command-line do this

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sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

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The first few lines has a reference or two to the CD-ROM. use the '#' to comment out the line.

after that, press CTRL + O to save. Then

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sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gdm ubuntu-desktop

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This will allow you to download gdm and ubuntu-desktop from the ubuntu repositories.

ivotedforkodos - look in this file

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sudo nano /etc/group

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each line in the file has the name of the group. Go to the audio line (they aren't alphabetical but the list is not too long). Add your username (the one without sound) to the audio line.

so if you line read

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audio:x:29:user1,user2

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it will now read (assuming you want to add the user 'newuser')

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audio:x:29:user1,user2,newuser

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Be very careful when editing that file.

Pizza the Hutt - Enter this line into a shell and paste the contents back.

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uname -r

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You should have the latest version of the kernel for Dapper and 2.6.12 is not the latest. You should have something like 2.6.15.xx

Fatmaxlim - look if your soundcard is listed here http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/

Lord Raiden

Thanks for the instructions. I am back in business; however, I still don't have sound! :(

I will go back to the start of this thread and carry on where I left off. Presumably this change I made (commenting out the ref to cdrom) means that it won't ask me again for me to use my Ubuntu disc should I want to reinstall something?

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Originally Posted by LordRaiden

ivotedforkodos - look in this file

Code:

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sudo nano /etc/group

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each line in the file has the name of the group. Go to the audio line (they aren't alphabetical but the list is not too long). Add your username (the one without sound) to the audio line.

so if you line read

Code:

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audio:x:29:user1,user2

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it will now read (assuming you want to add the user 'newuser')

Code:

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audio:x:29:user1,user2,newuser

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Be very careful when editing that file.

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Unbelievable. That worked perfectly. Thanks, LordRaiden; you are the man! BTW, why would this have happened?

any tips on getting the master volume control to work with the cm9739 onboard sound? pcm slider does adjust most sound levels, but some sounds do come out at full volume...

ivotedforkodos - Don't know. I remember another user having it a while back.

cyberdude - not familiar with your soundcard, but master alone should work. Try muting/unmuting master (it should do something). Leave your PCM at around 80, any higher and you might hear static. Are you using SPDIF? Sometimes the master only works on the analog or the SPDIF and not on both.

I'm thinking about moving this guide to the UDSF so that other users can put in their info as well (hopefully without breaking the layout).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LordRaiden

cyberdude - not familiar with your soundcard, but master alone should work. Try muting/unmuting master (it should do something). Leave your PCM at around 80, any higher and you might hear static. Are you using SPDIF? Sometimes the master only works on the analog or the SPDIF and not on both.

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no i'm not using SPDIF, just analog...muting/unmuting master does'nt effect the sounds at all...even when muted, sounds still play

motherboard is based on nforce2 ,with c-media onboard sound (cmi9739)


](*,)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cyberdude

no i'm not using SPDIF, just analog...muting/unmuting master does'nt effect the sounds at all...even when muted, sounds still play

motherboard is based on nforce2 ,with c-media onboard sound (cmi9739)


](*,)

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just found this

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For everyone who's missing volume control with his CMedia 9739 onboard
sound chip, here are the facts I found out so far. This chip is used
at least on Epox 8RDA3+ and maybe in every newer nforce2 chipset. (Who
knows where else it is used?)
The general problem with the 9739 is that it doesn't have a volume
control in hardware. As the technical reference (avail. at
http://www.cmedia.com.tw/e_t_twp.htm) states, there is no PCM volume
register on chip, only a PCM muting register. Strangely, it also
states that there is a _Master_ volume register where you should be
able to set the volume (not only muting)! But I had no success using
it; changes to that register have no effect. Maybe this is a hardware
bug, or the tech reference is wrong.
BTW. CMedia's OSS driver does volume control in software, so they know
about the problem...
So it seems that the best solution is to use some kind of software
volume control.

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That's what I got:

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user5@ubuntu:~$ uname -r
2.6.12-9-386

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I don't know why I don't have the latest version. I upgraded to Dapper just two weeks ago and the update manager does not show me any new available updates.

Pizza the Hutt - you are using an older kernel - try doing

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sudo apt-get update && sudo aptitude dist-upgrade

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This should get you to the latest version of the kernel.