Comprehensive Sound Problem Solutions Guide

[LordRaiden]

Master channel should be set to 90 and not muted
PCM should be set to about 70 or 80 (depending on the amount of static you hear) and not muted.

If you have Center, LFE, Left, Right channels, they should all be around the same level as Master and not muted.

[AndriusKulikauskas]

I had problems with sound with Breezy Badger, fixed that, then had problems again when I upgraded to Dapper Dan. What seems relevant is running "alsamixer" and then turning OFF the external microphone. My laptop has Intel soundcard ICH6 was in combination with the A97 chipset (it doubles as a modem I think). More information and disinformation at http://www.findbetterways.info/wiki....LinuxOnLaptops

[cyberjesus]

my windows sounds work all the time but the rest does not so its not my volume

and if i start my comp and go in a game as soon it starts it works so as i said itn not my volume

[FreyGrimrod]

Ahoi ahoi all so I'm convinced now to never use the update manager again since it always seems to break something or another this time it was my sound.


Followed this guide

aplay -l still gives me no soundcards found

lspci -v does have my sound card listed

found my alsa driver

nano'd /etc/modules to include the snd-emu10k1 module (have a creative labs audigy 2)

got the alsa drivers from a *fresh* kernel nothing

nano'd /etc/group to add my user to the audio group

no luck as of yet

alsamixer has an error "alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device
"
the gnome volume manager spits back "No volume control GStreamer plugins and/or devices found."

tried reinstalling GStreamer plugins

No luck

Do I try and compile my own ALSA drivers?

Suggestions?

This Noob Is At a loss

*edit* forgot to add that at the ubuntu login screen I do get that little quick sound so I know all connections and speakers are good and that I'm running 64bit Dapper Drake

[Bezmotivnik]

Alsamixer did it.

Some "update" helpfully nulled the output.

Thanks, and a great resource page!

[gray-squirrel]

This is definitely a great troubleshooting guide. In the two or three weeks since the adapter for my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX died out, I was looking for a way to reactivate my Sound Blaster Live 24-bit, even coming into these forums to search for a solution. I don't know how I managed to come across this guide today instead of sooner, but in any case, thanks.

I could be wrong about this, but I don't remember seeing anything in the tutorials in the ALSA guide like what was listed in the "Configuring default soundcards/stopping multiple soundcards from switching" section. (Perhaps we could have them add that information if that hasn't been done yet.)

Fixing the problem wasn't as bad as it looked in my case. I just swapped my sound card drivers in the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base file so that the Sound Blaster Live 24-bit was first (#0). In the /etc/modules file, I commented out snd-usb-audio and added snd-ca0106, which I thought had been put in during the installation of Kubuntu Dapper - it did detect both cards, after all.

It seems that the sound quality for the Sound Blaster Live 24-bit driver has improved, because the distortion I used to get a year ago at higher volumes has decreased significantly.

Once I get a few other matters with my computer settled, I will be back to working on my personal blog, and I will try to remember to link to this guide from there. Thanks again.

[StormGuy]

This is what aplay -l returns for me:

opus@Serenity:~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: HDA Generic [HDA Generic]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

I still can't get any sound with my laptop and I've ensured that the sound isn't muted. Is it possible that my soundcard just isn't compatible with Ubuntu?

[threespacemen]

I still can't get any sound with my laptop and I've ensured that the sound isn't muted. Is it possible that my soundcard just isn't compatible with Ubuntu?

I'm beginning to think we have the same problem going here. Everything *appears* to be working fine - the soundcard shows up in aplay -l and lspci, and there are no obvious errors... there's just no sound.

I'm really scratching my head over this one, and am beginning to wonder whether both my laptop speakers AND my headphone jack have died at the same time....

[q1nch0]

Thank you a bunch. I've fixed my sound twice today thanks to you. My problen is that every time the power goes out my sound drivers appear to be erased totally!! well can you help me again? Thank you!!!

[StormGuy]

I'm beginning to think we have the same problem going here. Everything *appears* to be working fine - the soundcard shows up in aplay -l and lspci, and there are no obvious errors... there's just no sound.

I'm really scratching my head over this one, and am beginning to wonder whether both my laptop speakers AND my headphone jack have died at the same time....

Yeah, I have a feeling it's just a bug in Ubuntu at the moment. Hopefully, with a little time, the problem will be identified and fixed. It seems like quite a few people have a very similar problem.