No sound in new Koala installation

[EulaMHorn]

I have read everything I can get my hands on, and there seem to be many people without sound. However, I can't seem to find anything from the suggestions that will work. Please help a noob.:confused:

Thanks.

[mörgæs]

Sound was indeed the weak spot in 9.10. There has been many important improvements in the sound in 10.04, and rather than fighting with 9.10 I would go for the new one:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/

Though being in beta it is a very stable release, at least on all machines where I have tried it.

[tommcd]

I have read everything I can get my hands on, and there seem to be many people without sound. However, I can't seem to find anything from the suggestions that will work. Please help a noob.:confused:

First, open a terminal (applications > accessories > terminal) and run the alsamixer command. Use the arrow keys to turn all the sound levels all the way up. Then hit the Esc key twice to exit alsamixer. Then see if you have sound.
Second, try going to: system > preferences > sound, and try different options there, including using alsa instead of pulse audio if that is available as an option. Then hit the "test" button and see if you get sound.

If that does not work, then we need more info to try to solve your sound problem. What sound card do you have? Do you have more than one sound card (onboard, and a separate sound card)?
While in the terminal, report back the output of these commands:

aplay -l
This will tell us what sound card you have that is seen by Ubuntu.

lspci -k
This will list your hardware, including your sound card (probably listed as "Multimedia audio controller: ..."). The -k switch will tell us what driver is being used by each piece of hardware, including the sound card.

lsmod | grep -i snd
This will list all audio drivers in use on your system.

For reference, see this guide:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205449
Write back if you need more help.

And welcome to the Ubuntu forums!

[EulaMHorn]

aplay -l returns the following:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: IXP [ATI IXP], device 0: ATI IXP AC97 [ATI IXP AC97]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Modem [ATI IXP Modem], device 0: ATI IXP MC97 [ATI IXP MC97]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

And lspci -k returns the following:

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host Bridge (rev 01)
Kernel modules: ati-agp
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
Kernel modules: shpchp
00:06.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
Kernel modules: shpchp
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 SMBus Controller (rev 11)
Kernel driver in use: piix4_smbus
Kernel modules: i2c-piix4
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 IDE Controller
Kernel driver in use: pata_atiixp
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge
00:14.5 Multimedia audio controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
Kernel driver in use: ATI IXP AC97 controller
Kernel modules: snd-atiixp
00:14.6 Modem: ATI Technologies Inc SB400 AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 02)
Kernel driver in use: ATI IXP MC97 controller
Kernel modules: snd-atiixp-modem
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
Kernel driver in use: k8temp
Kernel modules: k8temp
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)
Kernel modules: radeon, radeonfb
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5789 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 21)
Kernel driver in use: tg3
Kernel modules: tg3
03:07.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller
Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
Kernel modules: yenta_socket
03:07.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
Kernel driver in use: ohci1394
Kernel modules: firewire-ohci, ohci1394
03:07.3 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated FlashMedia Controller
Kernel driver in use: tifm_7xx1
Kernel modules: tifm_7xx1
03:07.4 SD Host controller: Texas Instruments PCI6411/6421/6611/6621/7411/7421/7611/7621 Secure Digital Controller
Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci
Kernel modules: sdhci-pci
03:09.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
Kernel modules: ssb


And lsmod | grep -i snd returns the following:

snd_atiixp_modem 11940 0
snd_seq_dummy 2656 0
snd_seq_oss 28576 0
snd_seq_midi 6464 0
snd_atiixp 15720 2
snd_ac97_codec 101216 2 snd_atiixp_modem,snd_atiixp
ac97_bus 1532 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss 37920 0
snd_mixer_oss 16028 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_rawmidi 22176 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 6940 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_pcm 75296 4 snd_atiixp_modem,snd_atiixp,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm _oss
snd_seq 50224 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_mid i_event
snd_timer 22276 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 6920 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi ,snd_seq
snd 59204 15 snd_atiixp_modem,snd_seq_oss,snd_atiixp,snd_ac97_c odec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_pcm ,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore 7264 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 9156 3 snd_atiixp_modem,snd_atiixp,snd_pcm

I have already turned up all the volume slides in alsamixer, and when I go to system > preferences > sound there doesn't seem to be any choice. The only thing I see is Internal Audio Analog Stereo Duplex.

Thank you so much for your reply. Does this information clear up the problem for you? Because I can't make any since of it. I really appreciate any assistance.

[tommcd]

Does this information clear up the problem for you? Because I can't make any since of it. I really appreciate any assistance.
It would seem that your sound card is now supported. It looks like you have the proper drivers loaded. This thread is a bit old, but try the suggestions posted here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-365342.html

[EulaMHorn]

I tried all the suggestions at the sound troubleshooting page. Nothing worked. Then I tried running Ubuntu 10.04. THAT was a disaster. pages kept flickering and disappearing for no reason. And there was STILL no sound at all.

I'm getting pretty discouraged.

[mörgæs]

pages kept flickering and disappearing for no reason.

Sorry, I don't understand. Which pages are you talking about?

[Jose Catre-Vandis]

I have read everything I can get my hands on, and there seem to be many people without sound. However, I can't seem to find anything from the suggestions that will work. Please help a noob.:confused:

Thanks.

Check you are a member of the audio group: See here

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9041450

[tommcd]

aplay -l returns the following:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: IXP [ATI IXP], device 0: ATI IXP AC97 [ATI IXP AC97]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Modem [ATI IXP Modem], device 0: ATI IXP MC97 [ATI IXP MC97]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

I am not sure about this, but I think your problem may be that "aplay -l" lists 2 devices as sound cards, the second one is the modem listed there.
Can you post the output of:

cat /proc/asound/modules
If you only have 1 sound card (and you really do since the modem is not a sound card) then there should only be 1 device listed in the output from cat /proc/asound/modules.
If there are 2 devices listed, then we may need to blacklist the modem to get your sound to work.
Try installing alsamixergui from the Ubuntu repos. This provides a graphical interface for using alsamixer that may make it easier for you to correctly select the proper sound device.
You sound card should be supported afaik. I can't think of anything else. Have you tried using alsa instead of pulse audio when you go to: system > preferences > sound?

EDIT
Also, see the suggestions posted here about sound in Ubuntu 9.10:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1307019
and in the link posted there:
http://drowninginbugs.blogspot.com/2009/10/caveats-for-audio-in-910.html