Interpid Sound Solutions

[Roger Allott]

Hi Markbuntu,

I thought I had cracked the problem yesterday after following your guide, but today I've been trying a few different applications and it seems that my sound is only OK for certain ones and not others. Rhythmbox, Banshee and Audacious are happy playing mp3 and/or wmv files, but I can't get any sound at all out of Aoleus or Alsa Modular Synth, and I can't find any app at all that recognises sound recording through my laptop's internal microphone.

Something from your initial post in this thread looks suspiciously like it might be on the right track:-

Next, right click on the little speaker on the top panel, that is the Panel Volume Control. Click Open Volume Control and make sure it is set to the same thing as the Default Mixer Tracks. Click on Preferences and make sure that Master and PCM and whatever else you want to control are selected. Make sure that any boxes labeled SPDIF or IEC958 are not checked. Close the Preferences box. Push up the sliders in the volume control and make sure the little speakers do not have little red mute marks on them. Go to Applications/Sound and Video/GNOME ALSA Mixer and see if there is anything you missed because sometimes, for some cards, not all the options are in the Panel Volume Control.

When I do those steps I leave both of the IEC958 boxes unchecked in Panel Volume Control > Preferences (screenshot below):



but then when I go to GNOME ALSA Mixer I see that for some reason that looks odd to me, the IEC958 Default PCM box is checked (screenshot below):



Might this be what's causing my problem, or does that look OK to you? Should I simply uncheck that box in ALSA Mixer and reboot?

[markbuntu]

You can try that. You should also try turning up the mic boost. Also, in the pulseaudio volume control you should make sure your default input device is the ALC 883. You can check that by right clicking on it.

In the Preferences box I see the Input Source options are unchecked. You should check those boxes and then look in the options section of the panel volume control to see what they do. They may have something to do with which mic gets captured.

[sv1cdn]

Are you using alsa 1.0.17 or 1.0.18?
There may be a problem in the alsa libs. Alsa is a mess. Intrepid is still using pulseaudio 0.9.10 which is old but has very few bugs left if any but is missing some features that are in the newer versions. the pa devs are up to 0.9.13.

I am using 0.9.10 PA any idea how to install 0.9.13? As for the alsa, how can I be sure which one I have?
Dennis.

[PlatoDan]

Hi, I tried this on my laptop and so far so good. So thanks!

The only issue I have is that my volume switch no longer adjusts the volume. As I move it up and down, the animation on the screen appears but no matter how high or low I adjust it, the volume remains constant. Is there a way to make my volume buttons function again? Thanks!

[markbuntu]

You need to select what is controlled in the panel volume control/preferences, usually Master or PCM by clicking on it.

[PlatoDan]

lol worked like a charm. I knew it would be something totally simple. Thanks.

[theteju]

Hello Sir,

I am new bee to Ubuntu. here is my situition. I had 8.04 before and in which somehow everything worked just fine.

NOw I got 8.10 (fresh install)
I followed your instructions. and pretty much sound is working out of the box except I have two issue.

1. I need SPDIF digital sound out.
2. second headphone jack on front is not working.

I have dell inspiron 1420. I tried a lot before posting But finally I lost patience and now need some help

I hope somebody will reply.

Thank you.

[markbuntu]

There is help for those problems here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=843012

You can look in the digital section about adding control of the digital output to pulseaudio and for didgital help in general.

For help with the headphone jack you can look in the Drivers/HDA section. OEMs did a lot of tweaking to the HDA firmware to fit their particular needs and it is difficult for the ALSA driver to detect which is which so you may need to adjust the option for the hda driver. There are links so you can find out how to do that.

There is also a whole sub-forum for dell machines here that may be helpful.

[anne_maree]

Thanks heaps markbuntu. I was on the verge of going back to Gutsy due to no sound, but your guide worked like a charm

[unknown011]

I have tried all the guides that I could find on the internet and nothing has worked yet.
I was using 7.10 which worked fine, then about a month ago I updated to 8.04 and then up to 8.10. Since then (and in 8.04) I have not had any sound at all!

I have followed your guide, and also read your other thread (the 10,000 one) and followed numerous guides, please help me out! I also created a bug in launchpad over 3 weeks ago and no-one has helped https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/304888

Any ideas what I can do?