Sound Problems In Ubuntu 8.10

[rogueleader12345]

I am running Ubuntu 8.10 off of a flash drive. I have gotten everything else to work except the sound. I change the settings and test it and only if it's on the HDA Intel STAC92xx Analog (OSS) does any sound come out of my speakers when I hit the test button. I then try to watch something on Youtube and I have no sound. I don't get the Ubuntu sounds or sound in anything. But when I use my Gentoo Live CD the sound works automatically. Any ideas?

[D-cat]

Intel cards have various issues, some within ALSA, some with the PulseAudio interface.

First and easiest thing to try is to bypass the PulseAudio interface and raise the hardware mixer values. Open a terminal window and type

alsamixer -c0

and use your arrow keys to and make sure the volume levels are appropriate, especially for Master and PCM outputs. Also check to make sure if your card has an "External Amplifier" option to have it unmuted ("m" toggles mute).

If that doesn't help, post the values of the card and chip displayed on the upper-left corner of alsamixer, and also post the output of

lspci | grep -i audio

aplay -l

Thank you.

[rogueleader12345]

Tried the alsamixer, all switches were up and unmuted, still didn't work. Here's the output you requested:
Card HDA Intel
Chip SigmaTel STAC 9221 A1
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01) (This is output from lspci | grep -i audio)
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: DesktopMic [Buddy DesktopMic], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
There you go. Hope you can help!

[D-cat]

Looks like it might be an ALSA bug.

XPS M1210

• does not have same PCI ID, but has similar bugs
• bugs fixed by method A
• /proc/asound/card0/codec#0:Codec: SigmaTel STAC9221 A1
• /proc/asound/card0/codec#1:Codec: Conexant ID 2bfa (builtin modem)

I know you're using Intrepid, but it might work for you?
Check Method A in the following link. You might have to install package module-assistant .

Gutsy_Intel_HD_Audio_Controller

[rogueleader12345]

Tried Method A, but during the build it flashed that something didn't have formal parameters and it failed. Sound still doesn't work. Question though. How could it be playing through the OSS and not the ALSA? When I go to Preferences->Sound and try to use the Intel HDA Stac92xx Analog (ALSA) It gives me some wierd error saying that the device couldn't be opened. Plus when I test it on Intel HDA Stac92xx Analog (OSS) it works when I hit the test button but not in anything else?

[D-cat]

ALSA has OSS emulation.

You could try pure OSS...
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OpenSound

[rogueleader12345]

I tried pure OSS, and it kept telling me that the devices weren't connected. Is it possible for me to take the settings off of the Gentoo Live Cd for sound and apply them in my Ubuntu?

[D-cat]

Maybe, but I wouldn't know how. I assume the Gentoo is using ALSA? Almost all system setup/configuration files are in /etc, I'd particularly be looking for config files for modprobe and ALSA.

You could also try recompiling ALSA from source (I think that was Method B), though I'd use the latest source (1.0.19) from the alsa-project website, if possible.

[rogueleader12345]

No luck, the compiling failed. Another thing that might be messing the sound up is this damn microphone. When I first plugged it in, it screwed up the sound in Vista, too. Plus I haven't tried to load Gentoo since the microphone's been put in. I'm going to try unplugging the mic and loading the live cd of ubuntu that I have, since my flash drive version just has a speaker with an x since I switched back to OSS. Unless you know how to successfully switch back to ALSA??