Yet another sound problem with Ubuntu

[mjm]

Good afternoon all

Im a newbie, both here and (relatively) to Linux and was wondering if the panel could help with a problem Im having - its the dreaded "no sound from Ubuntu" Im afraid.

My computer is an IBM T42 ThinkPad. The onboard soundcard shows up in sound preferences as "Intel 82801DB-ICH4". The OS is Ubuntu 9.04

The problem - everything was fine under 8.10 until I foolishly clicked a link to upgrade to 9.04. From that moment on I have been unable to coax any sound at all from the unit. This applies both to the headphones and the internal speaker and covers everything from system sounds to CD's to Youtube and Live365 - not a squeak from anything.

Ive done the rounds on Google and realised that this is a common problem and probably has more than one cause. Ive tried many things (made the user account a member of the pulse groups - no effect), various schemes to get rid of Pulse (none of them worked, there was always a file or directory on my system was either wasnt there or was called something else). At least one of the latter so screwed up my machine I had to re-install the OS.

However being a dogged sort Ive decided to go back to the start. Ive wiped the machine down and re-installed 9.04 from the CD. I havnt yet installed the various updates - I just have the vanilla system off the disk with no modifications and completely free of any kind of audio.

Happy to try anything that may be suggested. Dont know much about Linux, but Im comfortable with a terminal window as long as you tell me what to type in.

Greatful for any help that might be rendered

regards

Mark

[oz]

Welcome to the forums, Mark!

If you haven't done so already, check this Ubuntu Troubleshooting documentation to see if it might help you get passed this sound issue:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Sound

You'll find a troubleshooting guide there that might help.

[mjm]

Hi Ozar, thankx for the prompt reply. I'll check out the link right now and let you know the result

regards

mark

[Bemk]

If you can't find the answer there, I managed to get my sound working through recompiling ALSA utils manually.

Took me 1 whole day to figure out the options, and a couple of minutes to compile. Sadly I forgot the options.

It all works now though over here.

[mjm]

Hi Bemk, I found someone on the Ubuntu team who's working the problem for me. Your diagnosis sounds about right, its looking like a problem with the alsa install. Im currently working through it - I'll post up a summary of the result once I have it working in case anyone else has the same issue

Thankx to you and Ozar, for your replies - hopefully Im on the right track now

regards

Mark

[Bemk]

Glad I was able to do something.

[mjm]

All, as promised, Im posting a solution to this problem

This was a pig of a bug to track down - the ubuntu troubleshooting guide didnt solve it, neither did a wipe down and re-install of an earlier version (ubuntu 8.10). A clean install of Fedora also displayed the same issue.

The problem was tracked to something (I dont know what) in the ubuntu and fedora installs that kills the hardware volume control button on the thinkpad and then mutes the sound. Ive checked and this isnt unique to linux, it often happens on xp as well, if you dont use an IBM supplied copy of the OS.

The solution is to enter the following at the terminal

sudo su
echo enable,0x00ffffff >/proc/acpi/ibm/hotkey

Then increase the volume to max using the hardware volume button (usually located next to the Access IBM button)

to make the change permanent edit rc.local with

gksudo gedit /etc/rc.local

and add the echo enable ... bit just before the line that says Exit 0

I dont have permission to post a link the full answer, but if you go launchpad / ubuntu and look for question 82028 you can see the full details and everything else we tried

regards and thanks for pointing me in the right direction

Mark M