occasionally useful ruby, ubuntu, etc

25Apr/0910

Vostro (1400) + Ubuntu 9.04 + sound issues

Another Ubuntu upgrade, another sound configuration that doesn't work out of the box.  This is what I had to do for Ubuntu 8.10, that also worked for this version:

$ sudo vim /etc/init.d/alsa-utils

Around line 364, replace this

[ "$TARGET_CARD" = "all" ] && log_action_end_msg_and_exit "$EXITSTATUS"
exit $EXITSTATUS
;;
stop)

EXITSTATUS=0
TARGET_CARD="$2"

with

[ "$TARGET_CARD" = "all" ] && log_action_end_msg_and_exit "$EXITSTATUS"
exit $EXITSTATUS
;;
stop)
 ifconfig wlan0 down
ifconfig eth0 down
 EXITSTATUS=0
TARGET_CARD="$2"

Then restart.  In 9.04 I also had to go through my volume control panel and make sure nothing was turned all the way down or muted.  I think I had to unmute the master volume and turn PCM Playback (under HDA Intel) up.

Please comment if this helps you!

UPDATE April 29th, 2009: I also had to reinstall flash in order to get sound working in Firefox again.

Comments (10) Trackbacks (0)
  1. I had the same problem. My volume was turned all the way down and the only way to fix it was to run alsamixer from the terminal.

  2. hello, I find here by the same problem.
    I used to work at 7.10 with the same problem, the solution to the problem is to add “options snd-hda-intel probe_mask=1 model=3stack” to /etc/modprobe.conf
    When updating to 9.04, I make changes as in 7.10, but it doesn’t work this time. I found the page
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=3796486&postcount=1
    and change “options snd-hda-intel probe_mask=1 model=3stack” to “options snd-hda-intel model=dell-3stack” and edit “alsa-utils” as you told, restart and it works!. Then I
    comment lines added in “alsa-utils”, restart and it also works. You can have a try, may be could help.

  3. I use Kubuntu 9.04 and had no sound in Amarok and Songbird. Amarok was working after I installed kubuntu-restricted-extras I think (I’m actually not sure, because I installed some others too, which I don’t remember ^^). As Songbird still had no sound, just some noise came out of the boxes, I looked into the sound mixer through the tray sound Icon. I turned Surround, Center, LFE and PCM to unmute because they where set to mute, Finally I have sound – but why should they be set to unmute from start, what were those developers thinking?!

  4. Thanks for that, it worked as soon as I saved the file. No restart needed, running ubuntu 9.04

  5. well unfortunately I left the battery unplugged from my laptop then the sound didnt work when I plugged it back in. The sound worked after a full restart. restarts depend on certain things I guess, I am using my HDA alsa mixer

  6. Pretty cool post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say
    that I have really liked reading your blog posts. Anyway
    I’ll be subscribing to your blog and I hope you post again soon!

  7. Interesting. It’s possible that there may be multiple solutions to this particular problem. Thanks for the heads up! I wonder which one is more “correct” — probably your solution, since it changes the actual model configuration that is used…

  8. Yeah, this was another change on the level of making the wireless light on laptops flicker, I think — someone thought it was a good idea, someone else approved it, but there wasn’t a sanity check by the Canonical team. I’m not suggesting design by committee, but…someone needs to take a step back and realize this was a bad idea.

    On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind a configuration option to mute the sound at startup at boot — nothing quite like a loud startup chime in the middle of class or something. Though, the easier solution would be just to change the Sounds configuration to remove the startup and login sounds….

  9. Awesome — and good news that a restart isn’t always (ever?) required.

  10. Huh, weird. There’s a reason restarting is always the first thing to try…


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