Farewell, Ubuntu (update)

[George Borusiewich]

Three times in the past 6 months I have posted messages on this site 
detailing my problems in getting "sound" out of Ubuntu 8.04 and 
8.10(alpha). Previously, I used 6.04, 6.10, 7.04, and 7.10 with no sound 
problems. After my last post several weeks ago, I was flooded with 
offers of help (especially from Eugene Cormier). Thank you all. This 
week I think that I have finally solved the problem.  I am now using 
Linux Mint, which is a derivative of Ubuntu, and very much like Ubuntu 
itself (in fact I have access to all Ubuntu and Debian repositories). 
The problem was that in addition to the Soundblaster Audigy soundcard 
that I have installed on my machine, my Asus motherboard also has a 
"sound circuit." From 6.04 to 7.10, Ubuntu chose my Soundblaster card as 
the default. For some reason, 8.04 and 8.10 (alpha) chose the circuits 
on my motherboard as the default. Even though I tried plugging my 
speakers into the motherboard sound outlet, I still did not get sound. 
Last week, while continuing to stumble-around, trying to solve the 
problem, I went into Main Menu (under Linux Mint), chose "Sound and 
Video," chose "Pulse Audio Volume Control," chose "Output Devices," and 
found 2 volume control slider tracks. One for my motherboard sound 
circuit, and one for my sound card. While accidently passing my mouse 
pointer over one of the tracks, a menu popped-up asking "Default?" with 
a little tick-box beside. I ticked the default box by the Soundcard 
tracks, rebooted and YES I now have sound. The version of Linux Mint 
that I am now using is "5 (x64)" which is based on Ubuntu 8.04 (x64). 
Perhaps this information will help the other poor souls who (on other 
sites) have reported the same problem. George Borusiewich