Sound system disappeared!

[Sarah Hawas]

Please help! I seem to have banished my sounds system to hell.

I am a beginner user of Linux. Switched to Ubuntu almost 2 weeks ago.

I am running Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala on my HP mini netbook.

I could try and remember every single step I've taken and write it out for
you but it doesn't matter. basically after i switched to linux, my netbook's
mic stopped working. so i ran a search and i got this fix:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/376795/  it's # 11.
But, as is the case with # 18 on that thread, even though the mic started
working, my wireless died. (I am currently on a USB modem - GSM broadband).
So I got frantic cos, well, I do use wireless a lot. I talked to someone who
said there was no need to do the # 11 fix for ALSA because now OSS is back
to normal, and so he directed me to here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OpenSound
and then he had to go offline so I was on my own. Even though part of me
knew that doing all of this stuff for OSS still wouldn't regain my wireless
(because by that point I had already removed the backports stuff, and the
wireless had not returned) ... I nevertheless followed all the steps, more
or less, but somewhere along the way something went wrong, and since then I
have been trying a million things including Refreshing the drivers as
described here, under Manual:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshooting#Manual%20Installation.....
but things seem to only get worse. Whereas previously (in the midst of
the OSS process, when I arrived at the step where i had to select OSS for
output from 'Sound' under System>Preferences) trying to open it would result
in a prompt saying "Waiting for response from sound system..." forever...
NOW, the 'Sound' option from System>Preferences list has disappeared
entirely!!!!!!! And the volume control from the upper panel has as well, a
while ago in fact.

When I reboot, the system sounds - the jingle and intro - are there. But
nothing else. Everything else is gone, even though it had started working
for a few seconds when I tried installing OSS...

Things are a mess. I seem to have no sound system! Is there anything I can
do that would act like a reset button for this entire thing and just take me
back to default? Cos what they have listed on the Sound troubleshoot page I
linked you above, doesn't work. I thought about re-installing Ubuntu all
over again but I don't want to undo what my friend (who installed it
originally) did, he spent some time setting it up and installing a bunch of
stuff, I don't know if i would have the know-how to do it myself.... and he
is no longer around.

If you can think of anything that can help me retrace and ressurect my sound
system please let me know!!! I'm in pain here!!!

Thank
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