Sound Problems in Fully Updated 8.04

Tue Dec 2 17:03:16 UTC 2008

Sorry to take so long but winter creates pressing tasks and the computer in question is in someone else's cabin. She is happy using XP though her installation has already been invaded by things that really slow it down. I'm trying to persuade her to use Ubuntu but the lack of sound for movies deters her!

roger at rogerbenham3:~$ hspci -v
bash: hspci: command not found
roger at rogerbenham3:~$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [CMI8738 ]: CMI8738-MC6 - C-Media CMI8738
C-Media CMI8738 (model 55) at 0x9800, irq 5
1 [Audigy ]: Audigy - Audigy 1 [SB0090]
Audigy 1 [SB0090] (rev.3, serial:0x511102) at 0x9000, irq 11
roger at rogerbenham3:~$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_emu10k1_synth 8064 0 
snd_emux_synth 36224 1 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_seq_virmidi 8192 1 snd_emux_synth
snd_seq_midi_emul 7552 1 snd_emux_synth
snd_emu10k1 146880 3 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_cmipci 38528 3 
snd_opl3_lib 12928 1 snd_cmipci
snd_ac97_codec 101028 1 snd_emu10k1
snd_mpu401_uart 9728 1 snd_cmipci
ac97_bus 3072 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_util_mem 5632 2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
snd_hwdep 10500 3 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1,snd_opl3_lib
snd_pcm_oss 42144 0 
snd_pcm 78596 4 snd_emu10k1,snd_cmipci,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc 11400 2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_mixer_oss 17920 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy 4868 0 
snd_seq_midi 9376 0 
snd_rawmidi 25760 4 snd_seq_virmidi,snd_emu10k1,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_oss 35584 0 
snd_seq_midi_event 8320 3 snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_oss
snd_seq 54224 9 snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_midi_emul,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer 24836 4 snd_emu10k1,snd_opl3_lib,snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 9612 9 snd_emu10k1_synth,snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1,snd_opl3_lib,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd 56996 27 snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_emu10k1,snd_cmipci,snd_opl3_lib,snd_ac97_codec,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq_dummy,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
gameport 16008 3 snd_cmipci,emu10k1_gp
soundcore 8800 1 snd
roger at rogerbenham3:~$ 

Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:26:41 +0200
From: Nigel Henry <cave.dnb2m97pp at aliceadsl.fr>
Subject: Re: Sound Problems in fully updated 8.04
To: ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
Message-ID: <200809292326.42184.cave.dnb2m97pp at aliceadsl.fr>
Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="utf-8"

On Monday 29 September 2008 04:18, Roger Benham wrote:
> Sound Problems in fully updated 8.04
>
> I have recently installed in an ancient (2001?) computer put together with
> more modern memory, hard drives, DVD-RW's a copy of WXP on one side and
> U-8.04 on the other. Both boot up fine, both play movies but the Ubuntu
> side has no sound. I went into Add/Remove and installed the items I found
> under all available applications for Sound Driver, Sound Card and Codec but
> still no joy. Yet in WXP on Real Player I have sound and picture. Any
> suggestions as to what I could do next?
> Thanks, Roger.

Hi Roger. Win XP plays sounds, so there is no problem with the soundcard. As 
it's an older machine, I would expect the soundcard to be supported with 
linux, so would you post a bit of info for us. The output from the following 
commands, as user, which are listed below.

lspci -v    (just the part for the soundcard)
cat /proc/asound/cards
lsmod | grep snd

If you have anything plugged into the usb which may be sound related, 
(webcams, usb midi keyboards, etc.) remove them, as the usb starts early in 
the boot process, and sometimes these devices can interfere with the actual 
soundcard being set as card0. the usb devices can be sorted out later.

Often times the sound is deliberately muted so that you don't damage your 
ears, or speakers, so open alsamixer as user on the CLI (terminal/Konsole), 
and see if anything is muted, or sliders down at zero. The "M" key toggles 
the mute/unmute.

Something else that comes to mind as I have Kubuntu 8.04 installed is that 
pulseaudio may be entering the equation, and causing problems with the sound.

Kubuntu 8.04 doesn't have pulseaudio installed as default, but I believe that 
Ubuntu does. You can easily disable it by doing an apt-get remove 
alsa-plugins-pulseaudio. You can always re-install it later, if you want to 
use it, but temporarily removing it at least takes it out of the equation if 
you have problems getting the sound working.

Something else to check is /etc/group, and make sure that your user name is 
there for the "audio", and "cdrom" groups. I havn't had a problem with that 
with Kubuntu, and only on some early Debian versions did I have to 
specifically add my user name to those groups, but it's worth checking.

That's all I can think of for now. Please post back the info I requested.

Nigel.

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