no soundcards found 9.10 upgrade on Dell studio xps

[Ron Burns]

NoOp wrote:
> On 01/06/2010 01:17 PM, Ron Burns wrote:
>> Barry Premeaux wrote:
>>> Have you tried reinstalling the 'linux-sound-base' package?  I'm
>>> showing ver 1.0.20+* installed.  I'm running 9.10 here as well.
>>>
>>> Barry
>>>
>>
>> I checked this and reinstalled  it.  I saw this in the alsa-base 
>> description:
>>
>> For ALSA to work on a system with a given sound card,
>> there must be an ALSA driver for that card in the kernel.
>>
>> At wits end here I was able to get thru to ubuntu (paid) support and 
>> they are aware of this problem and apparently the Dell XPS driver is not 
>> in the current kernel (a bug in the build). I was advised to wait until 
>> there is new kernel build and release and then do an update.
>>
>> I want to thank you all for all the help.
> 
> Something doesn't sound right (no pun intended):
> 
> https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/+source/alsa-utils/1.0.20-1ubuntu1
> Changelog
> 
> alsa-utils (1.0.20-1ubuntu1) karmic; urgency=low
>  .
>  .
>  .
> - Set sane level for headphone 1 for Dell Studio XPS with 2.6.30.
> 
> That indicates that sound _should_ be working with your Dell Studio XPS.
> 
> Have a look through:
> <https://launchpad.net/+search?field.text="Dell+Studio+XPS">
> 
> And this one indicates some sound problems, but the sound card is detected:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/460180
> [No sound for Dell Studio XPS 1640 laptop]
> 
> So it sounds as if (again no pun intended) that you may have other
> issues if your sound card is not being detected at all.
> 
>>From a terminal:
> 
> $ sudo lshw > lswh_mydell.txt
> 
> now open the lswh_mydell.txt file in gedit:
> 
> $ gedit lswh_mydell.txt
> 
> and see if you can spot the sound device there. BTW: save that file
> someplace for your reference & records. When you change hardware run
> another & name it appropriately so you have a record of the changes.
> 
> 
> 

OK - I am now getting more confused:

gnome-device-manager tell me: (null) sound card

lshw finds:
         *-multimedia
              description: Audio device
              product: MCP79 High Definition Audio
              vendor: nVidia Corporation
              physical id: 8
              bus info: pci at 0000:00:08.0
              version: b1
              width: 32 bits
              clock: 66MHz
              capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
              configuration: driver=HDA Intel latency=0 maxlatency=5 
mingnt=2
              resources: irq:17 memory:f0880000-f0883fff

------
<wee> (ron) uname -a
Linux wee 2.6.28-16-generic #55-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 20 19:48:24 UTC 2009 
i686 GNU/Linux

Above "sane level for headphones" comment is for : Dell Studio XPS with 
2.6.30. Which seems to be consistent with Ubuntu's statement that the 
audio driver was not in my kernel but was a "oversite" that would be 
fixed in future upgrades/updates as it appears to be in 2.6.30.

Update Manager does not show me that 2.6.30 is available.  Should I be 
trying to upgrade to this.  As I indicated in an earlier post I am not 
new to linux (Red Hat) but these are my first experiences with Ubuntu 
and am a bit confused about the fetching deb files, apt-get and "Update 
Manager" and any differences in usage among these for packages vs kernels.

I see that "deb" files are available for 2.6.30 (and .32 also) for 
download:

"The Ubuntu kernel guys have released an official build of the 2.6.32 
Linux Kernel.
The .deb files should work with both Ubuntu and distributions based on 
Ubuntu.

The included kernel files have been compiled using the generic ubuntu 
configuration.
Note: nVIDIA ForceWare drivers are automatically installed using DKMS 
(which is included in Ubuntu 8.10 and higher including 9.04 and 9.10)"

Is this reference to the nVIDIA drives relevant with respect to my 
nVIDIA sound card?

The instructions for download is clear but the instructions merely state 
"install" them which I assume means use dpkg.  Do I have do anything 
with the grub loader.

Is this what I should be doing or will these releases be available to me 
   soon via "Upadate Manager"? I am a bit nervous fooling around with an 
almost working system just to get audio working if this will be getting 
   fixed in a normal upgrade.

Sorry for such a long post and I am most appreciative for all of the 
help.  You guys are really great!

Regards,
    Ron

-- 
R. R. Burns
Physicist (Retired)
Oceanside, CA