I tell people about linux and open standards when ever I get a moment. I have a few distros, but I just started to use ubuntu on my harddrive I have 8.10. My first problem is I have no audio at all but only at the logon screen. I cheched the sound prefrences and looks ok. My second problem is my keyboard will not add the $%?$?&&$%& keys they do the blue not the black. Also Im using the default as generic 105-key (Intl) PC. One newbish question also how do you use a tar for example to install a program and is rar able to be opened in linux. One last question what is an exetuable for example .exe is in windows. Thanks in advance.

When you check the sound preferences in System -> Preferences -> Sound try selecting different drivers like OSS, ALSA, or PulseAudio. If you have a file that is in tar.gz format, you can extract it by typing:
In order to install it there should be a file called README that tells you how to install the program. Usually you type:
But it depends so please read the README file.

I tried that many times but i get
[/code] StepMania-CVS-20080103-linux
tar: StepMania-CVS-20080103-linux.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
[code]
I will look for the readme file from now on but after I fix that problem, the file is on my desktop if it helps. My sound problem I did try drivers like OSS, ALSA, or PulseAudio It wont work with all but ASLR. It seems to be working. Thanks.

So you need to give the whole path to the file
tar -xvzf /home/your_username/Desktop/StepMania-CVS-20080103-linux.tar.gz

It is better to download files to a folder.
Create a folder download and download the files to that folder.

so, I have an exeutable in the folder but will not open. and can you help me with my other problems. thanks. one other thing how do you make shortcuts.

Once you untar the file it will create a new directory. cd into that new directory and then run the install commands (the final command should be run as root by doing 'su -c "make install" ' without the outside marks). It will then install itself to the correct directories on your system and should give you a shortcut in your start menu.

This will create a directory with the name
StepMania-CVS-20080103-linux

cd into the directory and read the readme files.

Tar does not install, it just contains the files to install.
In general you need to do
./configure
make
make install

But again, look at the readme files.

Does anyone have a fix to my keyboard problem or sound. thanks.

Please read the man page and post the output of
Your sound card should have something in it that says "Audio" or "Sound". You can narrow the search for the audio card by using the grep command. Here's mind:
Once you can see what type of sound card you have, check the hardware compatibility list for your distribution and see if your sound card is known to work with it and how others got it working.

I Tryed that command and it said it was not a command `lspci` and also tryed `lspci | grep Audio` did not work. plz help.

Try running the lspci command as root - some systems require you to be root to run it. Or run /sbin/lspci as the user.

aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: STAC92xx Digital [STAC92xx Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0



and lspci -v

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 07)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel modules: intel-agp

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset PCI Express Graphics Port (rev 07)
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00008000-00008fff
Memory behind bridge: d0000000-d2ffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000c0000000-00000000cfffffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
I/O ports at 90e0 [size=32]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
I/O ports at 90c0 [size=32]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) (prog-if 20)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
Memory at df304c00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
Kernel modules: ehci-hcd

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 22
Memory at df300000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00007000-00007fff
Memory behind bridge: de200000-df2fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d3000000-00000000d3ffffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00006000-00006fff
Memory behind bridge: dd200000-de1fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d4000000-00000000d4ffffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=04, subordinate=04, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00005000-00005fff
Memory behind bridge: dc200000-dd1fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d5000000-00000000d5ffffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=05, subordinate=05, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00003000-00004fff
Memory behind bridge: db200000-dc1fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d6000000-00000000d70fffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=06, subordinate=06, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00002000-00002fff
Memory behind bridge: da100000-db1fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d7100000-00000000d80fffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 03)
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=07, subordinate=09, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00001000-00001fff
Memory behind bridge: d9100000-da0fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d8100000-00000000d90fffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20
I/O ports at 90a0 [size=32]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 22
I/O ports at 9080 [size=32]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
I/O ports at 9060 [size=32]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
I/O ports at 9040 [size=32]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) (prog-if 20)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20
Memory at df304800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
Kernel modules: ehci-hcd

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 93) (prog-if 01)
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=0a, subordinate=0a, sec-latency=32
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 01)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 215
I/O ports at 9108 [size=8]
I/O ports at 9114 [size=4]
I/O ports at 9100 [size=8]
I/O ports at 9110 [size=4]
I/O ports at 9020 [size=32]
Memory at df304000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ahci
Kernel modules: ahci

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 11
Memory at df305000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
I/O ports at 9000 [size=32]
Kernel modules: i2c-i801

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 9600M GT (rev a1)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
Memory at d2000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32M]
I/O ports at 8000 [size=128]
Expansion ROM at <ignored> [disabled]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel modules: nvidiafb

02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 5100 AGN [Shiloh] Network Connection
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device 1211
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 214
Memory at de200000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: iwlagn
Kernel modules: iwlagn

05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 216
I/O ports at 3000 [size=256]
Memory at d6010000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
Memory at d6000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=64K]
Expansion ROM at d6020000 [disabled] [size=64K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169

06:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): JMicron Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (prog-if 10)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at da100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
Memory at da100d00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128]
Memory at da100c80 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128]
Memory at da100c00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ohci1394
Kernel modules: ohci1394

06:00.1 System peripheral: JMicron Technologies, Inc. SD/MMC Host Controller
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at da100b00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci
Kernel modules: sdhci-pci

06:00.2 SD Host controller: JMicron Technologies, Inc. Standard SD Host Controller (prog-if 01)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 16
Memory at da100a00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel modules: sdhci-pci

06:00.3 System peripheral: JMicron Technologies, Inc. MS Host Controller
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
Memory at da100900 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <access denied>

06:00.4 System peripheral: JMicron Technologies, Inc. xD Host Controller
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30f4
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
Memory at da100800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <access denied>





HELP???????? P.S. Fixed my keyboard still no audio?

And also when other programs use it it says it is busy? PLZ HELP

Sorry about that wrong command did it and I have a 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)

Ok, so your audio card is detected and it appears that it is properly read by your system. There may be some options you can edit to enable the card. Ubuntuforums has a few people that have gotten this working, and a few that are still having problems. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=940689 Please see post #2.

You can find other solutions and help with this set of links: http://is.gd/eRxe