I have problems getting Ubuntu to recognise my Realtek ALC880 sound card. Doesn't matter what I do............no sound. So I searched and came up with this off-centre answer on this forum.............I'll paste it all because I'm not sure what's of value...........being a newbie 'n all :-). Anyway..........I've got GNOME desktop and this forum entry says get KDE ......... and I've tried for Ubuntu 8.10 and I get a message from the updater that I cannot download it for Ubuntu. So I'm stuck. Anyway here's the message and if anyone can help me for the same soundcard for an ASUS A3AC laptop that is coming up three years old ........... I'd be forever grateful. Thank you.

The MadOldBloke

Forum Posting

This is no rocket science, this is linux. Two days trying to make the sound work on a laptop is way too much.
I've read lots of forums and suggestions and articles and faqs etc etc etc and lots of ppl are in the same frustrating situation. of course, there is no STRAIGHT-FORWARD answer; hundreds of distros, endless headaches, bliah!

Anyway, this is how it goes. Read on if you have similar configuration:
- laptop with intel on-board soundcard
- fedora 5

and you face the same problem:
fedora 5 recognizes your card but you get no sound (when you test with system-config-soundcard).

1. There is nothing wrong with your card. if system-config-soundcard reports:

Vendor: Intel
Model: Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) ...
Module: snd-hda-intel

and there is a PCM device, eg:
PCM device: ALC880 Analog

then you need not download any drivers, recompile the whole damn kernel or anything.

2. If you are on gnome, forget it. switch to kde.

3. Run system-config-soundcard and have it play the sound *repeatedly*

3. open KMix. See all those 5.1 or 6.1. or 7.1 output channels? alsa my ass. anyway, just TURN ON THE *Side* channel.

4. voila!

The Front,Surround,Center and all other crap channels have no meaning on a laptop. ALSA is too *advanced* to have a meaning at all. It should have been *Front* with two speakers and not the initially muted *Side* but hey, this is linux, right?

that's all folks.
dp