Im new to Linux, no sound through PC
 

I installed Helena this evening, to finally "cut the cord" from windows, and i absolutely LOVE Mint 8. I have no sound though. I have a Dell PC(2.2 ghz about 1 year old) and im sure it is a driver issue with my sound card, also my pictures aren't as clear, so it may be a graphic card...I dont know. any suggestions?

Hello jremy,

Have you tried going to;

Administration -> Hardware Drivers

and seeing if you could get you're driver there?

If that does not work;

Please post the output of the command
from a Terminal.

if you open up a terminal and type in alsamixer what do you see?

this is what i got:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express DRAM Controller (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 02)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82562V-2 10/100 Network Connection (rev 02)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02)
00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 02)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 92)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801IR (ICH9R) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801IR/IO/IH (ICH9R/DO/DH) 4 port SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) 2 port SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Mobility Radeon HD 3450
01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc RV620 Audio device [Radeon HD 34xx Series]

Please tell me this helps...thanx so much

Hello jremy,

The purpose of that command was to identify the malfunctioning device. In that respect, it did it's job and helped quite a bit. ATI in general provides good drivers for Linux and works hard to ensure that their devices will work properly on a Linux-based OS. You can rest assure that the device will work one way or another. Linux Mint 8 Helena is based, and on large part is, Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10. A possible bug has been documented in Ubuntu, so it is very plausible for mint to have it as well.

jremy, could I ask you to attempt to use proper grammar, spelling and punctuation? Also, CLI output should be put into [CODE] tags, by highlighting the output and pressing the [#] button in the advanced editor. It also helps to make your post as descriptive as possible with as much information as you can gather, as this can make the process of diagnosing and fixing the issue go much quicker, and with a higher rate of solving it all together. Also, always try to make the thread title as descriptive as possible. Remember, we already know you are new to Linux from where you chose to place your post. These are a few things that can help improve the readability of your post and hopefully attract more replies. One last subject I would to address you on is 'homework.' It will always attract more replies if you choose to find a solution yourself and attempt it, then post your failures alongside your problem. This shows you care. Anyways, this is just some LQ etiquette that can make a major difference in the quality of your experiences here on this great forum. Now, to address the problem.

I researched the topic, and located a few solutions to the problem. However, we should first ensure it doesn't work in your current setup by using jstephens84's suggestion.

Please, open a Terminal (a command line interface), and type in 'alsamixer', and press enter. You should see a few bars come up. This is where you will want to turn up your sound. Turn all items up to 100, and then run any desired audio test to identify if its just a Graphical User Interface problem (GUI). If it is not, then continue with the proposed solution below.

1. Type into a Terminal: "kill slmodemd". If the command returns an error, that is OK, since all that means is you don't have that anyway.

2. Use alsamixer or the GUI, configure your sound and test it. If it remains silent, continue below.

3. Open a Terminal and type in "sudo apt-get linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic", and install it.

4. Restart your PC.

5. Verify you have followed the above instructions correctly, use alsamixer, and enjoy your sound.

I am glad that you are happy with Linux Mint, and I hope the solution fixed it. If it did, please read my signature and post back. Have fun! :)

After following the instructions:
1. Type into a Terminal: "kill slmodemd". If the command returns an error, that is OK, since all that means is you don't have that anyway.

2. Use alsamixer or the GUI, configure your sound and test it. If it remains silent, continue below.

3. Open a Terminal and type in "sudo apt-get linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic", and install it.

4. Restart your PC.

I followed these instructions, but the sound is still not working. I tried a second time and this is the output that I received:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 12 not upgraded.

What is the next step that I should take in troubleshooting this issue??

Please post -- as a text document attachment -- the output of the command:

from a Terminal.

To be honest, Google searches aren't helping much. The best thing that we can do is troubleshoot the problem by finding potential errors, and waiting for someone with more knowledge of Linux to come along and help. :(

try going dell and get update driver for your machine ,for linux or check see if your sound card has driver for linux, these some thing start with, then on to next step ,try live disk see if you get sound.if you do . look for whats working and what not.