I'm running X/Kubuntu 6.06 with an Asus A8N motherboard (Realtek ALC850 onboard sound).

I tried to install Enemy Territory on it, and the sound didn't work. I downloaded ALSA and tried to install it.

I got make errors, googled them, and found that I needed to use the same version of gcc to compile ALSA as had been used for the Kernel.

I did the easy-ubuntu-way of pseudo-recompiling the kernel (apt-get install linux-headers etc.) and then tried making ALSA again. It all worked with no errors.

On exit, it said that everything was probably muted, and that I should use a mixer to set the levels up.

When I open alsamixergui, I get
The 'no such devide' made me think I'd missed something (like a vital part of the install?)

When I open xine, i get
Which made me fairly sure it wasn't alsamixergui being broken.


I know i've missed something, and I have a feeling i'm going to kick myself when I find out what it is. But I can't work it out.

Any ideas?

for my motherboard, i think my onboard sound is realtek but it works with an intel sound driver.. which i found out to use from alsa-project.org (they have a database list of card-driver combinations). i have a creative audigy4 card now so i have the onboard disabled.

*buntu comes with alsa, so you shouldnt have to compile anything. check your package manager and its most likely already installed. if not it should be easily installed with afew clicks--no compiling or other tasks.

after you make sure you have alsa installed (which again probably was by default--depending on the options you selected, of course) then you have to load the driver for your card using modprobe.. then you can run 'alsamixer' (try it from the command line, for increased simplicity).

i did a quick search here on the HCL, on google.com/linux, and on alsa-project.org for your card and couldnt tell you any results. can you post the output of 'lspci', as maybe it will give us more information about your card.

As Nadroj has already stated, Ubuntu comes with ALSA already installed and configured. And for most hardware Ubuntu configures averything correct and everything about the audio just works.

However I do remember having also some troubles with a Realtek ALC850 once upon a time.

The solution was to add the following line to the '/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base' file.

Code:

options snd-hda-intel model=5stack-digout


I don't know 100% if this will work for you but you might try to add the above line to the alsa-base file and then perhaps a restart.