I just put ubuntu on my Dell and I'm still kind of new to using it and I can't figure out how to install the sound driver or even where to get it!! Please help me someone!!

Is this your card (lspci -v):
The driver for this card should already be installed... show me the result of
asoundconf list

lsmod | grep snd

I take it your problem is that you have no sound?
Enter "alsamixer" into a console and make sure things like the master control are not muted.

I hate to say this, but I'm REALLY new at linux and I'm not sure how to do any of that stuff. My friend put it on my computer and I can do basic stuff, but even when I install Windows on my computer, my sound and display has to be installed. Would I type all that into a terminal or what? I really haven't got a clue as to how to use this lol I'm sorry...

Thank you for responding though. I appreciate the help

OK, I keep meaning to do my own tutorial so I can just link to it.

Ubuntu heh? Right...
Yep, you want a terminal. Get ready to feel the power!

Top panel - applications > accessories > terminal
(When you use online forums, help will usually take the form of terminal commands even when a gui method is available. This is because the terminal is unambiguous.)

In the terminal, enter

alsamixer

this is a program that handles your sound devices. If it returns an error, I need to know the error. Otherwise it should show a text-based display consisting of bars showing volume levels. It is very common for a master volume to be muted, stopping sound.

If you have sound, you need to explain why you think you need a driver. So I'm guessing "no sound".

Next command to enter is:

lspci

This will give you a big list of your PCI hardware. Hunt through it for your soundcard, check it is the same as the one I posted above.

If you enter "lspci -v" it gives more information. To find out about the options, enter "man lspci"... this produces a technical document called a "manual". Learning to read these things is important, but not right now.

If you drag your mouse over a bunch of tekt in the terminal, rt-click it, then select copy, you will now be able to paste that very text into another editor... like the LQ reply dialog.
This is the preferred method of responding to requests for information... always copy the command you used as well.

The next command to enter is

lsmod | grep snd

"lsmod" lists all the modules inserted to the kernel. The vertical bar is a "pipe" which puts the output of lsmod into the next program, which is called "grep". It's a sorting program, which is going to look for anything with "snd" in it. "snd" is the prefix used by alsa sound modules, like drivers.

That should hold you for now.

You are so sweet seriously I really appreciate you being patient and actually explaining each step to this process I put Windows back on my computer till I could find all the drivers that I needed which also includes something about my resolution because everything was HUGE lol but again...thank you sooo very much sweetie!! I'll let you know how it works out

Ok when I typed in "alsamixer" this is what I got, but I know that my sound isn't muted because even when I install windows I have to install a driver for it, but my computer beeps instead of making sound.


┌──────────────────[AlsaMixer v1.0.14 (Press Escape to quit)]──────────────────┐
│ Card: HDA Intel │
│ Chip: SigmaTel STAC9200 │
│ View: [Playback] Capture All │
│ Item: Master [dB gain=-9.00, -10.50] │
│ │
│ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │ │ Mic │
│ ├──┤ └──┘ │
│ │OO│ │
│ └──┘ │
│ 81<>77 0<>0 │
│ < Master > Capture Input So │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘




When I typed in "lspci" I got...

brittney@brittney-laptop:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 03)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)


AND FINALLY(!!) lol When I typed in "lsmod | grep snd" I got...


brittney@brittney-laptop:~$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_hda_intel 263712 1
snd_pcm_oss 44672 0
snd_mixer_oss 17664 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 80388 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy 4740 0
snd_seq_oss 33152 0
snd_seq_midi 9600 0
snd_rawmidi 25728 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 8448 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 53232 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer 24324 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 9228 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd 54660 11 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_de vice
soundcore 8800 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 11400 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

Meaning nothing... MS include drivers they want to. Linux includes all free drivers. As a result, linux has in-kernel support for thousands more devices than Windows. It is not unusual to have to install a driver in Windows for something that works out of the box in gnu/linux.

Note: do you still get system beeps with external speakers disconnected? (Usually, system beeps are played through your soundcard...)

Your sound card:
And the driver is loaded...
Wierd that alsamixer only provides two sliders though. See example from mine:

(note: you can use code tags to report commands.)

Please verify that alsamixer only shows two sliders as per your diagram.

Meanwhile - lets check:

aplay -l
asoundconf list

Also, there is a GUI tool in
system > preferences > sound ... play the test sounds. (Probably nothing will happen.) Exit.

rt-click the volume control applet on your panel (looks like a little speaker, top right).
Make sure the "mute" radio button is un-checked.
Select "start volume control"
- make sure master and pcm are not muted.
- edit > preferences ... this gives you a list of soundcard features. Each one is a slider, enable the ones you want to show up... PCM certainly. Anything that looks like it belongs to playback. There should be a lot of options there.

Another thing to check is that you are in the "audio" group:
system > administration > users and groups
... look at the list of groups in your

Sweetheart, you're going to laugh at me when I tell you this...right after I wrote that reply to you yesterday, not even 5 minutes later I accidentally clicked on a video that came with linux, not really knowing what it was, well, I jumped and about lost my breath when I was surprised by really loud sound and a weird video...I feel sooooo stupid! I didn't know that those beeps were normal for linux though. When I had Windows, the beeps meant that you don't have your audio driver installed usually.

I wanted to go back and tell you that yesterday, but for some reason, ever since I installed linux, I've been having trouble connecting to the internet. I have a laptop with a wireless card and it's always worked perfectly for me before, but for some reason when I installed linux, the internet either takes FOREVER to connect, or it doesn't connect at all. It's really strange because at the bottom of the page, it says "Done" just like it would if the page were to appear, but the entire page is blank. I don't know why that's happening. It's almost as if the computer doesn't know that it's not displaying the page, but the title bar still reads as well as the address bar. I guess I'm either going to have to figure out why it's doing that (because I KNOW that it's not my router or internet service because every other computer in the house works) or I'm going to have to get rid of Linux and reinstall Windows because I really do need the internet for my online classes and I'm not going to ask my friends to leave their computers here for me all the time just to do so.

I really feel stupid though because the resolution "problem" was something that I could have just adjusted myself and the audio works perfectly as well. I am having real difficulty trying to figure out how to use the terminal commands though and I'm not sure if I have any more patience for this opperating system after I struggled for 30 minutes just to get online and check my email. I even try restarting my computer and router and making sure everything works. I just don't understand that. Anyway...I wish I knew someone who could just sit down with me and teach me how to install things that I may need and how to use terminal commands and which ones to use. It's all EXTREMELY confusing to me because I grew up using Windows and I definately wasn't paying attention during the Linux lesson in my tech school apparently lol

The little "Help" button at the top of the screen is helpful at times, but it gives examples that really don't relate to what I've been trying to do. For example, I was trying to view a video on a webpage (www.youtube.com) earlier today to show my little sister her favorite bands' new music video and the website told me that I needed to install Flash onto my system in order to view the video and it gave me linux versions and instructions as to how to install the program which were as follows:

1. Click the "Download .tar.gz" link. A dialog box will appear asking you where to save the file.
2. Save the .tar.gz file to your desktop and wait for the file to download completely.
3. Unpackage the file. A directory called install_flash_player_9_linux will be created.
4. In terminal, navigate to this directory and type ./flashplayer-installer to run the installer. Click Enter. The installer will instruct you to shut down your browser(s).
5. Once the installation is complete, the plug-in will be installed in your Mozilla browser. To verify, launch Mozilla and choose Help > About Plug-ins from the browser menu.


I can complete step 1, 2 and 3, but in step 4, it says to "navigate to this directory" and when I used the little "Help" button at the top of the screen, it gave me about 10 different commands to navigate and I don't think that I was typing it in right or something because not one of those commands worked for me. Therefore, I never even got to step 5!! lol

My buddies keep asking me why I even waste my time on a system that no one has and I keep telling them it's because I want to try something new and I want to know how to use something that not everyone knows how to use especially when it comes to technology. I actually know of quite a few businesses around here (Orlando, Florida, USA) that are specifically looking to find employees who know how to run and operate linux and they get paid very well! So any help that you can provide would be greatly appreciated! I pretty much got all the menus at the top of the screen down pact and I understand how all the customizations on the desktop and with the windows and menu bars work basically. I just really need help with the terminal commands and instructions on how to install programs such as the Flash player as mentioned above. And if you could, any information as to why my internet would be acting up like it is would be greatly appreciated too.

I wish there were a way that I could send some sort of reward for your time and patience with me! You've been really sweet and generous and I'm truly greatful for your efforts in helping me!!

Thanks again!!

--Brittney--

Not to put too fine-a point on in, could you please stop calling me "sweetheart"? My wife may not understand

That would be Nelson Mandela on the meaning of "ubuntu". Well done. This suggests that your sound and video is working fine... if you attempt to play proprietary format files, you will encounter trouble.
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-au...t-matters.html
... have a look through: http://www.hbglug.net.nz/ubuntu.html ... there are concise instructions for playing a range of audio and video files.

That would depend on the page and your firefox settings. Pages which require a lot of script or flash media won't display by default. Macromedia shockwave files will not display at all.

These things are disabled by default as they represent security risks.

Sometimes it will depend on your connection - top right, there is an icon that looks like two monitors. That in for the network controls, when you are connected wirelessly it turns into a series of bars like a graph. If you don't see the bars, you cannot connect. If you click on it, it'll give you options.


One thing you should not do with Ubuntu is install common software from a tarball.

Almost everything you want to install can be accessed from Applications > Add/Remove or from System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager

Unlike Windows, the modular and free paradigms of GNU/Linux mean that software is collected in central "repositories" and installed using dedicated programs called "package managers". Whenever you want some missing function, search for it with synaptic first.

The packages can also be installed from the commandline:
sudo apt-get install mozilla-plugin-gnash

Firefox's capabilities start out minimal, but can be extended hugely. Some extensions are available through Add/Remove but most are handled through the Tools > Add Ons menu in the firefox window.

Usually, when you attempt to view a site which needs a plugin, an icon like a jigsaw piece appears with a message about missing plugins. If you click that, it will install the plugin.

Alternatively, you may be happier with Opera as your browser - it's in Add/Remove.

There is: you can never pay back the help you receive, so you pay it forward instead. Once you have more confidence, you can start helping others the way I, and others, help you. That's how it works.

You can also tell them that you value the liberation that comes with using free software http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/

And now you'll be able to boast that your system supports your hardware out of the box - you didn't need to install drivers like you did with Windows

You tellum suger, LOL sorry couldn't help my self.