I recently installed Ubuntu 9.04 on my computer. It works fine, except there's no sound. My sound is an integrated chipset on my P4x400 motherboard. I was able to get a driver on Windows, but there is no such one for Linux. I was wondering if anyone had any advice.

Bratmon,

Please post the output of lspci, so we can see what sound chip you have.

Here it is:

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4X333/P4X400/PT800 AGP Bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 PCI Bridge
00:0a.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10)
00:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 4000] (rev c1)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)

Bratmon,

Your sound is It needs the kernel module.
The first step is to run the command to list just your loaded sound moules. Is snd-cmipci in the list.
If its missing, do to attempt to load it.

By now, your sound card module is loaded, try lspci again, or you have encountered an error. Either post the error, if there is one, or try your sound again.

Yes, snd_cmipci is in the list.

Try this, to continue the process (note: this often works, but might not, and may not work if you are not using ALSA)

Open a console, and as root user, type 'alsamixer' or 'alsaconf'.

Alsaconf is a process that you just need to select and click stuff like Yes/No; it's pretty intuitive and should put your sound system in some sort of basically working state..

Alsamixer on the other hand, requires you to adjust the mixer settings using the M key for MUTE/UNMUTE, and the arrow keys to move L/R and to slide things up/down. Particularly important are the Master Volume, Front Volume (usually-- or whatever label applies to the laptop's speakers) and the PCM device. Make sure that these items are not muted (they should show a 00 not a MM at the bottom of the slider) and that their volumes are reasonably UP, not down.

After using Alsamixer, hit ESC to exit, and type 'alsactl store' to save the settings.

Personally, I would run Alsaconf first, and see if that works for you, and then (whether it works or not) try Alsamixer, just so you can see it and know what settings you have available.

Good luck!
Sasha

PS - Generally, root user does not exactly exist on Ubuntu. Use SUDO in this case.

When I type alsaconf, I get "Command not found"

I'm not entirely sure what I should be doing with alsamixer.

With alsamixer, you use the ARROW keys to move left/right from slider to slider, or to move a slider up/down.
Use the <M> key to mute/unmute a setting (a slider).

The goal is to make sure that the Master Volume is UP, the PCM volume is UP, and whatever slider corresponds to your speakers is UP. As well, make sure you do not see a MM at the bottom of these sliders; this means it is MUTED. Press <M> to change the MM to a 00 (meaning UNmute).

When all done, hit ESCAPE to exit alsamixer, and type 'alsactl store' to save the settings.

Is this a bit clearer?

Sasha

All right, I did that. Everything appears to be on that needs to be on.

Did you try this using sudo?

OK, now using whatever Control Panel or System>Sound settings area is offered by Ubuntu, can you re/start and/or test your sound system, and do you now have sound?

Silly too, but: Is the volume turned up on the computer?? (Our laptop has a little volume dial)

EDIT -- maybe disregard the volume dial bit, I don't know what gave me the idea this is a laptop.

I hit test, but no sound.

Yes, the speakers themselves are fine (work on my XP partition)

Bratmon,

Something that GrapefruiTgirl omitted is that most sound cards can do digital and analogue output but only one at a time and digital takes priority if you try to do both.
Be sure that any control with IEC or SPDI/F in its name is muted. Those are digital controls.
On laptops, you may also need to mute the Headphone output.

snd_cmipci is the ALSA driver for your card. You also appear to have all the other things you need to make alsa sound work. In a terminal, try this forces mplayer to use alsa for its sound. It will work out for itself what sort of sound file you have asked it to play.

If that fails, do you have any USB sound devices connected?
Do and look in the output to see if snd_usb_audio is listed. Its used for Webcams with microphones, USB headsets and things like that.
If you have snd_usb_audio loaded, look at the module load order. Things loaded first are at the bottom of the list

snd_usb_audio must be above snd_cmipci or your system will default to using snd_usb_audio, which you don't want.

Ok, turned off anything with IEC in its name.

Nope, silence.

snd_usb isn't listed.

I don't think this qualifies as "Newbie' anymore. Could a mod move this to "General"