Sound STOPPED working on Ubuntu 10.10 machine

spar10 · 07-23-2011, 01:31 AM

It's been working for 3 months, then just stopped. If I boot from the live CD, it from works fine, so I know it's not a bad card (older Sound Blaster) or bad speakers.

Is there anything I should be looking for specifically?

Thanks.

widget · 07-23-2011, 07:31 PM

A little more information may make suggestions possible.

How is Ubuntu installed? By itself on HDD? Dual boot? If so with what?

How is the sound not working? Over all? Specific applications?

How is your sound set up?

What is the output of;

Code:

lspci

That is a lower case L.

Your problem is strange, SB cards are supported really well.

The only thing I can think of for you to try is to install gnome-alsamixer which SB cards seem to love. Check all the settings.

Code:

sudo apt-get install gnome-alsamixer

spar10 · 07-23-2011, 11:29 PM

Thanks for replying.

This is an Ubuntu 10.10 ONLY install. No other OS.

No sound at all. No button or window sounds. No sounds from youtube, or when playing a CD or mp3. Tried Rhythmbox, Movieplayer, Audacity.

I don't know what you mean by how is it setup?

lspci:

Code:

00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 0 (rev a2)
00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 1 (rev a2)
00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 5 (rev a2)
00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 4 (rev a2)
00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
00:00.6 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 3 (rev a2)
00:00.7 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 2 (rev a2)
00:02.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:03.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:05.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C51PV [GeForce 6150] (rev a2)
00:09.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
00:0a.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 LPC Bridge (rev a3)
00:0a.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP51 SMBus (rev a3)
00:0a.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Memory Controller 0 (rev a3)
00:0b.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:0b.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:0d.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 IDE (rev a1)
00:0e.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Serial ATA Controller (rev a1)
00:0f.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Serial ATA Controller (rev a1)
00:10.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:14.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
04:05.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB22/A IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)
04:09.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs CA0106 Soundblaster

Bottom line shows SB card.

I agree on the support of SB cards. It worked out of the box (for 3 months). If I fire up the live CD that I installed 10.10 from...the sound works.

1st attached file is settings from 'gnome-alsamixer'. The second is the error I receive when firing up 'gnome-alsamixer'. I'm in the process of searching for the file that contains the line: "/apps/gnome-alsamixer/display_mixers/", but i can't find it.

Thanks again

widget · 07-24-2011, 10:56 AM

If you go to your /home/<user> directory and hit Ctrl+h it should show your "hidden" files.

What you are looking for is under ~/.gconf/apps/gnome-alsamixer. What is there is an xml conf file.

This is what my %gconf.xml looks like under Debian testing;

Quote:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gconf>
<entry name="SigmaTel_STAC9721_23" mtime="1310269043" type="bool" value="true"/>
</gconf>

The SigmaTel stuff is in reference to the chip on my Audigy1 card (Creative Labs again).

It could be that you could edit the chip info and try that file.

This may be of interest to you;

Quote:

tom@debian:~$ ls ~/.gconf/apps/gnome-alsamixer
display_mixers display_names display_sliders display_toggles %gconf.xml geometry slider_display_names toggle_display_names

If you do not have the rest of those I would try;

Code:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gnome-alsa mixer

and see what that does.

widget · 07-24-2011, 11:07 AM

Another problem that you might want to check could be in your bios. Make sure that the integrated sound controller is not enabled.

Had that problem with this Dell box. Crappy sound on that anyway (60s pocket transistor radio quality). If it was "on" there was no sound after installing the Audigy card. Have no idea if that has happened to you but it is easy to check.

Been thinking about how you ran an update and this is the result of that. Assuming that you can run update/upgrades then everything must be installed and dpkg thinks it is right.

Not having a clue as to what was upgraded having to do with sound it might be best to just run;

Code:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -a

spar10 · 07-24-2011, 06:33 PM

The onboard is disabled in the BIOS.

I have the following directories UNDER gnome-alsamixer:
display_mixers
display_names
display_sliders
display_toggles
geometry
slider_display_names
toggle_display_names AND

1 file - %gconf.xml (but it is BLANK)

I have a %gconf.xml file that looks similar to yours:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gconf>
	<entry name="CA0106" mtime="1311548549" type="bool" value="true"/>
</gconf>

BUT... that's in the ~/.gconf/apps/gnome-alsamixer/display_mixers directory. I went ahead and copied that file UP one level, into the gnome-alsamixer directory, but it made no difference.

I tried:

Code:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gnome-alsa mixer

AND

Code:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -a

Neither worked.

Thanks again.

widget · 07-25-2011, 12:53 AM

Have you tried to get a list of what was updated?

I use apt-get for all my update/upgrade needs and have my "scrollback" set for "unlimited". Comes in handy for things like this.