when i pop in a music cd in linux a program pops up and starts playing it but it produces no sound

its not that linux cant produce sounds because it still makes start up sounds game sounds and error sounds

how cant this be fixed?

Do you have an audio connector cable from your cdrom to the soundcard?

Is your mixer level for the cdrom unmuted?

Hi UndieingHacker,
have you ever been able to play music from cds on this computer before (on another distribution, maybe)? Because, if you havent, it may be a hardware issue. There is (or rather: should be) a cable in your computer that connects the cd-drive to the sound card (or the motherboard for on-board sound). You might not have that cable installed, or, if you have two cd (or dvd for that matter) drives, maybe only one of them is able to play the cd, because this one is connected.

This is the only reason I can think of at the moment.
Hope this helps,
- drowstar

Or maybe the speakers aren't plugged in or turned on, or maybe the volume is muted or set to zero. -- J.W.