Changing kernal
 

Absolutely completely new, 2 hours in only! Started my Toshiba N100 for the first time. During startup sound played. Lots of updates downloaded now no sound. Sound button reports No volume control GStreamer plugins and/or devices found. Searched for help and saw that I might need to start up in a different kernel. How do I do this or is there another simple way to solve the problem. I think I'll be asking for help quite a bit here!!

The update might have replaced some kernel modules with versions for a newer kernel, so the old kernel you're running isn't capable of working with them. This sometimes happens when you've got some modules compiled yourself and then the common ones supersede your custom ones during a system update - typically updating the kernel is involved, at least in Ubuntu.

Did you try to reboot? This'll give you the new kernel as a default, and most devices should work (again - or from then on). If this doesn't help, check back here. Rebooting isn't normally needed after a system update - but if a new kernel is part of it, switching to it means rebooting.

Important information we could use: Which distribution are you using (name, version)? If answering this question proves difficult, try opening a terminal and type "uname -a". This gives a kernel version with additional information. You can also use "cat /proc/version".

M.

Restart the unit again...complete power-off and back on. Apply any more updates that come up.

And if this is a BRAND NEW system, I'd be calling Toshiba, since the updates caused parts of your new system to stop working.

Hi. The information you requested is "Linux TOSHIBA-User 2.6.24-19-lpia #1 SMP Mon Nov 3 15:25:26 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux" The netbook is new straight out of the box. Thanks to you both for replying. Pete

If this is a NB100, it comes with Ubuntu - judging from the kernel (and from what I read), it's 8.04 (the information wether it's 8.04.1 or .2 isn't consistent - but if you had many updates, it's probably .1).

The most important question: Does the rest (including net connection) work properly? If so, you can try and fix the system component that has issues (gstreamer - or some part of it). It's also possible that a bug has been introduced by the update (or a partial procedure...).

If not, you'd have to try a roll-back. That's not the nicest of procedures, but not as bad as one might think - after all, the old kernel you started out with should still be on the system. You can check for that by hitting "Esc" on boot (calling up the GRUB menu and look at the boot options you have - if there's an older kernel (not "-19"), try that out.

M.

Have solved the problem by applying a patch found on the Toshiba site. Thanks again fo our help. Pete