Ubuntu upgrade problem
 

I successfully installed Ubuntu 8.04 on an old Compaq Deskpro I had sitting around and from the get-go the system worked flawlessly. Since I had such good luck installing 8.04, I decided to upgrade to version 8.10 when it came out but found out after the upgrade that I had lost all audio functionality on the machine. Even the volume control was disabled. Since this was just a machine I was experimenting with I simply reinstalled 8.04 from CD and everything is working flawlessly again. So.... Given the fact that I have had 2 successful installs of 8.04 from CD what is the probable cause for my loss of audio during the upgrade? Is there any way to prevent it from happening again? If it would happen again, is there a way to quickly fix it? I'm new to Linux and this experience isn't doing much for my confidence but I've got an open mind and want to learn how to avoid problem from happening in the future. Hopefully I won't be stuck at 8.04 or forced to reinstall everything over from scratch each time there is an upgrade. Any help and/or advice would be greatly appreciated.

What kind of audio card do you have? From a terminal, could you run:
and post the output? That will show what devices your system has so someone can see if it is a known issue.

I must say, I've found on my machine that going from 8.04 to 8.10 sound stopped working as well. I'm not too impressed with the upgrade from 8.04 to 8.10 to be honest.

Nathan,

Thanks for the reply. I entered the command lspci-vv in my terminal session and it says no such command is found. I found some reference to the fact that it was in a package called PCIUTILS which I reinstalled but it says it is still not found when I enter the SUDO command in terminal.

I looked at the preferences under volume control an it says ESS 1869. It also says ESS AudioDrive ES1869 (ALSA Mixer) under Default Mixer Tracks under Sound preferences. Lastly, I went out to Compaq's web site and it shows that the ES1869 driver was valid for a Deskpro EN550.

"lspci -vv"

My eyes are going buggy..... Here's the output....

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64
Region 0: Memory at 44000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 1.0
Status: RQ=32 Iso- ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ ITACoh- GART64- HTrans- 64bit- FW- AGP3- Rate=x1,x2
Command: RQ=1 ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA- AGP- GART64- 64bit- FW- Rate=<none>

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 00001000-00001fff
Memory behind bridge: 40000000-410fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 30000000-300fffff
Secondary status: 66MHz+ FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ <SERR- <PERR-
BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA+ VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B+

00:10.0 Communication controller: Agere Systems LT WinModem (rev 02)
Subsystem: Digitan Systems Inc Unknown device 9300
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at 41300000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Region 1: I/O ports at 2470 [size=8]
Region 2: I/O ports at 2000 [size=256]
Capabilities: [f8] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI+ D1- D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

00:12.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 (rev 08)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation EtherExpress PRO/100+ Management Adapter with Alert On LAN*
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 66 (2000ns min, 14000ns max), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at 41200000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Region 1: I/O ports at 2400 [size=64]
Region 2: Memory at 41100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at 30100000 [disabled] [size=1M]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI+ D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=2 PME-

00:14.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle+ MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0

00:14.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01) (prog-if 80 [Master])
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64
Region 0: [virtual] Memory at 000001f0 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8]
Region 1: [virtual] Memory at 000003f0 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1]
Region 2: [virtual] Memory at 00000170 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8]
Region 3: [virtual] Memory at 00000370 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1]
Region 4: I/O ports at 2460 [size=16]

00:14.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64
Interrupt: pin D routed to IRQ 11
Region 4: I/O ports at 2440 [size=32]

00:14.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Interrupt: pin ? routed to IRQ 9

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro AGP 1X/2X (rev 5c) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Rage Pro Turbo AGP 2X
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping+ SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 66 (2000ns min), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at 40000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Region 1: I/O ports at 1000 [size=256]
Region 2: Memory at 41000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at 30000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [50] AGP version 1.0
Status: RQ=256 Iso- ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ ITACoh- GART64- HTrans- 64bit- FW- AGP3- Rate=x1,x2
Command: RQ=1 ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA- AGP- GART64- 64bit- FW- Rate=<none>

I don't see an audio device in that output. Did you manage to turn it off in the BIOS?

No. Nothing was turned off. This PC was leased PC and had Windows NT 4.0 installed on it and then it was purchased by an employee of the company who installed Windows 98 on it. It sat for 2 years not being used and then I got my hands on it. Could it be that the audio is built directly on the MOBO and would not show up on the output. Obviously, since the linux driver that was installed was an ESS 1869 and this was a ligit driver that was installed on a Compaq EN 550 SOMETHING was detected during the 8.04 install.

Note also...I restarted and went into the bios and the and the audio is not shown in the PCI devices in the BIOS it is just listed in the "onboard devices list and was enabled".

Oops, your eyes weren't buggy, it was a typo by me, I forgot the space in between the command and the flag, sorry...

That is weird, I don't see anything about an audio device in that output either, even if it's built in it should still show up. Is this output from 8.10 or 8.04?

I have a very vague memory of this after doing a search here on LQ for "ESS1869". I found the following quote in the HCL (http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...hp?product=470)

So....if ESS1869 is my card/driver under 8.04 where does that leave me on the problem of no driver after upgrading to 8.10, etc?

Did you try running alsaconf? If that doesn't help, then you will have to search for someone with the same motherboard.

Based on the messages I was getting I was under the impression that some or all portions of a package may not have been installed and I tried reinstalling the package and installed the extra components but that didn't work and I just decided to put the system back to 8.04. Part of this has to do with the fact that I'm a real Newbie to the Linux world and the other part was whether something else I had done the same day I performed the upgrade to 8.10 might have cause of the loss of audio and the only way to confirm that was to reinstall 8.04.

So.....I assume that alsaconf is some sort of ALSA configuraton tool of some kind, correct?

Yes. Read the man page for it.

OK. Newbie question....I read the command reference and was attempting to probe the card but when I tried executing the command in terminal it said that alsaconf was not found. Should this command be there in Ubuntu 8.04 by default or is this something I would need to install? I did find another reference on another forum regarding a similar 8.10 no audio problem and there is some reference to a utility called ALSAMIXER which I ran and it says the card is ESS AudioDrive ES1869 and the chip is the same.