Ubuntu Sound Issue Hoary Hedgehog (5.04)

[moonwitch1405241479 0]

I had ordered Ubuntu on disc from http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/, so needless to say, I could hardly wait to reinstall Linux. After some odd time working on repartitioning a 12GB HD (yes you read that correct), I started my install.

Ubuntu is ok (not that great - sorry for those who like it), but the sound will NOT work. I read through their entire support forum, wiki page etc. It seems not working sound is a common issue with Hoary. I've tried updating my sound drivers, updating ALSA, changing settings etc. The only thing I get is noise... I have to say, the noise has the beat of the music etc, it's the music I try to play (only cd's or ogg format, mp3 will not work, not even after installing a whole bunch of extra) but then heavily distorted with noise.

I've worked on the sound for over 10 hrs now, to no avail. I even tried going to Red Hat 8.0. There the sound worked to some extent, I could play cd's. Nothing else. But Red Hat 8 is no longer well supported and I'd have to recompile the kernel, download, update etc all packages (basically manually convert it to FC3) so I went back to Ubuntu.... No sound.. I honestly don't know what to do anymore.

[qwijibow 0]

HELLO

 

i hate it when things like this happen, it always ends up being somthing simple.

 

i dont know how much about linux you know, so please dont be offended if i tell you newbie things uyou already know.

 

first off, what sound hardware are you using, and what drivers ???

as root run

lspci -v

and look for a code block similar to

0000:00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce3 250Gb AC'97

Audio Controller (rev a1)

        Subsystem: Chaintech Computer Co. Ltd: Unknown device f646

        Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20

        I/O ports at fb00

        I/O ports at fa00

        Memory at fdffb000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)

        Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

if you could post this info here it would help.

 

also, run

lsmod

as a normal user, this will let us know what driver ubuntu is useing.

 

Do you know if you are uging a sound server ? like arts (for KDE).

if you are, raising the priority of the sound server will give better quality.

 

you may need to lower the volumes of "alsamixer" (by running it in the console)

with some sound hardware, i have found you get poor quality when volume levels are in the red, lowering them to a nice pretty green helps sometimes.

 

do you have mplayer installed ?

 

if so, try to play some ogg's with different sound drivers.

 

mplayer -ao alsa /path/to/music.oggmplayer -ao oss /path/to/music.oggmplayer -ao atrs /path/to/music.ogg

i have noticed a recent bug in the alsa driver for my nforce-3 sound, it makes music jumpy.

using kde's arts sound server, or oss emulation clears it right up though.

 

I tired Ubunto a whle back, version 4.

i didnt like it much either, im a gentoo person myself.

 

good luck.

[moonwitch1405241479 0]

thank you, I'll post here as soon as I rebooted into Ubuntu. My sound is embedded in this laptops mainboard. The driver is snd-es1969 from Alsa. I would switch to Fedora (due to it's similarity to Red Hat Personal, which I am fairly accustomed to after using it for about 3 yrs) but I need to download it and burn it onto a disc, and this laptop doesn't have a cd-burner, and for what it is hardware wise, it's not worth the money (also I am buying a new desktop soon). I have considered Gentoo as well (and will try it LOL)As far as Ubuntu, it took me ages to figure out that Ubuntu LOCKS the root account, so if you do something as root, you need to use terminal and do this

CONSOLE

sudo mount -t vfat /dev/hdax /mnt/drive

I feel that is completely stupid, the reason for having a root account and regular user is to secure the system... sudo can be done from a regular users account (I disabled this feature btw)Anyhow, when I switch to Linux, later on I'll post this here. I now have to go, we're going out for dinner.

[qwijibow 0]

the reason the root is locked, is because it can be abused to easily.

you can do some pretty sneaky things which would go un-noticed by most admins...

example...

su root echo $PATH/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/bin:/usr/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/3.4.3:/usr/qt/3/bin:/usr/kde/3.4/sbin:/usr/kde/3.4/bin

now take the iptables command, it lives in /sbin/
if someone managed to sneak a file into /bin/ (which is before /sbin in the path) and name it iiptables, then a lazy admin, who used iptables without specifying iptables full path would accidently execute the other iptables with full root access.

forcing a user to use sudo, makes this kind of trick avoidable.

its Over The Top securety, but better than getting rooted.

edit:
Yay, gentoo !

after you get used to portage, you'll never go back to RPM.

[moonwitch1405241479 0]

CONSOLE

lspci -v
00:00:07.0 Multimedia audio controller: ESS Technology ES1969 Solo-1 Audiodrive (rev 02)
Subsystem: ESS Technology: Unknown device 8898
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 5
I/O ports at fcc0
I/O ports at fc60
I/O ports at fc70
I/O ports at fc58
I/O ports at fc5c
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 1

CONSOLE

lsmod
snd_pcm_oss -> 47652 1
snd_mixer_oss -> 16768 2 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm -> 84872 2 snd_es1938,snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc -> 9604 1 snd_pcm
snd_opl3_lib -> 10112 1 snd_es1938
snd_timer -> 23300 2 snd_pcm,snd_opl3_lib
snd_hwdep -> 9220 1 snd_opl3_lib
gameport -> 4608 1 snd_es1938
snd_mpu401_uart -> 7168 1 snd_es1938
snd_rawmidi -> 22944 1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device -> 8332 2 snd_opl3_lib,snd_rawmidi
snd -> 50276 12 snd_es1938,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_opl3_lib,
snd_timer,snd_hwdep,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
soundcore -> 9824 3 snd

I lowered setting in ALSA, to no avail, I tried everything you suggested and still nothing I don't know anymore.... sigh

[qwijibow 0]

yep, sigh....i was hoping you had some kind of evil sound card not supported by linux running on some kind of reverse engineered hack of a driver held together with sub-standard voodoo.sorry, thats all my idea's exausted.do you have a knoppix cd lying around anywhere ?i know its cheating, but sometimes when i come across bad things like this, i try it in knoppix, find out it works fine, then install all the exact versions of relevant things, and copy across the config scripts, and it magickally starts working.

[moonwitch1405241479 0]

I solved it, strangely The issue is so simple that it's funny. See, I am on an IBM Thinkpad 390E. So FINALLY! I got the thought to actually google for this and specify the driver used. And BINGO! There it was, the solution. It seems that IBM sets the BIOS of their laptops to PCI Power Management, and my sound card/device happens to be PCI Thus, I disabled the Power Save Feature and rebooted. When K Display Manager kicked in, I heard the wondrous sounds of KDE starting. I tried carefully to play some ogg files And I heard the sweet tones of My Immortal by Evanescence (don't worry I do have the album here, but playing from an audio disc makes my cd rom become VERY hot - thus I rip the songs and then play from HD). Next, I installed the mp3 libs and much to my surprise EVERY music player on my machine works Though I found XMMS plays best, mainly because it's less resource hogging (Kaffeine, Juk and amaroK are staticy because my comp is too slow) But Kay is happy and in Linux, safe from all the dangers in the WWW (so I am esctatic about having sound in Linux - I have that right LOL - this is the second time in ALL my linux time I got perfectly working sound )Next issue up for solving for me ... updating FireFox (it's 1.0.2 and the newest is 1.0.4 - I can't install extensions - thus am in Mozilla)

[qwijibow 0]

Cool

i hate it when things like this happen, it always ends up being somthing simple.

I remember when i first got my win-modem working under redhat-9.
i had never hear a more beautiful screach as it dialed out.

then when i managed to get the HP printer working

this is why i love linux... such a sence of achinevment just out of getting a test page to print on a windows machine aver a network.

[moonwitch1405241479 0]

Cool

I remember when i first got my win-modem working under redhat-9.

i had never hear a more beautiful screach as it dialed out.

 

this is why i love linux... such a sence of achinevment just out of getting a test page to print on a windows machine aver a network.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I totally agree with you It's like a quest. Now I am working on a new issue, msn. Kopete, GAIM will not sign onto MSN (I get a wrong password error - yet Nils managed to use the same data and sign on with it ). And the printer indeed the printer. One of the things on my to do list as well I have a LexMark Z34 (some cheap middle thing) it prints ok in Windows, but there's no mention for it for drivers in Linux. So it's a search n find thing. Last time I got it, after 3 days searching. But yes, it is fun. And you definately feel like you've conquered a part of the world when you fix an issue that you've had for a while in Linux.

 

What I love about Linux is the freedom. In windows you're bound by so many protocols, laws, paid software etc. You usually don't get much options. But look at Linux, I got like 7 MediaPlayers installed, several Browsers and they all work fine. Even together LOL...

 

We are getting quite poetic here in this thread. Perhaps we should move it to a Poetry section LOL. Or remembrance Life is good, Life is Linux

[qwijibow 0]

I have this problem with kopete.

i recently upgraded to the lastest version of gaim currently marked stable for amd64 in the portage tree (version 1.3.0)

and that works fine.

Ive also noticed a new version of kopete was added to portage, so ill try that too.

We are getting quite poetic here in this thread. Perhaps we should move it to a Poetry section LOL

I WANDERED lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

LOL. do we have a poetry section here ?

[moonwitch1405241479 0]

I added the universe backports to my synaptic manager, this is how I finally got my loved FireFox updated, themed and extensionized (yay, new word invention). I updated GAIM to 1.3, which works fine. Kopete however gives me the message it is already the latest version, although it's not. The latest works ok with MSN. I switched back to Gnome. Weird isn't it?

When I first started in Linux, I used KDE, then Gnome. I spent some time in WindowMaker (I think) and BlackBox. Now THOSE are sooooo different. BlackBox is nice, just took me ages to figure out where what was. Right click does it all there

Beautiful piece of written art Here's one I wrote Bear in mind that I am not English

lost in words and thoughts. Feelings go and come back,
my mind is one clot of thoughts and images,
how does it start,
where does it end.
It ends if I choose it to end,
that is what I am told,
but I don't choose,
it happens
something takes over,
a power I do not know,
an urge I can not fight.
And then it happens,
the moment of release
the moment of calmth
of silence...

[qwijibow 0]

ive been googleing, its definatly a portocol tweak by msn.

The latest release version of kopete is 0.10
ive seen reports that the latest development version of kopete works, but ive ben having trouble getting it, its not accessable via the usual CVS.
It uses somthing called SVN.

I like the written art. i had a quick visit to your Other-Net homepage.

The line "Hell is here in our mind" got me thinking.

you use "our" as in plural, and "mind" asin singular, reminded me of star trek, the borg, loads of drones all with a single collective mind.

also a bibe quote i heard in the cult sci-fi comedy red-dwarf

I am Legion, for we are many.

Wow... apart from the first 5 lines, ive gone completely off-topic.. oh well