Sound card quite working after unwise software installation!

[kanada]

I like to play with all the different software and it's fetures available in Linux. I've gotten pretty good at not installing things likely to corrupt the system. Some time though I don't use enough care though. This is one of those times. I did a clean install for a partitioning reasons a while ago with Linux mint 9 i386 on my dell Inspiron 6000 laptop. I have been running 9 for quite a while with no issues (other then ones I made) before the clean install. The computer also made all the dings and chimes it normally does on start up at first.

Once I had all my files migrated back over from back ups I went onto installing software. There are whole bunch of programs that I like to have. Every thing in the standard repo. Amongst the many sound software items I click the "alsa-tools-gui" (GUI based ALSA utilities for specific hardware) not noticing that it was for "specific hardware". Well lesson learned. Now my sound card doesn't work. I have been trying to fix this for a few days now and at my wits end.

I don't want to reinstall because I already have most the software and files on here I want. I store my backups on an ftp server in my house and all of the software+updates is many gigs of data. Five computer users in the house means there is never a good day to move that much data over the network.

Hears what I know about the issue.

Programs get sound to pulse audio all the way to it's "Dummy Output". You can see the little meters bounce up and down when you play media in one of pulse audio's many options menus.

ALSA does no think there is a sound card it would seem.

Code: Select all

*****@*****-laptop ~ $ sudo asoundconf-gtk 
[sudo] password for *****: 
You need at least one ALSA sound card for this to work!

Attempts to completely remove the all audio manging software and reinstall it rendered no noticeable affect.

Linux knows the hardware is there and is no longer using it.

Code: Select all

*****@*****-laptop ~ $ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller (rev 03)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
03:01.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev b3)
03:01.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 08)
03:01.2 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 17)
03:03.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection (rev 05)

Google search with related key words doesn't provide much help. I'm at a point where I don't even know what to trouble shoot.

Please help us Obi One Kenobi, your our only hope.

[JasonLG]

I like to play with all the different software and it's fetures available in Linux. I've gotten pretty good at not installing things likely to corrupt the system. Some time though I don't use enough care though. This is one of those times. I did a clean install for a partitioning reasons a while ago with Linux mint 9 i386 on my dell Inspiron 6000 laptop. I have been running 9 for quite a while with no issues (other then ones I made) before the clean install. The computer also made all the dings and chimes it normally does on start up at first.

Once I had all my files migrated back over from back ups I went onto installing software. There are whole bunch of programs that I like to have. Every thing in the standard repo. Amongst the many sound software items I click the "alsa-tools-gui" (GUI based ALSA utilities for specific hardware) not noticing that it was for "specific hardware". Well lesson learned. Now my sound card doesn't work. I have been trying to fix this for a few days now and at my wits end.

I don't want to reinstall because I already have most the software and files on here I want. I store my backups on an ftp server in my house and all of the software+updates is many gigs of data. Five computer users in the house means there is never a good day to move that much data over the network.

Hears what I know about the issue.

Programs get sound to pulse audio all the way to it's "Dummy Output". You can see the little meters bounce up and down when you play media in one of pulse audio's many options menus.

ALSA does no think there is a sound card it would seem.

Code: Select all

*****@*****-laptop ~ $ sudo asoundconf-gtk 
[sudo] password for *****: 
You need at least one ALSA sound card for this to work!

Attempts to completely remove the all audio manging software and reinstall it rendered no noticeable affect.

Linux knows the hardware is there and is no longer using it.

Code: Select all

*****@*****-laptop ~ $ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller (rev 03)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
03:01.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev b3)
03:01.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 08)
03:01.2 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 17)
03:03.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection (rev 05)

Google search with related key words doesn't provide much help. I'm at a point where I don't even know what to trouble shoot.

Please help us Obi One Kenobi, your our only hope.

Chalk this up to a lesson learned and reinstall, it'd probably be easier and faster then troubleshooting the problem. As you yourself have said that you've pretty much b0rked your system beyond anything resembling stock it's pretty difficult to help you figure out what's going on. You'll know better next time.