problem with sound card on my Acer5101 laptop

[zolly]

It has the Realtek ALC883. I hear sound only on the right channel. The only solution is to mute and unmute to hear on both channels. I have this problem with Linux Mint and with Ubuntu7.04beta2.

[carltonh]

How odd, I just discovered the exact same problem on my Acer laptop. Your temporary solution of muting and unmuting also worked.

Does anyone know of a better permanent solution to this bug?

[Toontwnca]

I had the same problem.

It happened after I updated to the 2.6.20.16 kernel.
Upon rebooting was when the problem occurred.
What happened was my Alsa mixer volume control mysteriously
turned into some kind of Conexant mixer volume controller using OSS,
and Alsa was completely invisible with no way to select it.
Also sound only worked through headphones and I had to use the
mute/unmute trick to get both sides to work.

My solution was to boot to the 2.6.20.15 kernel; uninstall the
.16 kernel and lock the .15 kernel so I would not get any kernel updates.

My explanation is probably as clear as mud.

Oh and it's on a Acer laptop as well.

[MartinRF]

I had the same problem.

It happened after I updated to the 2.6.20.16 kernel.
Upon rebooting was when the problem occurred.
What happened was my Alsa mixer volume control mysteriously
turned into some kind of Conexant mixer volume controller using OSS,
and Alsa was completely invisible with no way to select it.
Also sound only worked through headphones and I had to use the
mute/unmute trick to get both sides to work.

My solution was to boot to the 2.6.20.15 kernel; uninstall the
.16 kernel and lock the .15 kernel so I would not get any kernel updates.

My explanation is probably as clear as mud.

Oh and it's on a Acer laptop as well.

Hmm I wonder if this is why I experience bad sound quality?

Background: Bought computer in spring 2004 and installed Win98 (sigh)
plus MDK9.1. This is my first private computer so I didn't know what to
expect from an on-board sound system (VIA VT8235) but thought it
sounded too bad: with a metallic twang to all music. Somehow I figured
out that it should sound better and after much research found driver
related problem.

Later on I migrated to PCLOS and never experienced an sound problems
there. Then I had a stupid accident resulting in a hosed HD (backed-up
only hours earlier!!) while trying to install PCLOS 2007. To cut it short:
I ended up trying out Linux Mint and has by now pretty much recovered
all data from the back-up. But, I have also realized I am reliving the
sound experience of MDK 9.1 and can't find my notes from back then.

Or, maybe it is the kernel thing mentioned above?
Yes, I just checked menu.lst: I am running 2.6.20.16. I will try out .15
and report back.

/Martin

PS No, my computer is not an Acer laptop but a Shuttle SK41G box.

[MartinRF]

Or, maybe it is the kernel thing mentioned above?
Yes, I just checked menu.lst: I am running 2.6.20.16. I will try out .15
and report back.

I am back.
No the .15 kernel didn't improve sound quality at all.


/Martin

[MartinRF]

Or, maybe it is the kernel thing mentioned above?
Yes, I just checked menu.lst: I am running 2.6.20.16. I will try out .15
and report back.

I am back.
No the .15 kernel didn't improve sound quality at all.

Update:
Sound now works fine (I haven't tried all applications).
It took quite a bit of trial and horror to get there and I started to
doubt my machine had actually sounded good but after trying it
out with the latest DSL CD I knew it could sound really nice.

What DSL does it does very, very well!
I also tried Puppy which produced really bad sound but apart from
that Puppy is very impressive. It is stupefyingly fast for one.

/Martin

[Husse]

trial and horror

That expresses the experience you have sometimes well