No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

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drgonze

No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

Post by drgonze »

Hi guys,
I'm reallly new to linux and as of yet I've only come across one problem. I can't figure out to save my life how to fix the fact that I have no sound. I've taken all the suggestions from the posts that have previously been posted. I tried going through control center/ sound and messing with the source in there but still no cigar. I've messed with the settings with the sound bar on the bottom right hand of the screen but again, no dice.And I did check to make sure the speakers aren't muted :p. Am I missing a plugin or something?? Any suggestions? I'm not well versed in computers so I apologize if this is silly which it probably is haha. Thank you!!
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
viking777

Re: No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

Post by viking777 »

I am not sure if I can help you much as I am no expert on sound (or anything else for that matter!), but I do have an Acer Aspire notebook and I can tell you that it plays sounds perfectly on a standard Mint install.

Do you have Windows on the machine and if so does it produce sound? Does a live CD produce sound?

Plugins might affect your use of music files such as mp3 etc. (although having said that Mint usually copes with these without problem), but it shouldn't affect system sounds such as login or error messages (unless you have disabled these - they are enabled by default). So if there is no sound at all then I doubt it is anything to do with plugins.

My Aspire notebook has function keys on it for muting sound which only work in Windows so could you have muted using these keys whilst in Windows? If so you obviously need to go back into Windows unmute using these keys and then go back into Linux and see if sound works then.

I can suggest one other thing that you might try although you may have to search around a bit to find the required tool. The reason I say this is that I use XFCE desktop not Gnome and finding things in Gnome is invariably more difficult.

Anyway on XFCE if you go from the start menu to System/Services and see what is running in the way of sound services. What I have enabled is titled "Audio settings management (alsa-utils)". If you have that enabled (and nothing else) then that is not the cause either, but if it is not enabled then tick the box to enable it (again this might be different in Gnome) and disable anything else, particularly if it includes the dreaded word 'pulseaudio'.

I probably can't help you any more than that. Good luck anyway.
Kaye

Re: No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

Post by Kaye »

Some Acers will have sound problems due to their sound card (as mine did). The fix is to switch from ALSA to OSS. I'm on my phone right now so I can't be of too much help, but when I get back to my dorm I'll post a link to an easy guide that'll fix the problem.
Kaye

Re: No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

Post by Kaye »

Alright, here's the tutorial I was talking about: http://www.opensound.com/wiki/index.php ... rom_source.

That fixed my sound, hopefully it works for you also.
drgonze

Re: No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

Post by drgonze »

Thanks, I just.. don't know what like.. any of that means.. the X something desktop?? I don't know how to switch over...

and i have no idea what that guide is talking about... :( Im sorry im REALLY computer inept..
viking777

Re: No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

Post by viking777 »

drgonze wrote:Thanks, I just.. don't know what like.. any of that means.. the X something desktop?? I don't know how to switch over...

and i have no idea what that guide is talking about... :( Im sorry im REALLY computer inept..
I wouldn't feel to bad about it my friend, I have been using Linux pretty well exclusively for over 3 years and I would think twice about carrying out all the steps in that guide, it is way too steep for me never mind you!

Personally if I couldn't get anywhere with this issue on Mint I would try another distro. To my mind Mint is the best around in terms of ease of use, but if it isn't working for you then look elsewhere.
garda

Re: No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

Post by garda »

I, just like Kaye did, had to wipe ALSA+PulseAudio combo in Felicia and use OSS to get sound to work properly. It is not at all that scary, only a matter of reading the guide carefully and doing exactly as instructed. But instead of reading the guide linked to by Kaye, I recommend another one that has been geared for Ubuntu users and the one I followed: Ubuntu Community Documentation - OpenSound.

You would simply have to apply the steps for Ubuntu Hardy/Gnome 2.22 if you are running Mint 5 or the ones for Ubuntu Intrepid/Gnome 2.24 if you are running Mint 6, where applicable. Really, it is a very easy trick, which seems frightening to you only because you have yet to try it out.
viking777

Re: No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

Post by viking777 »

You know what garda this thread really worries me. Yes, your guide is a little clearer than the one posted earlier, but you must see that even that guide presents an enormous barrier to someone who by his own admission is "really new to Linux". I am sure you know what you are talking about and I do not question that, if you had to replace alsa with oss then you had to. What worries me is that such measures are still necessary in a modern Linux world. Maybe I have been lucky in my choice of laptop in that most things work as they should, but if a first class distro like Mint is not capable of producing sound on everything these days then that is surely a cause for concern - it is to me anyway.

If certain machines do not work with alsa then the sound configuration dialog in any control centre should contain a means to switch to oss in a few clicks. When I think of the amount of worthless tripe that has been injected into Linux recently (like compiz and kde4) and the huge efforts that have gone into making that happen, the fact that a new user cannot get sound out of a laptop without resorting to the 'extreme' computing as suggested above makes me want to cry out loud.

I apologise for the rant and I apologise for hijacking the thread, but it just makes me both angry and sad at the same time. I wish I had the skills to do something about it but I don't, and never will have unfortunately.
drgonze

Re: No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

Post by drgonze »

So I should I try installing a different package and just going with Ubuntu instead? I have to have sound on my computer and refuse to go back to windows but I can't figure out how to get sound on my computer nor do I want to do something in Terminal if I don't know how to fix it if it ends up not working
garda

Re: No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

Post by garda »

You may try installing Ubuntu and see if it gives you the same issue with sound. But since Mint is based on and use the same audio framework as Ubuntu, there is a great chance that you will come up with the same problem and thus will have to follow the guide anyway. The choice is all yours, but if you keep insisting on switching operating systems simply because you refuse to do some fiddling in the terminal when a problem arises, you will never settle with anything and will have to waste more time in search for something that works than you would if you just tried something to rectify that single shortcoming.
viking777

Re: No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

Post by viking777 »

Garda is right in two respects. First you should not 'distro-hop' every time you get a problem, but sometimes if problems are intractable it may be the only choice. I am not saying that this problem comes into that category, but such problems do exist and a change of distro may be the only solution available - I know I have been there. The second respect in which garda is correct is that switching to Ubuntu will just waste your time. Mint is Ubuntu repackaged in a superior manner (imho) so installing Ubuntu will almost certainly make no difference.

Have you googled your specific laptop model (name and number) along with the word 'sound' or something similar? This should see if anyone else has similar problems and perhaps how they have solved them. Is this an old laptop we are talking about? It is just that I am surprised that it won't work with alsa sound although obviously that is the case for garda and Kaye.

If I were you, and bearing in mind your level of experience, I would have a go with a live cd from another distro first (because that is easiest) and if that doesn't create any sounds either, then dig into one or other of those guides that have been posted, I am sure garda or Kaye would be willing to help you further if you run into trouble.

As for which alternative distro to choose that is problematic as there are so many. I get on well with Mandriva, PCLinux is good and a lot of people seem to like Mepis and all three are good beginner distros, Fedora and Suse have a reputation for working with unusual hardware but probably are not quite as user friendly. but for every distro out there will be somebody who recommends it, only you can make the decision.
Kaye

Re: No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

Post by Kaye »

The only problem I see with him switching distros is that, from looking at other's problems, the Aspire sound problem seems to be inherent in ALSA. I'm not familiar enough with other distros to know if any of them come with OSS standard, but any distro that comes with ALSA default will have this same problem for an Aspire laptop (I'm fairly certain). I followed one of the guides I posted on my second day on Linux and absolutely no prior experience.. I think it's just a matter of jumping off the deep end and trusting the author not to lead you down the wrong path.

Plus, he's probably going to encounter more problems like this, and he's going to have to figure out how to read a guide at some point :wink:
viking777

Re: No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

Post by viking777 »

But Kaye, I have an Acer Aspire laptop and I can tell you it functions pefectly with Alsa sound (certainly not with pulseaudio, but then does anything - why linux users have to suffer this dreadful pulseaudio system is a mystery to me?). Of course my Acer is probably a different model, but this definitely is not a fault with Acer's as a whole, and it is why I can't help but think there is a simpler explanation to this that would not necessitate drgonze having to switch to OSS. But I freely admit I do not know what that explanation is.
viking777

Re: No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

Post by viking777 »

drgonze,

Here are another couple of things to try before you start into uninstalling alsa etc. They are only basic but haven't been suggested so far so are certainly worth a try.
Open a terminal (no need to be root, user is fine) and just type

Code: Select all

amixer
You should get a lot of info looking something like this:

Code: Select all

 amixer 
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 31 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback [on]
  Front Right: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 254 [100%] [0.20dB]
  Front Right: Playback 254 [100%] [0.20dB]
the important thing is the number in the first line - in my case '0' - probably the same for you.

now enter

Code: Select all

amixer set -c 0 Master 100 unmute
You note the number 0 in that, if your number from the first command is not 0 then substitute whatever your number is.
Carry on with

Code: Select all

amixer set -c 0 PCM 100 unmute
To my simple mind Linux has become so confused with sound systems these days that it is easy to have two different volume controls set to two different settings and if one is dominant over the other (and you are adjusting the wrong one) you get no sound. The amixer command is pretty basic and should hopefully sort out the confusion if that is indeed the cause. It may not be, but you lose nothing by trying.

And one more thing, my Acer Aspire has a volume wheel on the front of it, and it does work with Mint, so if you have the same control, make sure that is not turned off as well (tbh though amixer should override that).
jwedekin

Re: No Sound Acer Aspire Notebook

Post by jwedekin »

You HAVE to get the latest drivers for Linux from Realtek and install them. Worked for my Acer One.
I got audio working on my Acer finally....after three weeks of searching.

You'll never guess how. I downloaded the Linux drivers for the Realtek audio card straight from Realtek's website. I got the model number for the audio card from Acer's driver download page and downloaded the Linux driver directly from Realtek.

AC97 driver: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dow ... Down=false
High Definition Audio driver: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dow ... Down=false
RT81XX series driver: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dow ... TL8139B(L)

Unfortunately, I don't remember which one it is for the Acer One...I'm thinking AC97, but I'd check Acer's webpage first (if it ever comes back online)
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