No Sound ? Make Your Sound Work - How To -

[Jay514]

My Section Mostly Applies to Laptop Hardware, Although you may find some useful info at the links for desktops & Their will be More Post From Community.

Linux is not always configured to work with LAPTOP hardware, Linux & the community have worked very hard at improving hardware & driver problems in the past, & it is getting better all the while. Still there are problems, mostly sound drivers & wireless drivers. If yours works right after the install without mods, consider yourself lucky.
I am by no means a sound Driver or hardware Guru, but I Have made quite a few Linux Installs on Laptops & Will Share the steps I have Taken to Fix these problems.

EDIT = For Linux Mint 9 Sound Issues = Try this Fix First, Open Synaptic Package Manager, Refresh the Packages & Check in search if you have the package ( GNOME ALSA MIXER ) installed in your system. If not mark it for installation ( Gnome Alsa Mixer - was/ is not installed on some systems that require it & It solves a lot of issues ) After successful installation of the package,Go to the system menu,Sound & Video, Open Gnome Alsa Mixer & check that all settings are correct & not muted. Note - This package may require a reboot on some systems after a successful installation for Gnome Alsa Mixer to work properly.

Original Older Version Instructions Are Below

More than likely you Will have to modify the file ( root/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf ) On most laptops I have installed to, the sound driver is not configured to work with the hardware, but with modification it will work in most cases.

1) For the exact modification for your laptop, try searching ubuntu forums ( http://ubuntuforums.org/ ) with your laptop #, make & model as well as " No Sound " in the search line. Ex: TOSHIBA TECRA No Sound or Ex: Hp Pavilion dv4 - 1275 no sound
2)If You Find multiple or similar results for your laptop , try to narrow the results by model# or Hardware Specs. I would suggest reading all that apply before making any changes to your ALSA Base.If you can, make a copy of your alsa base & save it to your Docs, In case you mess up.
3) Not every mod to the alsa base works for every type of hardware, if you find an exact match it is best, but if you can't , use the closest results. Read the Entire section Before you Modify your ALSA Base & back up if possible .

If The Mod Fails you can read the " Comprehensive Sound Problem Solutions Guide " found here ( http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... A+No+Sound )

I have found some more sound help forums , one deals with intel soundcards , but there are a lot of mods posted here for a lot of different laptops.
Here ( http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... s+database )
&
Here ( http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... s+database )

EDIT = Link For Acer Laptops Here = http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=45870

A fix for some Toshiba Laptops enable the ALSA HERE = http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 60#p266364

If anyone, especially the " experienced Linux Gurus " or the community, have comments or mods , or links ,suggestions, ect. Please Add to this topic.
Thanks in advance,
I hope this helps all,

Jay514

[Husse]

Thanks for this topic
There are a couple others that are really good as well
This one by Kaye Intel ICH family - Building OSS into your kernel
and this one by Gotenks TUTORIAL - No sound FIX for Mint 7
And there is my standard solution for Intel HDA sound
My standard answer if I find that someone has HDA sound is as follows
You have Intel HDA sound
and it is very probable that the standard solution for all kinds of problems with HDA works
You change model to what ever you have or auto or some more exotic model like in this topic
You may have to try many different "models" to get it to work - brand or model ...
Note the link to a post in the Ubuntu forums for a list of "models"
Here is another solution
Note the link to another topic in the forum at the bottom
A solution for some HP laptops

[Husse]

I have to added a link to "the master bug"
If you get problems with sound removing/disabling Pulse Audio may help you
Note that this is only the last resort if all else fails

[Jay514]

Good news for HP Laptop users, Improvments to the Brodcom drivers issue, fixed in ubuntu 9.10, Kubuntu 9.10, ect...

Veiw topic = http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 65#p106365

& Here = http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 03#p206003

Jay514

[Kaye]

In Mint 8, at least for me, the Intel sound issue has been solved 100%. For the first time I can actually use ALSA.. one of the many reasons I favor Helena so strongly over Gloria.

[Husse]

Yup - Helena solves a lot of problems, not just creates them

[anderigs]

Just moved from opensuse 11.1 to Linux Mint 8 and the ONLY problem I had was with sound.
However, I fixed it REALLY simply:
Preferences-Sound and then disabled all system sounds.
I guess there is a cleaner way to do this but this works and I simply want on this box a Linux that works (its the desktop used by me and family (wife and two little girls) which is why I moved from opensuse cos it was just starting to annoy me)).
GREAT WORK!!! This is the FIRST distribution I have managed to use together with pulseaudio!!!!!!

[Husse]

Pulseaudio still has problems, but they are mostly gone in Mint 8 Helena - and Helena is a good version if you are not bitten by the bugs