Audigy 2 card - no sound again

If you have kernel updates that breaks working sound...: try to get sound back starting Ubuntu in a previous kernel.

Press ESC at startup when you see the GRUB row and select lower kernel release number from the select menu.

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To dress sound issue on latest kernel, start with latest kernel 1.st GRUB row and try:

Please try some common checks

Audio trouble with Ubuntu 8.04 some common checks

-- If you are using a laptop, your laptop may have a keyboard function to manipulate your sound.
   Check that. Your laptop may have a keyboard control to mute, increase and decrease sound.
-- Please check your sound devices volumes are to a high level double click on the top right loudspeaker icon you will see a mixer
-- Please make common test from menu System->Preferences->Sounds
-- If you have two audio cards - please disable the on board audio card using BIOS setting, please check with this terminal command:

   lspci | grep -i audio

-- Please be sure your pc are starting with the generic kernel press ESC at boot when you see the GRUB row then select the "kernel.... - generic" row
-- Please be sure all needed kernel modules are installed to make this check and install them:
  So open a Terminal from the menu Applications->Accessories->Terminal and type:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install linux-ubuntu-modules-$(uname -r)

give your user password when requested, you don't see nothing when you type it, then press enter.

Then reboot your pc.

-- Be sure your user is member of audio group
Then open a Terminal from the menu Applications->Accessories->Terminal and type:

sudo adduser $(who am i | cut -d" " -f 1) audio
sudo chmod 660 /dev/snd/*

give your user password when requested, you don't see nothing when you type it, then press enter.

-- Please try to watch what audio cards are detected on your system please type:
asoundconf list

if more than one sound cards is detected by your system to set the default soundcard

asoundconf set-default-card PARAMETER

change PARAMETER with the name of a one detected sound card

-- Please try to delete making a backup copy of this conf files
mv .asoundrc .asoundrc_old
mv .asoundrc.asoundconf .asoundrc.asoundconf.old
sudo mv /etc/asound.conf /etc/asound.conf.old

Please take a look at this http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205449

-- Please try to discover if there are any process they are keeping the /dev/dsp locked
ps -edalf | grep -i dsp

kill them using this command:

kill -9 number_of_pid

Hope this helps

It actually stopped working after one of the previous updates to 8.04 - before this latest kernel update. At the time I was ready to just give up... Then this new kernel update came in and my video was messed up too, so yesterday I spent an hour or two making the video work in the new kernel (someone explain why things have to stop working with an update - it seems straight forward enough to detect a setup then replicate that in the new kernel - but what do I know) -

ANYWAY - so I installed the updates noted in the initial problem - now, I'll move to your recommendations...

- not a laptop
- volume levels are up on the mixer
- Under Sound Events -> Sound Playback, none of the selections make any sound when the test button is selected.
- only one sound card enabled as below...

tadiv@tadiv-tv-room:~$ lspci | grep -i audio
02:09.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy (rev 04)
tadiv@tadiv-tv-room:~$

- Okay - now it's time for me to rant about LINUX a bit more than above...

I was booting into - Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-17-386 not - Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-17-generic...

SO in the generic kernel MY VIDEO STILL IS MESSED UP... HOW IS A NOVICE LIKE ME EVER SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT NEW AND BETTER KERNEL IS SUPPOSED TO BE USED.....!!!!!!???????

NOW Before I can troubleshoot the sound problem in the #$#@#$# generic kernel, I have to get the video working there ....

I'll be back after who knows how long it is going to take to get the NVIDIA video working in the generic kernel... And the LINUX community fails to understand the success of a terrible product like Windows.... UGH!

Tom

Okay - so the video is working -- now let me get back to troublshooting...

- I am booting into the generic kernel...

Looks like all needed packages are installed - note nothing updated...
.
.
Reading package lists... Done
tadiv@tadiv-tv-room:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
tadiv@tadiv-tv-room:~$ sudo apt-get install linux-ubuntu-modules-$(uname -r)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-17-generic is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
tadiv@tadiv-tv-room:~$

several more items on the list as below...

tadiv@tadiv-tv-room:~$
tadiv@tadiv-tv-room:~$ sudo adduser $(who am i | cut -d" " -f 1) audio
The user `tadiv' is already a member of `audio'.
tadiv@tadiv-tv-room:~$ sudo chmod 660 /dev/snd/*
tadiv@tadiv-tv-room:~$
tadiv@tadiv-tv-room:~$ asoundconf list
Names of available sound cards:
Audigy2
tadiv@tadiv-tv-room:~$

only the grep was found... no processes to kill...
tadiv@tadiv-tv-room:~$ ps -edalf | grep -i dsp
0 R tadiv 6764 6655 0 80 0 - 751 - 15:05 pts/0 00:00:00 grep -i dsp
tadiv@tadiv-tv-room:~$

Nothing there -- I'm going through the steps in the thread you provided...

Tom

What a nightmare -- so I'm going through the following steps:

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Getting the ALSA drivers from a *fresh* kernel

Sometimes, sound might be configured correctly, but for some reason or another (tinkering) it stops working. One way to go back to the old setup is to reinstall Ubuntu. However, this step is actually quite unnecessary since you are reinstalling everything because of one thing.

A faster way, is to just remove the problematic packages and reinstall them cleanly.

(1) Remove these packages
Code:

sudo apt-get --purge remove linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils

(2) Reinstall those same packages
Code:

sudo apt-get install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils
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and the installer says:
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tadiv@tadiv-tv-room:~$ sudo apt-get install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  kaffeine kwin-style-crystal
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  alsa-base alsa-utils linux-sound-base
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/1279kB of archives.
After this operation, 2392kB of additional disk space will be used.
Media change: please insert the disc labeled
 'Ubuntu 8.04 _Hardy Heron_ - Release i386 (20080422.2)'
in the drive '/cdrom/' and press enter

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and I put my Live CD in (the one I used to install) and I get:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Media change: please insert the disc labeled
 'Ubuntu 8.04 _Hardy Heron_ - Release i386 (20080422.2)'
in the drive '/cdrom/' and press enter

Media change: please insert the disc labeled
 'Ubuntu 8.04 _Hardy Heron_ - Release i386 (20080422.2)'
in the drive '/cdrom/' and press enter
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eesh - I try one more time and it's happy... here are the results...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Here is something interesting - if only I knew where the file is located...
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 Soundblaster Audigy 2 AC3 Passthrough - Howto
After a few days of fighting, I finally managed to get pure 5.1 AC3 sent from my digital coax output on a Audigy 2. Out of the box, ubuntu had PCM 2 channel output from just about anything (mp3 players, non-AC3 video, tv tuner), but no AC3 passthrough.

Ended up by creating my ~/.asoundrc as per this post:
http://www.mythtv.org/pipermail/myth...ay/088049.html

Hopefully this saves someone else the frustration.
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So where is the "~/.asoundrc" file???

Tom

It is a hidden file into your user directory, open a terminal and type:

gedit $HOME/.asoundrc

or open Nautilus and to toggle view/hide hidden files press CTRL+H

Hope this helps

Thanks -- I'll restart and see if I get sound...

Tom

No sound... I fail at step 3 of http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205449 and going through the recommended steps does not seem to help...

tadiv@tadiv-tv-room:~$ sudo modprobe snd-
[sudo] password for tadiv:
FATAL: Module snd_ not found.
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Okay - I did this with my video card 6 months ago...

Is there an audio card (that will give me digital output (PCM and AC3) that would be a good replacement for this Audigy 2 card - one that would JUST WORK?

Thanks,
Tom

So is that it -- no more help?

No further help offered.

More Info --

I dug up some speakers (took them off another machine) and hooked them to the analog output - it works - but still no output on the digital output...

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Tom

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

Anyone -- any suggestions?

A complete reinstall of Ubuntu (formatted drives) made this work again...

Tadiv - I do know there is a check box in the switches tab under the Audio control, if your analog speakers are working and your digital output is still giving you problems, you can try to click or unclick the box (whichever is opposite of the current setting)

Under Audio Control - where? In VLC? Note that it is now working (after I re-installed everything)... Thanks for the additional info..

Tom