After upgrading to kubuntu 9.10, I have problems with alsa sound.

Asked by César Biosca.

The problem is going this way:
1st I start amarok, sounds ok.
2nd If I navigate under any page that has video or sound, it does not work, but amarok is still working.
3rd If I stop amarok for any reason, multimedia web pages gain access to alsa and there is sound, but if I try to play musinc under amarok, THERE IT IS, THERE IS NO MUSIC.

I learned how to turn it around? RESTARTING KDE, but it is tedious and sometimes it does not work and then I have to restart the machine.

So under lspci those are the values obtained:
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RD780 Northbridge only dual slot PCI-e_GFX and HT1 K8 part
00:02.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RD790 PCI to PCI bridge (external gfx0 port A)
00:06.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RD790 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port C)
00:12.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2)
00:13.3 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3)
00:13.4 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4)
00:13.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI)
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 14)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] HyperTransport Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Miscellaneous Control
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Link Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV630 [Radeon HD 2600XT]
01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc RV630/M76 audio device [Radeon HD 2600 Series]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI

It looks like no problem right?

And last subject: Do you recommend me to do what they say under the page:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/10964/how-to-fix-sound-issues-in-ubuntu-9.10/

Installing an older version of alsa?

Thanks in advanced [and specially for your patience].

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'SB'/'HDA ATI SB at 0xfe9f4000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC888'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0888,14627388,00100001'
   Controls : 36
   Simple ctrls : 21
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'HDMI'/'HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfeaec000 irq 19'
   Mixer name : 'ATI R6xx HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:1002aa01,00aa0100,00100000'
   Controls : 4
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card1.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [on]
Date: Fri Mar 5 12:25:37 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: alsa-base 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu5
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-20.57-generic
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-20-generic i686

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Ubuntu alsa-driver Edit question
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Solved by:
druisan
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Revision history for this message
César Biosca. (ceaualbi) said :
#1
Revision history for this message
Daniel T Chen (crimsun) said :
#2

This isn't a sound driver bug.

Firstly, verify that PulseAudio isn't installed. If it is, however, verify that it is running. If it is, then make sure that you configure pulse to be the top-most (highest priority) output/input in KDE System Settings > Multimedia.

Secondly, configure all apps to use ALSA's 'default' device, not hw:foo or plughw:foo or whatever. This is almost always the source of error.

Revision history for this message
Best druisan (druisan) said :
#3

Type this command, it fixed me sound problems: sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio

It will replace one of alsa's library by pulseaudio's one.

Revision history for this message
César Biosca. (ceaualbi) said :
#4

To overmind: I hve tried what You suggested me, but nope it did not fix nothing, it was worst, no sound for amarok. Had to come back to the sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian-alsa. But thanks.

To Daniel T Chen: Can You make more clear your second step, please?

Revision history for this message
César Biosca. (ceaualbi) said :
#5

To Daniel T Chen: thanks, finally I have understood your input. But it was that way! Thanks anyway!

To overmind: I finally uninstalled alsa restarted the machine and reinstalled PulseAudio, it's working!!!
Of course it doen't work as alsa did but I'TS WORKING!!!

MANY THANKS!!!

I MEAN TO BOTH, THANKS!!!

Revision history for this message
César Biosca. (ceaualbi) said :
#6

Thanks overmind, that solved my question.