Can alsa-driver 1.0.24 be easily installed on Ubuntu 10.10 yet, without using an unstable ppa? - Microphone doesn't work on ALC269VB with 1.0.23

Please run:

wget -O alsa-info.sh http://alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh && bash ./alsa-info.sh

And upload to the site, it will generate a red URL. What is the address please?

You can add the PPA at your own risk with:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ricotz/unstable; sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get -y upgrade

You may find you need an option on your sound module to get working, not a newer ALSA.

Thanks for the reply

It's tricky to upload that info, since it's actually my sister's netbook we're talking about, and she's left the country- planning to sort it out via vinagre, so I might be able to upload that info soon.

That doesn't really answer the question though, I'm wanting to know if the stable release is going to be available for maverick (as deb packages), since I'd rather not risk messing things up again with unstable packages. Unless they're the same thing at the moment?

Also is there anything else I need to do with regards to installing, like killing alsa before installing, or doing any set up after installation etc?

What are you refering to by options on the module? I tried everything I could find in forums and google etc, but it's possible I missed something like that.

Sorry I can't give more info right now

As long as you can generate the hyperlink and get it here somehow then it doesn't matter, even if she emails you the link thats one way around.

If you are using VNC then make sure you use an SSH tunnel as VNC is NOT secure

@Mark
That stable version will *not* be provided as an *update* for Maverick. However, individual bug fixes may be backported to the Ubuntu version with the earlier major version number. Furthermore, it is possible that the stable version will eventually be provided in the official Maverick backports repository. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuBackports.

Please note that backporting individual bug fixes is backporting in a slightly different sense from the sense in which backported applications are provided in backports repositories. In the former case, an older version of a program or library is modified to fix a bug fixed in a later version. In the latter case, the later version of a program or library is modified to run on an older release of Ubuntu (and sometimes that modification is negligible).

Of course, if the older version has a bug that is fixed in the newer version but nobody *knows* about it, then the fix won't be backported to the older version. Therefore, if you really have a bug here, and it is really fixed in the later version, it would be good to establish that and report the bug (see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs). But before *reporting* a bug, you need to know if actually you have one, so for that reason (and also because it might just fix your problem!), you (or your sister) should run the command actionparsnip gave you to run and then paste the generated URL here:

wget -O alsa-info.sh http://alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh && bash ./alsa-info.sh

Hi guys, thanks for the help and advice!

She generated the report, which is at http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=856b812fc2ee0fc395251a24aa1096f308999196

One thing that sticks out to me that I changed is that I added in the Modprobe Option: snd-hda-intel: model=basic
This was because without it when I went to Sound Preferences (from Ubuntu sound indicator), the input tab had no 'Connector' option at all, and didn't even say Connector. I read about people adding this option in, and when I tried it it fixed up the preferences window so I figured it wasn't a negative change at least, even though input didn't work with any of the Connector options. Other than this, and fiddling with input volumes etc I don't recall changing anything at all, it was a fresh install.

Thanks!

Did the PPA conmand I gave get ran?

try:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ricotz/unstable; sudo apt-get install alsa-driver alsa-lib alsa-utils

I haven't yet, but if you recommend that I'll give it a go! If it doesn't fix the problem I'll generate another report.

I might take a day or two, been having issues with our (seriously crap) router, which can't seem to open ports or something, so vinagre wasn't working for remote desktopping. I'll just tell her what to type in anyway though.

Thanks

Uh, problem: The ricotz ppa actually doesn't have deb packages for alsa-driver and alsa-lib, just source. Ideas? I couldn't find any other ppas that have them.

No, they are packages:
https://launchpad.net/~ricotz/+archive/unstable

See on the right where it says

Latest updates

ffmpeg-extra five days ago
Successfully built
ffmpeg-extra five days ago
Successfully built
ffmpeg five days ago
Successfully built
ffmpeg five days ago
Successfully built
alsa-utils 12 days ago
Successfully built

you build source to make binaries.

Hehe not really hey! If you look at the alsa-driver package you'll notice that it only has a tar.bz2 and a .dsc. Kinda strange since the other packages have been built. I noticed this because when you add the ppa there are no updates for the alsa-driver through synaptic.

Have you seen anything amiss in the audio report we submitted? If nobody's bothering to install 1.0.24 on maverick then maybe my problem can either be solved without the new drivers, or there's a bug that hasn't been reported. Right? Or they've installed it from source I guess :P

Hang on, is alsa-driver even a real package, or is it a bundle of linux-sound-base, alsa-base, and alsa-source? Because the alsa website has a source download for alsa-driver, but even without the unstable ppa the ubuntu repositories don't any such package. And when I look at the details for the alsa-driver package on the unstable ppa lauchpad page it just shows the linux-sound-base, alsa-base, and alsa-source binaries. But then you said "sudo apt-get install alsa-driver alsa-lib alsa-utils", so I presume it must exist. Also synaptic would surely have an empty package that depends on those three packages if this were the case.

Maybe you can clarify :)

Yes it's in the PPA I gave the command to add and use. The PPA seperates the ALSA into parts but Ubuntu uses alsa-base and alsa-utils but the maintainer has chosen to divide them, hence the structure of the command. This should give you alsa 1.0.24

Sorry, but that doesn't make any sense to me. I get "E: Unable to locate package alsa-driver" and "E: Unable to locate package alsa-lib". Are you saying alsa-driver == alsa-base + alsa-utils? Then what's the purpose of alsa-lib, and why would we try to install alsa-driver if that's never an actual package on itself?

Could try:

sudo apt-get --reinstall install alsa-base alsa-utils

May help. You can check the repo and see why I recommended packages
https://launchpad.net/~ricotz/+archive/unstable?field.series_filter=maverick

Okay, I'll try that and get back to you.

No offense, but it would really help if you answer my questions, or at least say if you're not sure, chances of fixing things are rather slim when I'm confused about what the alsa-driver package even is. But thanks for the link. From what I understand now, the loose term "ALSA" is the alsa-driver package, which in the ubuntu repositories is packaged as "alsa-base", "alsa-source", and "linux-sound-base". I don't need the second two, so to update my alsa-driver is effectively to update the alsa-base package. So "sudo apt-get --reinstall install alsa-base alsa-utils" seems... apt. Thanks

If the ppa doesn't work then short of using the source files and compiling, I am unsure how to upgrade the ALSA.

ALSA is a library which communicates with the kernel and sound hardware to manage sound. Pulse is a further abstraction of ALSA to add extra functionality. Think of it as layers

 Sound App
        |
    Pulse
        |
    ALSA
        |
Linux Kernel
        |
   Hardware

HTH

Yeah, thanks, that gives some perspective :) Are you sure this will work? I tried it out on my laptop first, and after upgrading alsa-base and alsa-utils to 1.0.24 from the PPA, if I generate the alsa report via the script I get this:

!!ALSA Version
!!------------

Driver version: 1.0.23
Library version: 1.0.24.1
Utilities version: 1.0.24.2

The alsa-base package description says: "For ALSA to work on a system with a given sound card, there must be an ALSA driver for that card in the kernel. Linux 2.6 as shipped in linux-image packages contains ALSA drivers for all supported sound cards in the form of loadable modules. A custom alsa-modules package can be built from the sources in the alsa-source package using the m-a utility (included in the module-assistant package). Please read the README.Debian file for more information about loading and building modules." So I presume that since the driver is built into the kernel it would need to actually be compiled so that it can be integrated into the kernel. Do you know if this is true?

As far as I can tell my options are to A) compile the driver from source (I found clear instructions for this here: http://duopetalflower.blogspot.com/2011/02/alsa-1024-in-ubuntu-1010.html), which has the risk that if I botch it my sister will be left to reinstall ubuntu herself, or B) upgrade to natty alpha, which has the potential of being buggy and crashing on her for the next month or so. Any advice before I flip a coin? :P

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