Ubuntu
alsa-driver package

Sound doesn't work in Ubuntu 8.04, but worked in Windows 2000?

Asked by The Blob

I have been using Windows 2000 for a while with perfect sound. But recently, when Windows 2000 crashed on me, I was forced to format the hard drive and install Ubuntu 8.04. But now I have no sound. When I click the volume icon, it says something about either no GStreamer plugins installed, or no devices to control. I don't know a lot about sound cards. Surely, I must have a sound card, or else Windows 2000 wouldn't have had sound, right? I have been looking through the system and have found no traces of a sound card even being there. My computer is an old one. It's a Dell OptiPlex GX1, if that helps...

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Simon Furey (simon-furey) said : 		#1

According to the Dell documentation, the Optiplex GX1 uses the Crystal Semiconductors CS 4236 chip set installed directly on the motherboard. This chip set is known to cause problems with Suse Linux (see http://linux.derkeiler.com/Newsgroups/alt.os.linux.suse/2004-04/3791.html) and also with Ubuntu (see http://<email address hidden>/msg96361.html). Maybe you need to install another sound card and disable the Crystal Semiconductors audio facilities in the BIOS.

The fact that your computer is old doesn't matter; that's one of the good things about Linux, including Ubuntu :o). I am running Ubuntu 8.10 happily on an ancient (2001) Pentium III system I built myself. However, I use a Soundblaster Live! card for audio with no problems.

Hope this helps

Simon

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