ubuntu 8.10, no sound from creativelabs sb live soundcard

I suspect that you did not save your new configuration properly after disabling the onboard sound chip in the BIOS.

Type into the terminal: aplay -l

That should only show the SoundBlaster Live.

Do you hear the sound if you connect the onboard card to your speakers? I believe Ubuntu overrides the BIOS settings.
If you use ALSA for sound management (which is the default I think), you can force Ubuntu to use a different default sound card by editing/creating the file /etc/asound.conf:
sudo gedit /etc/asound.conf

and adding these two lines, or replacing the ones you see if there are any lines containing the word "default":
pcm.!default front:Live
ctl.!default front:Live

Note that you might have to replace "Live" with the name for your card, which should be listed in the output of "aplay -l". For example, in my case the output contained the line:
card 1: Live [SB PCI512 [CT4790]], device 2: emu10k1 efx [Multichannel Capture/PT Playback]

-"Andre Mangan said 3 hours ago:
I suspect that you did not save your new configuration properly after disabling the onboard sound chip in the BIOS.

Type into the terminal: aplay -l

That should only show the SoundBlaster Live."-

i have recheck on the bios it appears as disabled but it still being detected
this is what i got from

aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Live [Dell Sound Blaster Live!], device 0: emu10k1x [EMU10K1X Front]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Live [Dell Sound Blaster Live!], device 1: emu10k1x [EMU10K1X Rear]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Live [Dell Sound Blaster Live!], device 2: emu10k1x [EMU10K1X Center/LFE]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: V8237 [VIA 8237], device 0: VIA 8237 [VIA 8237]
  Subdevices: 4/4
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
card 1: V8237 [VIA 8237], device 1: VIA 8237 [VIA 8237]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

and yess when i conect the speakers to the onboard soundcard, i do hear sound coming from it

Then your problem should be fixed with editing asound.conf, as explained in my last post. After you did that, it might be good to run this command:
sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils restart

Oh, apparently there is even a GUI tool to switch between sound cards, so maybe it is unnecessary to manually edit that configuration file. Just install asoundconf-gtk and run it:
sudo apt-get install asoundconf-gtk && asoundconf-gtk

---"Cruncher said 3 hours ago:

Do you hear the sound if you connect the onboard card to your speakers? I believe Ubuntu overrides the BIOS settings.
If you use ALSA for sound management (which is the default I think), you can force Ubuntu to use a different default sound card by editing/creating the file /etc/asound.conf:
sudo gedit /etc/asound.conf

and adding these two lines, or replacing the ones you see if there are any lines containing the word "default":
pcm.!default front:Live
ctl.!default front:Live

Note that you might have to replace "Live" with the name for your card, which should be listed in the output of Cruncher said 3 hours ago:

Do you hear the sound if you connect the onboard card to your speakers? I believe Ubuntu overrides the BIOS settings.
If you use ALSA for sound management (which is the default I think), you can force Ubuntu to use a different default sound card by editing/creating the file /etc/asound.conf:
sudo gedit /etc/asound.conf

and adding these two lines, or replacing the ones you see if there are any lines containing the word "default":
pcm.!default front:Live
ctl.!default front:Live

Note that you might have to replace "Live" with the name for your card, which should be listed in the output of "aplay -l". For example, in my case the output contained the line:
card 1: Live [SB PCI512 [CT4790]], device 2: emu10k1 efx [Multichannel Capture/PT Playback]. For example, in my case the output contained the line:
card 1: Live [SB PCI512 [CT4790]], device 2: emu10k1 efx [Multichannel Capture/PT Playback]"--

i have already done it once i execute "aplay -l"
it tells me this =s

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
ALSA lib conf.c:1589:(snd_config_load1) _toplevel_:1:25:Unexpected char
ALSA lib conf.c:2850:(snd_config_hook_load) /etc/asound.conf may be old or corrupted: consider to remove or fix it
ALSA lib conf.c:2714:(snd_config_hooks_call) function snd_config_hook_load returned error: Invalid argument
ALSA lib conf.c:3079:(snd_config_update_r) hooks failed, removing configuration
aplay: device_list:224: control open (0): Invalid argument
ALSA lib conf.c:1589:(snd_config_load1) _toplevel_:1:25:Unexpected char
ALSA lib conf.c:2850:(snd_config_hook_load) /etc/asound.conf may be old or corrupted: consider to remove or fix it
ALSA lib conf.c:2714:(snd_config_hooks_call) function snd_config_hook_load returned error: Invalid argument
ALSA lib conf.c:3079:(snd_config_update_r) hooks failed, removing configuration
aplay: device_list:224: control open (1): Invalid argument

=S what did i miss??
PLEASEEE HELP!!!!

/etc/asound.conf only contains these two lines and nothing else?
pcm.!default front:Live
ctl.!default front:Live

If yes, you should try the asoundconf-gtk package I mentioned, and remove asound.conf before that with:
sudo rm /etc/asound.conf
(assuming it was empty/non-existing when you started editing it)

once i have removed the prior configuration i made with /etc/asound.conf
i installed the asoundconf-gtk, changed between the 2 sound cards but nothing happened y checked the speakers on both sound outputs and the onboard soundcard keeps sending signal even if the other soundcard is selected =s

Hm, ok, it was worth a try to test this tool and hope it would actually do what it promised... :o)
Then we should stick to the original plan, of which I am pretty certain it will work. start the editor again:
gksudo gedist /etc/asound.conf

and make sure only these two lines with nothing appended to it are in it:
pcm.!default front:Live
ctl.!default front:Live

Then run:
sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils restart

@Cruncher - Pardon the intrusion: consider guiding K'mo through the process of blacklisting the unwanted sound chip:

less /proc/asound/modules (to identify the sound devices)

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

(make entry for #onboard sound and blacklist snd_via8237)

Adapt as necessary. Needs reboot.

Thank you, that sounds like another, smooth method to solve the problem.
I just insisted on my idea, because I had the exact same problem, and creating a /etc/asound.conf solved it and I never had any ALSA trouble since ;-)