ATi Soundcard does not work; no sound

There is a sound troubleshooting guide:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshooting

But for your card what you need is probably this:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto

Gutsy Gibbon has alsa 1.0.14, so you could skip the "update alsa" step.

I went to the /...SoundHowto page and did step one:
" First you must find which model of sound card you use, so run this command:'
Which yielded:
Codec: SigmaTel STAC9200
Codec: Generic 11c1 Si3054

With repect to the next step:
"You should open a file in ALSA documentation. This file is here (replace KERNEL_VERSION with your kernel's version!"

I have no idea what this means or how to do it. Any suggestions?

Many thanks,

You already have alsa 1.0.14? Check typing "alsactl --version" in terminal. Ok, assuming you do.

You can check kernel version typing "uname -r" in terminal.

This file is also here (a newer version for gutsy, but shouldn't differ much): http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/sound/alsa/ALSA-Configuration.txt

Searching for STAC9200, gives:

  STAC9200/9205/9254
     ref Reference board

So, now lets do:
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

And add a line in the end:
options snd-hda-intel model=ref

whoops! Alsa version is 1.0.13. Since in only installed this version of Ubuntu a couple of months ago, and the upgrade looked so daunting, I just guessed that I had it. Now what? Install the 1.0.14 version?

BTW uname -r = 2.6.20-16-generic

Thanks

Either follow "update to the latest version of alsa" from that second guide or upgrade to gutsy (beta).

Updating alsa manually should be safe, i can help with that if needed. Basically you have to just download alsa sources to some given place and copy & paste those commands to a terminal.

Upgrading to gutsy you have a chance that it will just work, but also a chance that nothing at all will work ;)

What are my odds with Gutsy? I'm inclined to take a chance if I have one.

Good chance that most will work, just a couple of days and it should be officially released. On the other hand updates are released every day and sometimes something new breaks... Nothing that can't be fixed with a little work, up to this time at least.

If you're new to linux/ubuntu i would rather suggest compiling, that's not that hard as it may seem.

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to take it. However, it might be a day or two as life has interceded.

Many thanks for your help.

Compiling completed.
What are my next steps?
Thanks,

Check "alsactl --version" again. :)

Open alsa-base -- type in terminal:
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

and add a line there at the end:
options snd-hda-intel model=ref

Checked version. 1.0.14 is the one.
However, after performing next two instructions, still no sound.
Thanks,

Ok, lets try some simple things first,
- right click on the volume control and make sure in preferences it has selected something with "alsa mixer"
- type "alsamixer" in terminal and make sure all the volume bars are up (not all really need to, but just in case of some channel mix)
- try with "options snd-hda-intel=auto"
- add "options snd-hda-intel probe_mask=1" to alsa-base, change 1 to 8, remove the line if it does not help

There is also a page for your card on the alsa project:
http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Module-hda-intel, but it looks rather horrible :)

Here i can read that your card should somehow work:
http://hardware4linux.info/component/16771/

A rather recent post, describing how someone got it working:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-424400.html

I tried all of your suggestions and those of the recent post, but still, no sound. I appreciate your sticking with me here. Any more suggestions?
Thanks,

What about waiting for 7.10 which is just a few days away? And if I do, do I need to undo all the attempts that we've made to fix 7.04?
Many thanks

whoops. This page is not rendering correctly. My only choice to send the message is "This Solved My Problem." Sorry.

No problem. ;) I guess you should be able to reopen this at any time. You may have more luck with 7.10, at least newer alsa will be set up on default.

It would be good to undo changes in configuration files done manually (removing alsa packages with synaptic completely and installing back should clear most automatically).

Thanks for all of your help.