Public bug reported:
On both Feisty and Gutsy, there was no sound on installation. The
problem is that the DCA channel in ALSAMIXER was set to zero. The first
time I saw this problem in Feisty, it took me a week to figure it out.
Most recently I saw it again in a clean Gutsy install, and it took me
8-9 hours to figure it out, because of course I forgot about my previous
experience. This may be "working as designed", but it is incredibly
frustrating and I decided to file a bug report so others can reference
the fix (including myself when this happens to me again.)
A great first step in troubleshooting lack of sound is to open a
terminal window and type "alsamixer". The ALSA tools might not know
your default card, and result in the following error, "alsamixer:
function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device", but before
you go and try all the troubleshooting guides that recommend reloading
modules, try, "alsamixer -c 0" or "alsamixer -c 1".
You should be at a text-GUI (aka: curses) for alsamixer. Scroll through
each channel and set them all to 100% with the left, right, and up
arrows. Also unmute all channels with the space-bar key. You may need
to hit the tab key to get to other interfaces. Check the top-left of
the screen to make sure the card you are configuring is the one you
expect.
Now that all your channels are maxed, open the GNOME sound configuration
tool. (System -> Preferences -> Sound.) You do not need to close the
alsamixer or save the settings for them to take effect. Play with the
Sound Playback drop down choices and click the Test button. Some may
give you errors, and that's okay. Hopefully you will find a setting
that works.
Lastly, return to your alsamixer window, which should still be open.
While the tone is playing from the sound configuration tool, lower the
active channels half way or so, and lower the inactive channels even
more. At this time you may want to mute some channels (again with the
space bar) or set channels to zero. Do this while the sound is playing
so that you know you are not muting your primary sound again.
The Linux sound system can be confusing. There are GNOME sound levels
and ALSA sound levels. You have to be sure neither are muted in order
to get sound output. It doesn't help that some of the channels are
called things like "DAC" (which means Digital Analog Converter, by the
way). The problem - the bug - here is that Ubuntu installs with some of
these required channels set to zero or set to mute, and dozens of people
ask for help on this issue every day. Hope this information finds its
way to some of them.
** Affects: alsa-driver (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
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No sound on installation
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/156930
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