On Fri, Jan 09, 2009 at 07:56:20AM -0800, Linux Canuck wrote:
> Sound problems are complex and hard to resolve. First off there are different
sound cards. Then each distro and desktop handles them differently. Finally
there are different servers in use such as ALSA, OSS and PulseAudio. The
implementation of the last one is an on-going issue with most distros except
Fedora, which seems to have got it down right with Fedora 10. Ubuntu's
implementation is in the words of the developer "less than stellar". I would
remove PulseAudio in Synaptic and see if that improves things.
>

(Sound of loud coughing). Got it right???? Don't tell me you're
believing the pulse audio developer's writings. Or worse, the fact that
Fedora claims it's not glitch free. We (well, I confess, I) even added
a note to the effect on a fedoraforum sticky about common problems, with
one question being, "Pulseaudio is supposed to be glitch free now, but
I'm having problems." The answer is, "It's called advertising, people.
They lied. Get over it." :)



Yes, got it right--IF--you accept all defaults, use Gnome and only have
one user.

Sigh, this is a regular rant of mine. Sorry Roy, hope I didn't shout.

I'm sorry--it's not that Fedora has more or less permanently broken
sound for non-Gnome or KDE users, it's that they regularly close bug
reports saying it's not a bug, despite the fact that since November of
2007, sound is no longer trivial in Fedora. I would estimate that they
managed to break sound for at least 10 percent of their users.

Funny though, I thought Ubuntu was actually doing a better job.
CrunchBang, a great little Ubuntu variant, using OpenBox, doesn't use
pulseaudio. So, of course sound works.


Ok, I'm calm now. I feel so much better. Thanks for listening.

Serious answer--I know Roy's not an RPM distro fan, so is probably going
by hearsay in this case. (Or if he did try Fedora recently, got lucky.)
Seriously, despite the claims of Fedora and the pulseaudio developers,
there is still this all too common thread on the forums.

Post 1. Sound isn't working.
Post 2. Try removing pulseaudio
Post 3. (From OP) Great, thanks that fixed it.

As Roy said, sound in Linux can be problematic for many reasons.
Unfortunately, they often create solutions in search of problems
<cough>pulseaudio</cough> that break previously working solutions.

Laptops, especially, can be problematic. Sometimes doing something like
adding model=<modelname, e.g. acer, toshiba--not sure about the HP
designation> to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base (creating the file if it
doesn't exist) can fix it. For example, on my Acer Aspire, I have
(though not on Crunchbang, where sound Just Works(TM)--see above about
pulseaudio)


options snd-hda-intel model=acer

(Obviously, replacing acer with whatever is proper for HP, and the
module with your module.)

Then, sometimes, you can get away with

alsa force-reload

but often, you have to restart.

Also, the obvious--check the volume with alsamixer. (Another
interesting design decision--alsa starts off muted by defalt--I keep
thinking it was probably created by someone who watched naughty things
online while living with their parents). Make sure that master, pcm and
any other likely culprits are not muted.



--
Scott Robbins
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