audio problem

[Tom Metro]

dan moylan wrote:
> original post:
>> ibm t41 laptop running ubuntu 8.10
>>
>> my audio for such as timidity, play, etc has ceased to
>> work.
>>
>> a month ago, the sound worked fine -- now it doesn't.
> 
> is there any way for me to test the audio system independent
> of my current ubuntu installation, perhaps booting from a
> cdrom? 

Yes, booting a live CD would be the obvious thing to try, assuming the 
stock distribution includes the necessary drivers to support your audio 
hardware. Given that the audio only recently ceased working, trying a 
live CD for the prior version of Ubuntu might be the thing to do, as 
well as trying other distributions, as someone suggested.


> or indeed any other suggestions?

On a laptop I set up recently with Ubuntu 8.10 it required both 
compiling the latest ALSA drivers in order to get the right devices to 
show up, plus running hda-verb to twiddle a bit in the sound hardware to 
enable it.

The key to most things relating to laptop hardware is finding 
information specific to your model, rather than generic discussions. I 
assume you've gone searching for threads on T41 audio problems. Given 
how common the T41 is, it seems unlikely that a regression would have 
been introduced into the latest sound drivers and gone unnoticed.

Here are some other things to try:

Check your logs (assuming you log package upgrades) to see if the ALSA 
package was upgraded in the time frame in which you lost sound. You 
might also be able to get that information by looking at the release 
dates for packages in Ubuntu's Launchpad[1] site. If so, try downgrading 
that package. (aptitude can help you with that.)

Try going into your machine's BIOS setup screen to see if any options 
got flipped that might disable the sound hardware or enabled some legacy 
emulation.

Try shutting down the machine, unplugging it, removing the battery, and 
waiting a few minutes before reversing those steps. I've seen laptop 
hardware occasionally remember a state across power cycles.

Try building the latest ALSA drivers. Someone has written a script[2] to 
automate downloading, building, and installing the driver and its 
dependencies.

1. https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu
2. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6589810#post6589810

  -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/