Upgrade Alsa (1.0.20) on Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04

May 9th, 2009 by alpho2k |

Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 is coming by default with the version 1.0.18rc3 of Alsa so I decided to upgrade to the last verison wich is 1.0.20.

What is Alsa (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) ?

According to Wikipedia, Alsa is a Linux kernel component intended to replace the original Open Sound System (OSS) for providing device drivers for sound cards. Some of the goals of the ALSA project at its inception were automatic configuration of sound-card hardware, and graceful handling of multiple sound devices in a system, goals which it has largely met.

Installation :

To do this, we must begin by determining our version of alsa as follows :

cat /proc/asound/version Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.18rc3.

To avoid problems during the upgrade of Alsa-utils, we need to stop it with the following command :

sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils stop

We must then install the necessary tools to compile along with the kernel headers :

sudo apt-get -y install build-essential ncurses-dev gettext xmlto libasound2-dev sudo apt-get -y install linux-headers-`uname -r` libncursesw5-dev

Then, we go in our personal folder and download alsa-driver, alsa-lib and alsa-utils :

cd ~ rm -rf ~/alsa* ~/.pulse* wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-driver-1.0.20.tar.bz2 wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/lib/alsa-lib-1.0.20.tar.bz2 wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/utils/alsa-utils-1.0.20.tar.bz2

After that, we create a new folder for the compilation and installation of the 3 files. Then, we move the 3 tar files that we just downloaded in this folder :

sudo rm -rf /usr/src/alsa sudo mkdir -p /usr/src/alsa cd /usr/src/alsa sudo cp ~/alsa* .

Unpack the 3 tar files :

sudo tar xjf alsa-driver* sudo tar xjf alsa-lib* sudo tar xjf alsa-utils*

We compile and install alsa-driver :

cd alsa-driver* sudo ./configure sudo make sudo make install

We compile and install alsa-lib :

cd ../alsa-lib* sudo ./configure sudo make sudo make install

We compile and install alsa-utils :

cd ../alsa-utils* sudo ./configure sudo make sudo make install

Then, we remove the 3 tar files in our personal folder that are not anymore necessary :

rm -f ~/alsa-driver* rm -f ~/alsa-lib* rm -f ~/alsa-utils*
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Then, just restart your computer and your alsa version should be 1.0.20!

You can verify that you have now indeed have this version of alsa :

cat /proc/asound/version Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.20. Compiled on May 9 2009 for kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (SMP).

Just to be sure everything is well configured, execute this command :

sudo alsaconf

Share and Enjoy:

alsa

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 10:30 am and is filed under Kubuntu, Linux, Sound, Ubuntu, alsa, alsa 1.0.20. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

88 Comments For This Post

Patrick Says:
May 9th, 2009 at 6:25 pm

Thanks for this tutorial! This worked perfectly for me with an ALC888 and Ubuntu 9.04!!!!!
Javier Says:
May 13th, 2009 at 4:05 am

Great article!

My sound card is working using Alsa (1.0.20).

I use your information to write this article in spanish. I have referenced your blog.

Thaks!
Rog3236 Says:
May 14th, 2009 at 10:54 am

Followed directions for upgrade from 1.0.18rc3. However, after installation when I do a cat /proc/asound/version command no file or directory is found. Needless to say as a Newbie am sort of at a loss as to what to do next.
Jacob J. Morales Says:
May 16th, 2009 at 11:08 pm

Thanks for this tutorial, helped me get my sound working right!
Foo Says:
May 19th, 2009 at 11:28 am

Wow, I can’t wait to give this a try. I am new to Ubuntu and after an install of 9.04, I could not for the life of me get my sound working. I followed a few online guides but all to no avail.

I’m going to reinstall 9.04 and see if this helps get my laptop soundcard working. Will let you know how it goes.
raamee Says:
May 20th, 2009 at 6:28 am

Hi, i updated alsa using ur tutorial,but still no sound is there..! what may be the problem? pls help!
alpho2k Says:
May 20th, 2009 at 6:34 am

Did you check alsamixer just to be sure that your sound is not muted?
Foo Says:
May 20th, 2009 at 6:45 am

Yep, I did take a look at alsamixer and made sure nothing was muted. I have quite a new laptop and my understanding is the sound card may not yet be supported, but possibly is with the .20 version.

I’m going to give things a go later today and will post back here with the result. Cheers!
raamee Says:
May 20th, 2009 at 7:22 am

yup, got sound.! go to system–> preferences->sound, change auto detect to ALSA,,! sound came.!
Alice Says:
May 23rd, 2009 at 5:35 pm

You forget to execute
sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils stop
first and then at the end
sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils restart

This can cause some problems http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=394124
Valerio Says:
May 24th, 2009 at 4:53 pm

Thank you for this tutorial, really useful!

Best regards!
HBR Says:
May 26th, 2009 at 11:26 pm

No sound =(

heber@heber-laptop:~$ cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.20.
Compiled on May 24 2009 for kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (SMP).

I have checked alsa sound mixer too, I have up grated from intrepid to jaunty, I use to have sound whit the script in the forums now I don’t know what to do…
Daniel Says:
May 28th, 2009 at 2:50 pm

Thanks man, solved my problem
garrotter Says:
May 28th, 2009 at 4:54 pm

Thanks this tutorial, my sound card is working (acer aspire one d150, ubuntu 9.04)
Foo Says:
May 30th, 2009 at 10:08 am

Hmmm, no luck. I did manage to upgrade to the 1.0.20 version but no sound. I have checked and nothing appears to be muted so not sure where to go from here.

Should sound playback (under the Sound Preferences section) be set to ALSA – Advanced Sound Linux Architecture or HDA Intel ALCA889 Analog (ALSA)? When I click on the Test button, nothing happens…it is almost as if sound IS being played but I can’t hear it. This is quite frustrating! Any and all help appreciated.
alpho2k Says:
May 30th, 2009 at 10:26 am

Did you do that? http://monespaceperso.org/blog-en/2009/04/29/acer-aspire-6920-no-sound-on-ubuntu-jaunty-904/
Beer Baron Says:
May 31st, 2009 at 4:19 pm

cat /proc/asound/version
cat: /proc/asound/version: No such file or directory

This is the same problem that Rog3236 has. I followed these instructions to the letter, but now I have no sound at all. It seems to have completely uninstalled ALSA from my system (although it still shows as installed in Synaptic, albeit it’s the 1.0.18 version).

I’m running a fresh install of Jaunty x64, and I have a Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum sound card.
Beer Baron Says:
May 31st, 2009 at 5:07 pm

Tried reinstalling everything related to ALSA through Synaptic… still no sound at all. Can someone help please? I’d rather have 2.1 sound from a 7.1 system than 0.0 sound I originally tried this to get my 7.1 sound working.
Foo Says:
June 1st, 2009 at 3:50 am

I followed the instructions given by alpho2k here: http://monespaceperso.org/blog-en/2009/04/29/acer-aspire-6920-no-sound-on-ubuntu-jaunty-904/ and edited the conf file to include options snd-hda-intel model=auto but it hasn’t helped.

While frustrating, I guess it does let a noob like me learn more about Linux. If anyone any tips – feel free to fire away!
Beer Baron Says:
June 1st, 2009 at 10:31 am

Fixed! As I suspected, the problem was in this line of code:
sudo ./configure –with-cards=hda-intel –with-kernel=/usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Just use it without the additional operators, like so:
sudo ./configure

The former option may work fine for the author’s particular laptop, but it didn’t for my system. Just using sudo ./configure will probably work for all systems (though it may install more drivers than necessary – not a big deal though, the whole driver tar file is only 30-some MB).

ALSA 1.0.20 is now working great on my system. Thanks for this tutorial (though I think you should clarify the instructions regarding the driver installation above to save people headaches).
Foo Says:
June 1st, 2009 at 1:27 pm

Hey Beer Baron – I did as you suggested and ran sudo ./configure instead of sudo ./configure –with-cards=hda-intel –with-kernel=/usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r) but still no joy.

I searched on the issue and found this post on the Ubuntu forum http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7382988#post7382988 and followed the instructions, specifically editing the alsa-base.conf file and adding the below two lines to the end of the file:

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel model=auto

Sound is now working for me, hooray! Thanks to all for your suggestions.
Foo Says:
June 1st, 2009 at 2:00 pm

Gah, I spoke too soon. While sound is indeed working (yaay), it is very quiet compared to under Windows Vista. I have checked out Alpho2k’s post on enabling the tuba bass, but it’s still not working. Oh well, better to have some sound than no sound.

Troubleshooting is a great way to learn things as well!
LoganPhyve Says:
June 5th, 2009 at 9:58 am

Much thanks for the install tips. My headphone jack functions again! I was getting tired of pulling my hair out :/

‘S all good now!

Thanks man!
abhi Says:
June 12th, 2009 at 9:36 pm

i m using dell studio 15. initially was using ubuntu 8.10, which was working nice except two problems i have seen – 1) headphone & speakers giving sound togeter & 2)display brightness doesnot change.
one of my friend suggested to ugrade for 9.04. so we did it.
now the problem is inccreased. there is no sound now not even system beep & display brightness still not working.
i tried the same procedure mentioned above. but still problem not solved.
if somebody can help me, then it would better for me.

Thanks
Foo Says:
June 15th, 2009 at 9:54 am

Hey Abhi – try searching on the Ubuntu forum for help with regard to your sound issue. There are some very knowledgeable people there who may be able to help.

I worked out the problem with my sound being quiet and it is because only the front two speakers of the laptop are working, whereas under windows all five work. Anyone know how to ‘activate’ 5.1 sound? Maybe I should take my own advice and take a look at the Ubuntu forum! If anyone does have any hints – please fire them this way
Nero Says:
June 18th, 2009 at 8:23 am

Great tutorial.
I’m new to ubuntu, and have problems with installing my audio drivers, and have been trying to get the 1.0.20 packages to work for a long time now, your the first one whos told us to install
sudo apt-get -y install build-essential ncurses-dev gettext xmlto sudo apt-get -y install linux-headers-'uname -r'

However, my sounds are still not working
I can only hear wierd clicking noises, wich ive figure out to be bass from a bass test…
(ive put every setting to top, even PCM in volum control…)
Nat Says:
June 26th, 2009 at 6:12 pm

This solution worked for me twice, but it’s failed after the latest update to Jaunty. I got to unpacking the first tar file and got this in Terminal:

cd /usr/src/alsa
nathanael@nat-pc:/usr/src/alsa$ sudo cp ~/alsa* .
nathanael@nat-pc:/usr/src/alsa$ sudo tar xjf alsa-driver*
tar: alsa-driver-1.0.20: Cannot read: Is a directory
tar: At beginning of tape, quitting now
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

bzip2: Compressed file ends unexpectedly;
perhaps it is corrupted? Possible reason follows.
bzip2: Invalid argument
Input file = (stdin), output file = (stdout)

It is possible that the compressed file(s) have become corrupted.
You can use the -tvv option to test integrity of such files.

You can use the `bzip2recover’ program to attempt to recover
data from undamaged sections of corrupted files.

tar: Child returned status 2
tar: alsa-driver-1.0.20.tar.bz2: Not found in archive
tar: alsa-driver-1.0.20.tar.bz2.1: Not found in archive
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

Can any one help solve this?

Thanks!
Geoffrey Says:
June 27th, 2009 at 3:06 am

Hi,

I am a Ubuntu newbie trying to follow your instructions (above) for which I thank you.

First concern… when I got to this… sudo apt-get -y install linux-headers-uname -r

I got this… linux-headers-uname -r Reading package lists… Done Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done linux-headers-2.6.28-13-generic is already the newest version. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

I originally got this at step one.. Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.18rc3. (same as in your example) so is it a problem that the ‘feedback’ says ” allready the newest version 0 upgraded etc?

Second concern, I went ahead and then downloaded the three Alsa files, all are in my home folder.

But this confused me… “After that, we create a new folder for the compilation and installation of the 3 files. Then, we move the 3 tar files that we just downloaded in this folder”

What does the folder have to be called and where should it be please? (OK you can stop laughing now – I really am a newbie, but I am trying to learn).

I went ahead and just put them in an unnamed folder in my home folder then tried the next steps but only got…

geoffrey@geoffrey-desktop:~$ sudo mkdir -p /usr/src/alsa
[sudo] password for geoffrey:
geoffrey@geoffrey-desktop:~$ cd /usr/src/alsa
geoffrey@geoffrey-desktop:/usr/src/alsa$ sudo cp ~/alsa* .
cp: cannot stat `/home/geoffrey/alsa‘: No such file or directory
geoffrey@geoffrey-desktop:/usr/src/alsa$ sudo cp ~/alsa .
geoffrey@geoffrey-desktop:/usr/src/alsa$

Obviously I have made some very basic mistakes due to my ignorance and I would appreciate any help you care to give. Thankyou.
a. c. ediz Says:
June 28th, 2009 at 11:48 am

thank you so much. solved all my problems )
gjv Says:
June 30th, 2009 at 2:36 pm

u definately da man thx peace
Luke O'Connell Says:
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:47 am

Thanks so much for this one Alpho2k, clear concise instructions with enough detail to learn from. Helped me solve a seriously convoluted Jaunty problem with a Dell Vostro system.
onza Says:
July 4th, 2009 at 3:18 am

Thanks!!! it worked perfectly, now i have sound!
Alex Boydston Says:
July 4th, 2009 at 6:02 am

I seemed to have run into some difficulty. I followed all of the steps and now when I do the command
cat /proc/asound/version I get the following: “cat: /proc/asound/version: No such file or directory”. I attempted to redo the steps per your instructions; however, I get to the following problems. Can you please help?

alexkimboydston@alexkimboydston:~$ cat /proc/asound/version
cat: /proc/asound/version: No such file or directory
alexkimboydston@alexkimboydston:~$ sudo apt-get -y install build-essential ncurses-dev gettext xmlto
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
build-essential is already the newest version.
Note, selecting libncurses5-dev instead of ncurses-dev
libncurses5-dev is already the newest version.
gettext is already the newest version.
xmlto is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
alexkimboydston@alexkimboydston:~$ sudo apt-get -y install linux-headers-uname -r
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
linux-headers-2.6.28-13-generic is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
alexkimboydston@alexkimboydston:~$ cd ~
alexkimboydston@alexkimboydston:~$ wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-driver-1.0.20.tar.bz2
–2009-07-04 05:55:12– ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-driver-1.0.20.tar.bz2
=> `alsa-driver-1.0.20.tar.bz2.2′
Resolving http://ftp.alsa-project.org... 212.20.107.51
Connecting to http://ftp.alsa-project.org|212.20.107.51|:21… connected.
Logging in as anonymous … Logged in!
==> SYST … done. ==> PWD … done.
==> TYPE I … done. ==> CWD /pub/driver … done.
==> SIZE alsa-driver-1.0.20.tar.bz2 … 2900799
==> PASV … done. ==> RETR alsa-driver-1.0.20.tar.bz2 … done.
Length: 2900799 (2.8M)

100%[======================================>] 2,900,799 162K/s in 13s

2009-07-04 05:55:28 (210 KB/s) – `alsa-driver-1.0.20.tar.bz2.2′ saved [2900799]

alexkimboydston@alexkimboydston:~$ wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/lib/alsa-lib-1.0.20.tar.bz2
–2009-07-04 05:55:37– ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/lib/alsa-lib-1.0.20.tar.bz2
=> `alsa-lib-1.0.20.tar.bz2.2′
Resolving http://ftp.alsa-project.org... 212.20.107.51
Connecting to http://ftp.alsa-project.org|212.20.107.51|:21… connected.
Logging in as anonymous … Logged in!
==> SYST … done. ==> PWD … done.
==> TYPE I … done. ==> CWD /pub/lib … done.
==> SIZE alsa-lib-1.0.20.tar.bz2 … 794728
==> PASV … done. ==> RETR alsa-lib-1.0.20.tar.bz2 … done.
Length: 794728 (776K)

100%[======================================>] 794,728 223K/s in 3.8s

2009-07-04 05:55:43 (206 KB/s) – `alsa-lib-1.0.20.tar.bz2.2′ saved [794728]

alexkimboydston@alexkimboydston:~$ wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/utils/alsa-utils-1.0.20.tar.bz2
–2009-07-04 05:55:49– ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/utils/alsa-utils-1.0.20.tar.bz2
=> `alsa-utils-1.0.20.tar.bz2.2′
Resolving http://ftp.alsa-project.org... 212.20.107.51
Connecting to http://ftp.alsa-project.org|212.20.107.51|:21… connected.
Logging in as anonymous … Logged in!
==> SYST … done. ==> PWD … done.
==> TYPE I … done. ==> CWD /pub/utils … done.
==> SIZE alsa-utils-1.0.20.tar.bz2 … 1044483
==> PASV … done. ==> RETR alsa-utils-1.0.20.tar.bz2 … done.
Length: 1044483 (1020K)

100%[======================================>] 1,044,483 201K/s in 5.4s

2009-07-04 05:55:56 (187 KB/s) – `alsa-utils-1.0.20.tar.bz2.2′ saved [1044483]

alexkimboydston@alexkimboydston:~$ sudo mkdir -p /usr/src/alsa
alexkimboydston@alexkimboydston:~$ cd /usr/src/alsa
alexkimboydston@alexkimboydston:/usr/src/alsa$ sudo cp ~/alsa* .
alexkimboydston@alexkimboydston:/usr/src/alsa$ sudo tar xjf alsa-driver*
tar: alsa-driver-1.0.20.tar.bz2.1: Not found in archive
tar: alsa-driver-1.0.20.tar.bz2.2: Not found in archive
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
alexkimboydston@alexkimboydston:/usr/src/alsa$ sudo tar xjf alsa-lib*
tar: alsa-lib-1.0.20.tar.bz2.1: Not found in archive
tar: alsa-lib-1.0.20.tar.bz2.2: Not found in archive
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
alexkimboydston@alexkimboydston:/usr/src/alsa$ sudo tar xjf alsa-utils*
tar: alsa-utils-1.0.20.tar.bz2.1: Not found in archive
tar: alsa-utils-1.0.20.tar.bz2.2: Not found in archive
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
alexkimboydston@alexkimboydston:/usr/src/alsa$ cd alsa-driver*
bash: cd: alsa-driver-1.0.20.tar.bz2: Not a directory
Gianni Says:
July 5th, 2009 at 3:19 am

Amazing! First time I manage to follow a tutorial and actually get something fixed in ubuntu!
Thanks a lot
Zenmester Says:
July 5th, 2009 at 9:21 am

Hi Stephane
I would like to thank you for your manuals and your blog, keep up the good work.
Zenmester
Bert Says:
July 6th, 2009 at 11:23 pm

Thank you very much Stéphane. This was a wonderful help in getting sound working on my HP Mini 110 runnung Ubuntu Netbook Remix. It came with XP installed which I was ready to give up and resort to when I came across your blog. Your walk thru was simple to follow and worked perfectly for me. Well done!

Bert
Anon Says:
July 7th, 2009 at 1:33 am

Rico Tzschichholz also has a PPA that includes ALSA 1.0.20 for Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty).

I haven’t used it myself, but it may help those that don’t want to compile their own.
mhenriday Says:
July 7th, 2009 at 8:58 am

I’ve got the latest version – Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.20 – on my «2.6.28-13-generic» Jaunty kernel. But alas, no sound at all. Another odd thing is that when I try to remove superfluous files from my home directory, I get results of the following type :

rm: kan inte ta bort [cannot delete]
“/home/mhenriday/alsa-driver-1.0.20″:
Är en katalog [Is a directory]

This would seem to indicate that things may have been installed in the wrong places, which in turn might (partially) explain why I’m getting no sound. Perhaps I should return to square one and try to re-install ?…

Henri
alpho2k Says:
July 9th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Heu guys,

I just found something. If like me, you have no sound in firefiox, skype and vlc, juste run this command in a terminal!
```
sudo alsaconf
```
mhenriday Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 4:09 am

When I try the above, I get :

sudo: alsaconf: command not found

Henri
Christos Says:
July 13th, 2009 at 2:33 am

Thank you so much! It worked perfectly!
bekabug Says:
July 13th, 2009 at 3:25 pm

Thank you SO much Fixed my problems
Robiie Says:
July 20th, 2009 at 4:04 am

hi all good til i try to move my downloaded files into usr/src/alsa directory, maybe because im draggieng and droping comands into terminal???? comand sudo cp ~/alsa* . doesnt work for me. help!!!
Neil Robinson Says:
July 20th, 2009 at 7:47 am

Hey Stéphane,

Thank you so much for this!

I spent days and five re-installations of 9.04 64-bit before I found your post.

I now have sound working on my new Dell Vostro 220s for the first time. Thanks for making it so easy to follow!

Now I just need to fix the system freeze on fast user switching problem!
Morno Says:
July 22nd, 2009 at 2:41 pm

hi my mic dosent work on Ubuntu 9.04 how can i make it work please e-mail me on tobias888@hotmail.com
John Says:
July 27th, 2009 at 6:08 pm

For some reason When I have to unpack the files It tells me That the drivers, lib and utils are not found in archives.
I’m doing everything in root, and I did everything the way your guide said, copied step by step.
For the life of me I cannot figure this out, I’m an ubuntu noob.
Neil Robinson Says:
July 28th, 2009 at 1:50 am

John – Don’t worry about being new to Ubuntu – I’m not that far ahead of you!

What you are doing here is a series of sequential steps. Like baking a cake. Open up terminal and make sure you work in the admin context with sudo (you become the chef). What follows next is the standard way you build things in Linux, so its worth learning this vital process.

Step 1: You start with a check to see what you’ve got (do you already have a cake?).

Step 2: You go and get the compiling tools necessary to mix the ingredients (the files) you’re about to download.

Step 3: Move into your home directory (cd ~) and download all three file packages (the ingredients) you’ll need.

Step 4: Now, you create the directory or folder where the files will finish up and move into it. Like getting the mixing bowl ready.

Step 5: Time to unpack the three tar file archives (unwrap the ingredients) into the mixing bowl.

Step 6, 7, 8: Now mix, shape and bake the three sets of files (configure/make/make install). You do that on all three packages, remember!

Step 9: Clean up the work area (rm) on this step by removing the packaging.

Step 10: Finally, step back and admire your new cake. And if it not there, its just because you missed a step, or something went wrong with that step. Just up-arrow back through the history in terminal to see what went wrong.

Sorry if that’s a bit basic, but that’s the process!
clovis Says:
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:24 pm

Thank you very much. This solved my problem on an Acer Aspire 4530.
Jose Says:
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:10 pm

Ran into a problem while compiling. You may want to mention you’ll also need ‘patch’. apt-get install patch
Adam Says:
August 4th, 2009 at 1:12 pm

Thanks so much for this – its got my Creative Xfi working better than ever after a few days of no sound at all.

Just one question though – none of these new packages show up in Synaptic, and when I try to run an alsa restart or alsa-utils restart (I’ve had problems with no sound coming out of suspend for nearly a year now…) neither command is known any more. Any idea what might have gone wrong?
virsol Says:
August 5th, 2009 at 7:11 pm

Stéphane, thanks you for your How-To, my zotac Ion has HDMI Audio now!!

I also used the suggestions found on post 10 & 20. I have alsa 1.0.20 across the whole computer now, though twice before it wouldn’t show the correct updated version(via cat /proc/asound/version) .

NooB Alert!!

Ref; to post 49, if I need this where do use in during this How-To? i.e. Before this, after that..TIA

v-
Kristopher Says:
August 5th, 2009 at 8:27 pm

I wanted to add another million thanks! I’ve been trying to fix my sound problem (speakers & headphones same time) for several days on a Vostro 1520. Your instructions works perfectly.
Jacques Says:
August 7th, 2009 at 8:28 am

Perfect solution for a Dell Vostro 220 Desktop. Many thanks.
halfpair Says:
August 10th, 2009 at 3:48 pm

thank you a lot. it solved my problems with sound using a compaq presario cq61-220 with a codec: IDT 92HD75B2X5
the only thing i had to do in addition to your tutorial was adding
options snd-hda-intel model=hp-hdx
to the /etc/modporbe.d/alsa-base.conf
Klaus Says:
August 16th, 2009 at 10:15 am

Thanks from me too. Speakers now switch off when headphones are plugged in (Vostro 1720). At last.

In fact this cheered me up enough to find out how to get my desktop graphic effects back in business. What a cool computer I now have!

Next task: How to wake up successfully after hibernation. Any hints?

- Klaus
Klaus Says:
August 16th, 2009 at 12:14 pm

Solved hibernation issue too, it seems. This link helped:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/ubuntu-63/how-to-wake-jaunty-9.04-out-of-hibernation-742992/
- in case anyone else here has that problem.
grr Says:
August 29th, 2009 at 8:34 am

i had sound but rear speakers now i got nothing.. cheers..
kyanardag Says:
September 1st, 2009 at 11:10 pm

upgrading to alsa 1.0.20 helped hearing some sounds but it’s too low.. plus headphone does not work.. why there’s so much regression, why working things are broken at each release.. so sad…
kyanardag Says:
September 1st, 2009 at 11:43 pm

I even tried to upgrading to alsa 1.0.21 and same result, very low sound. actually it’s low because only subwoofer is working..
Fredrik Persen Fostvedt Says:
September 5th, 2009 at 8:56 am

Thank you so much for this guide. I’ve never compiled anything before and ive also learned how to use the terminal more efficiently. Great tutorial!
POLAT Says:
September 6th, 2009 at 5:59 am

Thanks for the post. I wrote the same post with my own language and referenced you…
Kshitiz Diwan Says:
September 6th, 2009 at 9:02 am

Awesome description..
It worked for me.
Thanks.
maz_azka Says:
September 9th, 2009 at 9:19 am

very nice suggestion bro…..
it’s work on my pavilion dv3-2119tx…
FurtiveGlancer Says:
September 14th, 2009 at 7:34 pm

Worked well for my Gateway T-1616 notebook running Jaunty, Ubuntu 9.04 – amd64. Karmic should be released with ALSA 1.0.20.

Merci!
Planet Fox Says:
September 15th, 2009 at 5:26 am

Good Guide and solve my problems so .

Thank you
Planet Fox Says:
September 16th, 2009 at 6:41 am

I have your Howto translate in German you can see here

http://www.howtoforge.de/blogroll/aktualisieren-des-alsa-treibers-unter-ubuntu-linux-jaunty-904/
Sharief Shaik Says:
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:12 pm

What the heck is wrong with the default Alsa mixer 1.0.18rc3. I couldn’t figure out the problem exactly. Finally upgrading to 1.0.20 worked.

Thanks a lot.

Cheers!
S
Reparator Says:
September 27th, 2009 at 2:20 am

¡Muchas gracias Stephan!
Funciona perfectamente en un HP Pavillion dv3-2150es.

Thank you!
it’s work on my HP Pavilion dv3-2150es.
Sheshu Says:
October 4th, 2009 at 1:29 pm

Great work.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
Cheers dude… veil spass……….
Noobie Says:
October 6th, 2009 at 7:42 pm

<>

Is this a folder we need to create or what?

How do we download this ” alsa-driver, alsa-lib and alsa-utils” ?
alpho2k Says:
October 6th, 2009 at 9:19 pm

what do you mean? Sorry I dont understand…
Mark Says:
October 8th, 2009 at 3:27 am

Hi Noobie,

The procedure is as follows:

Step 1: Open Terminal from “Applications->Accessories->Terminal”

Step 2: Copy-paste each command – in the blue boxes above – into the Terminal

Step 3: Reboot and retest sound.

Example: The very FIRST command to copy-paste is

cat /proc/asound/version

The LAST command to copy-paste is

sudo alsaconf

Regards,

Mark
smlkabir Says:
October 11th, 2009 at 11:53 am

thanks

it works my hp mini.
Johnny Says:
October 14th, 2009 at 2:10 pm

Thanks………………………………………………..!
Parthasarathy Says:
October 14th, 2009 at 2:44 pm

Perfect…..it works…..thank you very much///
Gayana Says:
October 15th, 2009 at 10:19 pm

This is a great post. That really worked for me.
Kognit Says:
October 19th, 2009 at 4:51 am

Hi

I have 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
(rev 03) (ASUS k50ij t3000)and ubuntu 9.04 and i did all the above but the sound just doesn’t wotk. Any help? I am really desperated!

thx
Mark Says:
October 19th, 2009 at 8:18 am

Hi Kognit,

Please create a new thread for this at this location:

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion

Regards,

Mark
Luis Says:
October 20th, 2009 at 10:33 am

ok.. I did everything and no succes.. i just installed ubuntu 9.04 in my gateway laptop model mx7118 and its beautiful except for my sound problem, i dont know what to do anymore, i already checked if anything was muted, i went to system preferences and picked ALSA, when i run the last comand line sudo alsaconf , it tells me that i have 2 sound cards:

atiixp ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 AC’97 Audio Controller (rev 02) │
│ legacy Probe legacy ISA (non-PnP) chips

i picked the first one atiixp and then it asks me:

Configuring snd-atiixp │
│ Do you want to modify │
│ /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf (and │
│ /etc/modprobe.conf if present)? │
│

i clicked yes and it answers me:

OK, sound driver is configured. │
│ │
│ ALSA CONFIGURATOR │
│ │
│ will prepare the card for playing now. │
│ │
│ Now I’ll run alsasound init script, then I’ll use │
│ amixer to raise the default volumes. │
│ You can change the volume later via a mixer

then it returns me to the terminal with this great message:

“Now ALSA is ready to use.
For adjustment of volumes, use your favorite mixer.

Have a lot of fun!”

Of curse i want to have a lot of fun but it still has no sound.. im very frustrated i have been in this problem since i installed ubuntu 10 hour ago!!! im starting to think that i might be condemn to Windows… Noooo!!
please help me!!!!!
Remember im new in this so i need a lot of advice.
Mark Says:
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:54 am

@Luis: Please try this solution:

http://techloaf.com/index.php?/archives/61-Making-Sound-Work-in-Ubuntu-7.10-on-Laptops,-even-the-MX7118.html
Luis Says:
October 26th, 2009 at 11:25 pm

Thank you Mark! it Worked and now im enjoying a sweet sound!!! One of the best things of having Ubuntu is the support that people gives, its awesome to have this virtual family!
netkraft Says:
November 11th, 2009 at 2:37 am

Hi.
Great manual! Thx a lot!
My HP tx2520er won’t play any sounds, until I following this instruction. But! It won’t also work with alsa 1.0.20 !!! It works ONLY with alsa-driver 1.0.21, available on http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads! (same steps, but newer driver needed).
rekemp Says:
November 22nd, 2009 at 11:30 am

I have a ASUS M3N78-EM. The stock ALSA that comes with Ubuntu 9.04 did not support my external SPDIF fiber interface – but after following this HOWTO it works now…..In my case I unintalled the ALSA base and utilites – rebooted – followed all of the steps except I went with the latest ALSA code.

Thanks Stephane for taking the time to write such a clear howto….
Shabab Says:
March 4th, 2010 at 12:56 pm

Thanks…

tutorial works fine for hp compaq 510 sound problem with jaunty. I was afraid about my new laptop……

thanks buddy.. I owe you….

shall redirect any jaunty related sound problem to here..!
ram Says:
March 20th, 2010 at 3:04 am

hai…i upgraded alsa 1.0.20 on my compaq610 laptop from ur website but , left speaker not work wat i will do ….please………….help me .
alpho2k Says:
March 20th, 2010 at 8:24 am

You should try 1.0.22.1 : http://monespaceperso.org/blog-en/2009/12/17/upgrade-alsa-1-0-22-on-ubuntu-karmic-koala-9-10/
Solin Says:
March 25th, 2010 at 12:08 pm

Hola, gracias está muy bien tu tutorial, gracias a esto compuse el problema que tenía: la laptop no daba sonido.
Mike Says:
May 2nd, 2010 at 10:34 am

thanks for the tutorial )))

I installed alsa 1.0.21 how to delete folders from 1.0.20 ?

rm: cannot remove `/home/myname/alsa-driver-1.0.20′: Is a directory