Upgrade Alsa (1.0.21) on Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04
 |
Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 is coming by default with the version 1.0.18rc3 of Alsa so I decided to upgrade to the last version wich is 1.0.21. |
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
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-1.0.21.tar.bz2
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/lib/alsa-lib-1.0.21a.tar.bz2
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/utils/alsa-utils-1.0.21.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
If like me, you got this error during the last “sudo ./configure” :
checking form.h presence... yes
checking for form.h... yes
checking for new_panel in -lpanelw... no
configure: error: panelw library not found
You will need to add those symbolics links (only if you got the error) and restart the installation from the last “sudo ./configure” :
sudo ln -s libpanelw.so.5 /usr/lib/libpanelw.so
sudo ln -s libformw.so.5 /usr/lib/libformw.so
sudo ln -s libmenuw.so.5 /usr/lib/libmenuw.so
sudo ln -s libncursesw.so.5 /lib/libncursesw.so
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*
Then, just restart your computer and your alsa version should be 1.0.21!
You can verify that you have now indeed have this version of alsa :
cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Compiled on Aug 31 2009 for kernel 2.6.28-15-generic (SMP).
Just to be sure everything is well configured, execute this command :
sudo alsaconf
Related Posts
129 Comments For This Post
Other Discussion on This Post
-
Casa di Massoni » Blog Archive » HP Compaq CQ 71 with Ubuntu 9.04
September 14th, 2009 at 3:00 pm -
Problemi audio in Ubuntu 9.04
September 20th, 2009 at 5:30 am -
Circo Linux – Articulos y Noticias sobre Gnu/Linux y lo que se nos ocurra. – Season 3. » Dell Vostro 1520 en Gnu/Linux. Ubuntu, Kubuntu, debian, fedora, otros.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:49 am -
Twitted by peter_budo
December 13th, 2009 at 10:16 pm -
瑞麗 Sound Image 火網 1723 音效卡 « 二師兄的筆記部落格
February 7th, 2010 at 11:03 am
FRANÇAIS
September 1st, 2009 at 2:58 am
configure: error: panelw library not found
encountered error on ./configure of alsa-utils-1.0.21
I suggest people wait until this has been fixed before anyone else goes ahead with it. (I’m a newbie.. so if there’s a workaround then let me know
Thanks for your easy to follow guide..
James
September 1st, 2009 at 3:11 am
Can confirm that the 1.0.21 driver and lib work fine and have both sound and internal mic on my hp pavilion dv6.
Thanks
James
September 1st, 2009 at 6:00 am
I got this error too. Here is how I fixed it :
ln -s libpanelw.so.5 /usr/lib/libpanelw.so
ln -s libformw.so.5 /usr/lib/libformw.so
ln -s libmenuw.so.5 /usr/lib/libmenuw.so
ln -s libncursesw.so.5 /lib/libncursesw.so
September 1st, 2009 at 10:14 am
also no sound on ThinkPad R61 when upgrand alsa to 1.0.21.
border@wifihack:~$ cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Compiled on Sep 1 2009 for kernel 2.6.28-15-generic (SMP).
border@wifihack:~$ sudo lshw -class sound
*-multimedia
description: Audio device
product: 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1b
bus info: pci@0000:00:1b.0
version: 03
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=HDA Intel latency=0 module=snd_hda_intel
border@wifihack:~$ cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#0 | grep Codec
Codec: Analog Devices AD1984
September 1st, 2009 at 10:58 am
Sorry, I had a very stupid mistake, when make Speaker option enable on Gnome Volume Control, and It’s work well. But I have a question, why can’t turned on the speaker item in alsamixer?
September 1st, 2009 at 5:19 pm
I can confirm that the symbolic links worked. I now have a working ALSA 1.0.21
Thanks for the fix alpho2k!
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:36 am
Salut, merci beaucoup pour ton tutorial!
September 3rd, 2009 at 11:35 am
The tutorial is very well written thanks for that. I just bought an aspire 5935 g, fixed the problem with the sound and was hoping that after I update the alsa my internal mic should start working, but no luck there. Does anyone have a similar problem? I tried the mic in vista – it works. I tried with external mic in ubuntu – it works. what might be the problem? Any help will be appreciated.
September 5th, 2009 at 6:44 am
Wow! Thanks very much for this very accurate tutorial.
my laptop has:
lspci | grep Audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
My OS is Mint7
And it wonderfully worked.
Complements!
September 5th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Hi!
What make i wrong… Seemly everything is fine. i just cant see even the audigy or the USB sound card, only the ASUS F5N mobo audio card (HDA Nvidia ALC660) /after the restart the alsa version is ok, but alsaconf could not detect the cards)
Thanks
September 8th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Hi,
thanks for this tutorial!! Great work!!
my trouble is:
audio card work….but the microphone no! I have only a loud noise! I have upgrade alsa to 1.0.21….but the noise back again.
my — cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Compiled on Sep 8 2009 for kernel 2.6.28-15-generic (SMP).
my — cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#0 |grep -i codec
Codec: Realtek ALC889
thanks,
luca
September 8th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Hi,
thanks for this tutorial!! Great work!!
my trouble is:
audio card work….but the microphone no! I have only a loud noise! I have upgrade alsa to 1.0.21….but the noise back again.
my — cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Compiled on Sep 8 2009 for kernel 2.6.28-15-generic (SMP).
my — cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#0 |grep -i codec
Codec: Realtek ALC889
thanks,
luca
September 9th, 2009 at 6:27 am
I installed Ubuntu 9.04 from a CD in my IBM X21. Very low sound on headphone. I went through the whole procedure above mentioned. I restarted by laptop and am not able to get alsa 1.0.21 installed:
malin@malin-laptop:~$ cat /proc/asound/version
cat: /proc/asound/version: No such file or directory
What went wrong?
Thanks
Enrique
September 9th, 2009 at 7:56 am
Hi.
Thanks for your guide! The only thing is that now sound maximum volume is lower than before, even if all the levels are at top.
Any suggestion, please?
Ty
September 9th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Hi
Thanks a lot and its amazing great man , once again thanks a lot
September 10th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Hi Stéphane,
Thanks for the tutorial. I still have one problem: I still get the error (panelw library not found) after adding the symbolic link.
Does anyone have any idea of what I can try next? Many thanks.
September 11th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Did you try to restart your computer after adding the symbolic link?
September 11th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Thanks Alpho2k, I did restart and now I do have alsa v.1.0.21 driver, but I still can’t compile the alsa-utils, I get the same error even with the symlinks.
September 12th, 2009 at 12:09 am
I’m not able to configure the new alsa for my USB soundcard. It doesn’t recognize the USB soundcard since i installed 1.0.21, so i need to uninstall it. I have a lot to learn about linux, but i only have one question: how can i uninstall an application if i installed it from its source folder? Would i need to uninstall it from the source folder somehow? If possible, please give me some copy & paste terminal commands. Thanks
September 12th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Hi,
wich was your last version of alsa? maybe you could try to reinstall it?
September 12th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Stephane,
Thanks for the info, saved my broken alsa installation.
Ron
September 12th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Thank you. I was having problems with the sound (was very noisy). Now it’s gone.
Very easy steps to be followed.
September 12th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
I got “error: panelw library not found” and fixed it by:
sudo apt-get install libncurses-dev
./configure –with-curses=ncurses
September 13th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I am having trouble at the …install-headers-’uname r’ part. I get the following message
john@john-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get -y install linux-headers- ‘uname -r’
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Package linux-headers is not installed, so not removed
E: Couldn’t find package uname -r
So I can’t et the Headers. I get errors on the unpacking of the tar files.
September 14th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
If you want usb support please compile the drivers with the following command:
sudo ./configure –with-cards=hda-intel,usb-audio –with-kernel=/usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)
September 15th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
I followed all these directions. I got the error the author described and successfully added the necessary symbolic links. At the end, I was unable to remove the .tar files, but other than that everything seemed to work fine. However, upon restarting the computer and entering “cat /proc/asound/version” I still see “Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.18rc3″ Why would it fail to update?
September 15th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Update: it gets even better! I tried re-doing all these steps, and now when I enter “cat /proc/asound/version” I get “No such file or directory.” It seems like it completely wiped the program.
September 15th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Sorry, last update – I was running through again to try and fix this, and noticed I’m getting the same error as #24 above. Has anyone figured out a way around this?
September 15th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Worked Perfect!
Thanks for a neat tutorial!
September 17th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Worked perfectly for me too… perfect post !!
So simple that a simple copy paste of commands did the whole upgrade.
Thanks.
But I am still having the problem of getting the sound only through my Headphones
(
I looked around a lot online and tried a lot. I have a Compaq presario CQ40 (AMD Athlon X2 64bit) with Ubuntu 9.04.
Can you help?
Thanks once again.
September 18th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
The upgrade itself worked fine for me…
…but now i have now audio at all…
I’m on a MacBook Pro C2D with mint linux.
The package manager still shows up me having version 1.0.18
any sugestions?
September 19th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
I cant seem to be able to execute the line ‘sudo alsaconf’
September 19th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Hello,
My iMac (9,1) with sound card HDA-Intel – HDA NVidia,
when compiling make for alsa-lib and alsa-utils
I got an error message for both:
make: Nothing to be done for `all’.
what should I do?
Thank you very much for your help.
September 19th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Thanks for the tutorials. I am attempting this on Ubuntu 8.04 because it is the best I have found. It all worked about as listed except:
- after entering the symbolic links and after rerunning ./compile when I run sudo make, I get an error saying that no target is specified and no makefile is found.
- WORSE is that even after reboot, sound still does not work and cat /proc/asound/version still indicates the old version. Can someone help with that? I don’t know if the utilities are important, but the version should update and function when I put do the install on the drivers, shouldn’t it?
September 20th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Everything went smooth no errors but when i restarted and did cat /proc/asound/version it’s still showing the old version and not 21. Same problem as Penguineer and ChrisLute. I wonder if this isnt the correct way to go about upgrading alsa version and maybe need to do another way with a patch or build?
September 20th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I seem to have similar problems. Here is info from http://pastebin.ca/1573099.
# ALSA Version
# ————
#
# Driver version: 1.0.18
# Library version: 1.0.21a
# Utilities version: 1.0.21
#
I didn’t notice any errors when compiling and installing the driver version (I tried it twice).
Any clues?
September 20th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Still no sound.
I also ran the script at ALSA.org as suggested by the Ubuntu support page for sound troubleshooting (as it appears that hrafn did) and, amazingly, got the same results. Here is an extract from the file generated against my offending machine:
!!Kernel Information
!!——————
Kernel release: 2.6.24-24-generic
Operating System: GNU/Linux
Architecture: i686
Processor: unknown
SMP Enabled: Yes
!!ALSA Version
!!————
Driver version: 1.0.16
Library version: 1.0.21a
Utilities version: 1.0.15
!!Loaded ALSA modules
!!——————-
snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_intel
!!Sound Servers on this system
!!—————————-
Pulseaudio:
Installed – Yes (/usr/bin/pulseaudio)
Running – Yes
ESound Daemon:
Installed – Yes (/usr/bin/esd)
Running – No
!!Soundcards recognised by ALSA
!!—————————–
0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel – HDA Intel
HDA Intel at 0xfe6f8000 irq 22
1 [HDMI ]: HDA-Intel – HDA ATI HDMI
HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfe7ec000 irq 17
!!PCI Soundcards installed in the system
!!————————————–
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller
01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device aa38
My computer has ONLY main board integrated sound, but it appears that Ubuntu is finding two: an Intel based and and ATI based. Perhaps it is the two that is causing the issues. Computer is a Dell Vostro 420.
Note that as with hrafn, my driver version did not change, even though the ./configure, make, and make install progressed without error. The library version updated in both our experiences (again, ./configure, make, and make install proceeded with no errors). For me, the utilities version did not change from the default Ubuntu installation while hrafn’s did. I got errors (identified in my previous comment) while he did not during the ./configure, make, and make install for the utilities.
Anyone have any suggestions? I am about to give up and disable the sound in bios and just put in a PCI sound card that can be handled by the current driver versions – if I only knew what card I should use!
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:39 am
i am running ubuntu 8.04 and have the exact same problem as described by penguineer…i have a dell vostro 1520 laptop and when i connect headphones, the speakers still work alongwith headphones, sometimes the headphones dont work at all,please do let me know if someone gets a workaround…
September 23rd, 2009 at 2:44 pm
$cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.18rc3.
procedure done first times (with symbolic link fix):
$cat /proc/asound/version
cat: /proc/asound/version: Nessun file o directory
procedure done second time (no fix needed):
$cat /proc/asound/version
cat: /proc/asound/version: Nessun file o directory
what should I do?
September 28th, 2009 at 12:30 am
did all the steps, everythn went fine . but when i restart n check d version it again says 1.0.18rc3
September 29th, 2009 at 12:05 am
Absolutely perfect!!!
Not a comma to add.
My DELL 1525 9.04 64bits now is running a perfect sound system. Things are called as it should and works fine.
Many, many thanks
Keep up the good work
Regards from Uruguay
September 29th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Hey guys,
for those who had problem during the installation, I just made a few changes to the guide so maybe you could try again to install alsa 1.0.21.
Stéphane
September 30th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
This worked for me as well, thanks a lot.
I am a complete newbie to Ubuntu, had NO idea what I was doing, but carefully following the steps, including the work-around the listed error, resulted in sound finally being re-enabled.
The original post is here:
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/ubuntu-help/153659-discouraging-sound-issue-9-04-a.html#post731530
Thanks again
October 1st, 2009 at 10:21 pm
It worked!
I’m a total newbie at ubuntu, so this was all immensely helpful!
I am now listening to music, (after being without any sound for a week!)
Thank you so much!
Really appreciate you putting this here, it all worked just like you showed.
Thanks!
a very happy user
October 3rd, 2009 at 7:37 am
Well I tried again with the revised instructions and I still am getting an error:
Here is what I get when trying to upgrade:
john@john-laptop:~$ cd /usr/src/alsa
john@john-laptop:/usr/src/alsa$ sudo cp ~/alsa* .
john@john-laptop:/usr/src/alsa$ sudo tar xjf alsa-driver*
john@john-laptop:/usr/src/alsa$ sudo tar xjf alsa-lib*
tar: alsa-lib-1.0.21: 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-lib-1.0.21a.tar.bz2: Not found in archive
tar: alsa-lib-1.0.21.tar.bz2: Not found in archive
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
john@john-laptop:/usr/src/alsa$
Would somone read the above and let me know what I might be missing in the installation process?
October 3rd, 2009 at 7:39 am
Of course I now have no sound due to using the second step in the instructions:
“sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utilis stop”
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:27 am
Did you do this command before te “cd”? :
sudo rm -rf /usr/src/alsa
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:03 am
I think you have an alsa lib directory in ~/ . You need to remove it :
sudo rm -rf alsa-lib*
October 3rd, 2009 at 10:44 am
Hi John,
Please redo the whole procedure, starting with the command
sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils stop
Don’t forget to run the following commands:
rm -rf ~/alsa*
sudo rm -rf /usr/src/alsa
These 2 commands were added to the procedure a few days ago and are necessary to ensure that the source directory ( your home directory) and the target directory (/usr/src/alsa) are clean before you start downloading and unpacking the new ALSA packages.
Regards,
Mark
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Well the Linux Community has done it again, thanks to alpho2k and Mark, they provided me with the necessary information to get my laptop ALSA upgraded to Version 1.0.21.
It works nice with my laptop. Before I had a bad background hiss that was anoying when watching a DEV movie. It is now quiet except for th program material which is what we want to hear.
Again thanks for patience with me.
October 4th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
So many many many thanks for this tutorial
I thought I was going crazy over here. I was watching a movie and from one moment to the other I had no sound. Checked everything on my machine and was reading forums for 2 days now. Nothing worked until I found this nifty tutorial. Followed the instructions and woohooooo! sound is up and running! Happy days are here again 
Thanks a million!
RandyN
October 4th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Thanks-
This was a big help. I had upgraded previously, as my compaq 610 laptop had extremely low volume in Ubuntu 9.04. I lost all audio again when ubuntu came out with a big update this weekend (probably the new linux image). I followed your steps and they work perfectly. I love it when things work. Thanks.
October 5th, 2009 at 12:31 am
On my machine I was also missing the symlink
/lib/libncursesw.so -> /lib/libncursesw.so.5
October 5th, 2009 at 1:30 am
The instructions worked like a charm, got the lpanelw error but the work around of adding links to the *.so did not resolve the error.
On my Ubuntu- Jaunty, I also installed libncursesw5-dev. The installation then proceeded correctly as listed in the article.
In case it helps the others…
Thanks for a very helpful article.
October 5th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Now if only it was written so that someone not proficient in all these areas could understand what they needed to do. I read through it three times and still have no idea. If it said, “go to applications, then accesories and then open a terminal and type the following “abcd xyz 123″ then hit enter” or whatever they needed to do. It makes it very frustrating why one can’t simply install the latest version of Ubuntu and just have sound. Whatever happened to their “just works” ? The directions sadly aren’t very clear for a noobie to know what they need to do and how to do such.
October 8th, 2009 at 3:29 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
October 8th, 2009 at 8:09 am
Well Mark I believe that Noobie is a real Linux “tenderfoot” on the trail to learning how to use the CL. When he questioned the steps “Applications>Accessories>Terminal” that was a clue that he hasn’t even looked around his menus.
The procedure outlined in alpoh2k’s article works just great, especially after adding the two lines that cleaned up the home directory is clean, prior to compiling the new files.
Thanks again.
October 12th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
thank you very much for the appreciated efforts towards satisfying your customers. now my hp tx2 1115ee is working perfect as planned with ubuntu 9.04.
regards,
Arabiest
October 13th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
It works perfect!
I’ve got without sound after a system update and after days seeking for a solution in the internet i found this tutorial that worked like a charm! Thanks!
October 15th, 2009 at 3:25 am
Thank you for a very easy and functional guide.
I have been messing around with my new amilo li 3910 for a few days now. I did have sound but it was very low volume (unuseable).
Ran this guide (when I finaly decided to google my problem).
It’s perfect now
October 15th, 2009 at 8:16 am
I have a new Dell Studio 1555 and this worked perfectly! I am a total noob and this is my first experience with Ubuntu and Linux. Thank you for the very easy to use tutorial.
October 15th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Hi !
I recently installed ubuntu 9.10, took 3 days to get it to boot because the grudb files were not being installed. After fixing that using super grub disc, I found that the sound did not work. I have VIA8233, AC97 sound. Reading your post it seemed that you were saying that the problem (in your case) was old Alsa drivers. Instead of using your sequence of steps ( which were pretty clear BTW) I chose to use system>update manager. It showed an update for Alsa so I checked it then clicked install. After a few minutes it wanted a reboot. It rebooted WITH SOUND. Thank you for the assist!
October 16th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Thank you so much
This is very clear and solved for me the main issue:
no sound card detected by alsa after updating the kernel from 2.6.28-14 to 2.6.28-15 (xubuntu).
after self-compiling, it worked! And I managed to make my Tascam US-122L work again
October 20th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
after performing all the steps and restarting ubuntu
I run this command: cat /proc/asound/version
I got this ERROR; cat: /proc/asound/version: No such file or directory
ANY HELP??
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:32 am
Thank you for this great guide. I’m not the developer, but I could compile the latest alsa by this guide without any problems (I only added installation of python-dev, since alsa-lib’s ./configure said it couldn’t find “python-configure”).
Here’s the problem that I have (and had , actually, before this upgrade; this problem was the reason to try higher version): when I record anything with arecord (or any other program, like ‘rec’, or Audacity), and than play it — the playback is very slow. With 1.0.18 I only got the problem itself. With 1.0.21 I get something useful (I think so) in the arecord output::
…
pilat@pilat-desktop:~$ arecord 1.wav
Recording WAVE ’1.wav’ : Unsigned 8 bit, Rate 8000 Hz, Mono
Invalid rate plugin version 10002
…
One more note: with alsa v1.0.21 the recorded sound is much less noisy, though still very slow.
Can you help me in trobleshooting this problem? Should I install higher version of libasound2-plugins (currently I have 1.0.18) or something like that?
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:14 am
It works 100%
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Compiled on Oct 22 2009 for kernel 2.6.28-15-generic (SMP).
speakers and headphone are working FINE now on my hp pavilion dv6
Thanks
October 23rd, 2009 at 8:39 am
This fine except that it needs repeating after an update.
Is there a way to avoid this?
I have better things to do than repeating these command lines after every update that resets the alsa back to 1.0.18rc3.
October 24th, 2009 at 8:19 am
Hi
I just updated to ver 21 from 20 on ubuntu 9.04. In ver 20 the sound was very low. In ver 21 is gone. No sound at all.
Any hints?
BTW cool guide!
Morten
October 24th, 2009 at 8:28 am
It is so nice to find the error your self!!!
Even when it’s a error 40
Pcm (what ever that is) was muted
October 25th, 2009 at 3:17 am
hi,
works a treat on my HP dv7 2160eg,thanks
October 25th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Hi all.
Great guide, easy to follow.
I have a Compaq CQ71-110EL, I had followed every step and now Alsa is 1.0.21 but no sound is coming from the speakers.
What should I do?
October 25th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Problem solved,
I had to go to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf, open it with editor and add:
options snd-hda-intel model=hp-dv5
now it works, hope this will help.
October 26th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Many thanks – worked for me.
October 29th, 2009 at 6:13 am
thanks!!! this solved my audio device problem!
=)
October 31st, 2009 at 8:45 am
hi thanks for your tutorial , actually ive installed ubuntu 9.04 in my amd turion x2 laptop but no sound at all then i found your page and upgrading alsa to version 1.0.21 really solves my problem. for those people out there whose experiencing sound problem in ubuntu please try updrage your alsa version maybe it will work.
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:23 am
I had a fully working Compaq Presario laptop running 8.04 with sound and wireless until I was stupid enough to accept a recommended upgrade to version 9.10 which run through without error until rebooting to my current dead state. i experience enough pain getting 8.04 working to at least considered capturing an image so I would have a backout plan however you might be syrprised I trusted Update Manager.
I ran through the instructions above carefully character by character painfully not knowing what on earth any of it meant and in the end of it all I was still on the same version of ALSA. In the year 2009 is there no GUI where we can upgrade sound drivers I mean in the name of God what is this obsession with syntax sensitive command line terminals.
How can an upgrade run without error and leave you dead in the water on a working system? A total and complete failure of Ubuntu and it appears that there are thousands in the same boat.
When I reached thre stage Compile the Alsa Driver I got the error when Checking for directory with Kernal Source. “The file included in Linux / Version.h does not exist. Install the package with full Kernal sources for your distribution???” Sorry I was just following instructions.
I kicked on to install the Alsa-Lib and Alsa-utils which seemed to work but I noticed an error “Sufficiently new version of Libasound not found so i tried the symbolic links part but to no avail.
Where do I go from here?
I guss if I can get sound I face the same character by character cryptic puzzel to get my Wireless card working and perhaps the touchpad or parhaps not.
Who ever said that Ubuntu upgrade was an improvement and when will there be a GUI based O/S from Linux??
Kick out the command line Taliban and give us a GUI we can use – PLEASE.
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:09 am
I think you should try a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.10 instead of upgrading it from 8.04.
November 4th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Cant install them for server kernel!
E: Package linux-headers-2.6.31-14-server has no installation candidate
November 5th, 2009 at 7:52 am
I discovered that i had Kernel 2.6.31-14 installed with the help of some very knowledgable dudes on Luanchpad however following hours of troubleshooting we could not get ti to be selectable in GRUB. They all gave up even though my system hasd been left in a state that is supposed to be impossible.
Too many questions to list however unavoidable truth that cannot be escaped that Ubuntu update manager applied an update over a working system with recognisable configuration files and reported the process completed without error and yet stuffed the system up to the extent it is not recoverable. This was not an upgrade tfrom a foreign system. Thjs was not a migration. This was Linux to Linux and a complete failure.
This is not the 1st time that I have directly encountered failed installations on this platform and I now conclude that it is unrealiable and flawed. No recoverability, no backout and no GUI to help average computer users troubleshoot and at least learn something from the whole unfortunate situation.
I spent 11 hours on this occasion and know nothing of what happened to my system.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Many thanks for this tutorial, worked fine for me after struggling for a week to get some sound out of my CQ71
November 11th, 2009 at 4:59 am
I got Ubuntu to load into the correct kenel by manually editing the Munu.lst file and I recovered my sound and touchpad however the wireless card will not work and the MADWIFI driver seems to not work peoperly with 9.10 yet.
I will look at downgrading however i learned something from the experience to never trust Update Manager unless you have a complete image of your system expect to be hosed.
November 14th, 2009 at 6:23 am
Hi..
Thanks for giving step by step procedure..
I am not getting sound from the speakers(only through earphones)…how can i get rid of this???
in windows i am using IDT drivers..I am using Dell Vostro 1520
Thanks in Advance
November 15th, 2009 at 12:04 am
THANK YOU for a great guide, very well written and broken down for people like me new to Linux. This worked great. I found though that instead of rebooting, you can run:
sudo alsa force-reload
and it will reload everything with a pop-up in my x-windows asking if I wanted to reload. My version is now 1.0.21 without rebooting (unless I’m missing something or a reason that a reboot is still needed). One thing though, alsaconf isn’t found. I’m guessing that’s a path issue?
November 18th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Great work! Blasting some sounds right now.
November 21st, 2009 at 10:27 am
it took me one night to solve the problem.. whalaaaa… any its worth it, this is my first time using linux.. cheers
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:05 pm
i made the mistake of typing in
sudo ln -s libpanelw.so.5 /usr/lib/libformw.so
instead of
sudo ln -s libformw.so.5 /usr/lib/libformw.so
how do i fix it?
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:10 pm
You need to use the “unlink” command like this :
sudo unlink /usr/lib/libformw.so
this will remove the symbolic link.
November 24th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
I was wondering can you not just add a PPA or temporarily change software sources and then ugrade through the package manager? Or would this just pull in too many new packages and break Jaunty?
November 25th, 2009 at 6:20 am
@Mikhail: Yes, I already tried that approach. Installing via a PPA will break Jaunty or Karmic. The procedure above seems to be the safest approach by far.
November 25th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Thanks, with help of this post i finally could solve the problem with audio
November 25th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
HI,
Thanks for the post.
I also encountered the same problem, configure: error: panelw library not found, and I did what you said.
add those symbolics links and restart the installation from the last “sudo ./configure” :
sudo ln -s libpanelw.so.5 /usr/lib/libpanelw.so
sudo ln -s libformw.so.5 /usr/lib/libformw.so
sudo ln -s libmenuw.so.5 /usr/lib/libmenuw.so
sudo ln -s libncursesw.so.5 /lib/libncursesw.so
There is no error in the “sudo ./configure”, but in next step “sudo make”.
like this:
————————————————————————————————–
Making all in init
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/vicky/ALSA/alsa-utils-1.0.21/alsactl/init’
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `all’.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/vicky/ALSA/alsa-utils-1.0.21/alsactl/init’
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/vicky/ALSA/alsa-utils-1.0.21/alsactl’
xmlto man alsactl_init.xml
/bin/bash: xmlto: command not found
make[2]: *** [alsactl_init.7] Error 127
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/vicky/ALSA/alsa-utils-1.0.21/alsactl’
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/vicky/ALSA/alsa-utils-1.0.21/alsactl’
make: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
—————————————————————————————————–
How could I to fix it? Could you give me some advice? Please…
Installing the ALSA package exhausts me!
Thank you very much!!
November 26th, 2009 at 3:17 am
sorry, I ask so stupid question.
just do this if you have the same error as mine, it will be solved: sudo apt-get install xmlto
but I have “new” error again when I do “sudo modprobe snd-intel8x0″
there is a error:
——————————————————————————————-
FATAL: Error inserting snd_intel8x0 (/lib/modules/2.6.31-15-generic/kernel/sound/pci/snd-intel8x0.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
——————————————————————————————–
how can I do?
Thanks again!!
November 26th, 2009 at 6:57 am
Sorry, I really dont know how to solve your last error. Did you check on google?
For xmlto, you were suppose to install it at the beginning of the tutorial. Did you do all the tutorial?
November 26th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
This has been a real find! Thanks for a tutorial that works on the first try!
Now I have the same issue as Jacques (#67): After a recent kernel upgrade, ubuntu has unhelpfully kicked everything back to .18. >(
I’m sure if I go through all the steps, everything will work again, but there has to be a more elegant way! Isn’t there some way to tell the kernel to use the already-compiled-and-ready .21 instead??
November 28th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Dude, this tutorial was just awesome. It did everything it said and delivered without hassle or the headache of meticulously working out how to compile everything. Thanks
November 29th, 2009 at 7:39 am
i’ve got a problem….
after writing “sudo alsaconf” i get this:
sudo: alsaconf: command not found
what should i do????
November 29th, 2009 at 11:12 am
thanks a lot for ur post.
it really worked.
November 29th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Thanks for your post. I’ve read so many different articles on how to get my audio working! None of them were successful until I came to yours. Everything else I tried seemed to just make things worse, but yours was thorough and resulted in working sound.
The only part I would change is the warning after you run the sudo ./configure for alsa-utils. By the time I got to your warning message I had already run make and make install, which resulted in the information from the ./configure being scrolled out of my screen buffer. I couldn’t check for the error you mentioned! I manually checked the folder for the links, found they were there, assumed that I didn’t get the error, and moved forward.
Thanks again!
Tom
December 1st, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Thanks for the pointer, headphones working on my Aspire 4530 now.
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Thanks for the post. This worked without error on an HP Mini 110 netbook with desktop-style Ubuntu Jaunty (not the netbook remix) and sound works now. I was a bit nervous since I had only been messing with Ubuntu seriously for a few weeks when I did it.
December 5th, 2009 at 8:17 am
This article was really helpful i really appreciate the author, thanks a lot for this great article. i was breaking my head from past 4 months to to fix firefox + flash player plugin issue after ubuntu upgrade to .10. i just followed the above steps and all worked fine..
Once again thanks a lot..
December 6th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Nice tutorial, sound is finally working on MacBook Pro unfortunately only on headphones. How do I enable speakers?
December 6th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Fixed!
amixer set ‘Front Speaker’ 100% unmute
December 6th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Thanks for this awesome tip on getting the sound working. We have been battling with one of the machines we got, the whole week was spent on getting it to work until we came across this article.
Lovely job, and thanks for sharing it
December 8th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
i tried your method and it failed. I am using ubuntu 9.10 my deafult OS (Win 7 64-bit).
Did what you said, and it failed, so ty but it just doesn’t work
December 9th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Thanks a LOT for the tip with the symbolic links!
December 11th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Perfect.
My dv6-1323 now it’s working and I can listen music.
The only part that it’s not working is the front external jack audio input and output.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
December 11th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Great tutorial…fixed all sound issues on my revo 3100 that had been struggling to fix for that past couple of weeks.
Many thanks – Nick
December 16th, 2009 at 7:36 am
Worked great for me for Dell Inspiron 1440 running Ubuntu 9.10.. Thanks for the guide!
December 16th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
big up
nice job dude
keep up the good work man
Netkillercat
December 17th, 2009 at 5:30 am
you fixed my problem!
after upgrade from 9.4 to 9.10 the sound output stopped working.
thank s for the easy tutorial , keep up the good work.
December 19th, 2009 at 7:04 am
Hi, thank you for the answer…i managed to install the update, i got this message
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Compiled on Dec 18 2009 for kernel 2.6.31-16-generic-pae (SMP).
But I still have no sound…
do i have to uninstall pulse audio?
December 19th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Maybe you should try with 1.0.22? http://monespaceperso.org/blog-en/2009/12/17/upgrade-alsa-1-0-22-on-ubuntu-karmic-koala-9-10/
December 20th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Thanks for the accurate and clear instruction. I got my sound working perfectly.
Thanks again for the great help.
Syed.
December 21st, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Hi, thanks for a super guide, had some trouble getting things to work but came across a tip witch helped me, i went to the alsa-driver directory witch in this case was /usr/src/alsa/alsa-driver* and ran ./snddevices after this everything worked great, hope this helps.
December 24th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Fantastic guide. I changed motherboard with HDMI capability. Just to check if the new hardware works, I booted a live Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic CD. The HDMI, and SPDIF optical worked fine. I did not want to do an upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10 and this did the trick. Many thanks and Merry Christmas!
December 28th, 2009 at 4:08 am
nice it is………
Bathmate
December 31st, 2009 at 12:49 am
The trick really did the job on my Dell Inspiron 1440. Thanks !. You Rock !
January 5th, 2010 at 10:39 am
Thank You , It’s Worked for me
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:58 am
it works!!
remember about sudo ./configure again after ln -s ……….
January 24th, 2010 at 1:31 am
it works… thank you sir…
February 4th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
So near, yet so far. The scripts ran perfectly on my machine. ECS A780GM-A with ATI HDMI card, but no sound. “sudo alsaconf” ran just fine and recognized the card fine and configured things just fine, but no sound yet. Even on VLC Media Player and MPlayer.
February 11th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
This has fixed some things for me, but it has broken skype. I can no longer use the internal speaker of my laptop with skype.
Also, is there a way to store the volume settings so they are not set to mute for my internal audio and raging blast for my wireless headphones every time? It’s very bad for my ears (and my blood pressure).
>:-|
I’ve tried to downgrade to the ubuntu version 1.0.20 by sudo aptitude reinstall alsa-base but the problems persist.
Any recommended course of action?
Thanks!
February 11th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Oh, fyi, thinkpad T60 with karmic & KDE, i.e. kubuntu.
March 8th, 2010 at 5:28 am
Thank you so very much for your detailed instructions.
We had problems on HP 4515s with Ubuntu 9.04, but with your help it works perfectly now!
After the driver installation I had to put in the code
sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils restart
as somebody has advised earlier.
Thank you again.
Take care.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:41 pm
Thank you very much. Merci beaucoup! It has been very useful for me. I am still keeping 9.04 and I needed this upgrade. After this upgrade I managed to make work my Genius USB headsets.
May 9th, 2010 at 8:49 am
hallo, I followed all the steps but when I enter the command sudo alsaconf tells me command not found
Marco
May 23rd, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Thanks buddy it worked.
June 1st, 2010 at 3:16 am
Muchas gracias, tengo un laptop dell inspiron 14 de 64 bits con ubuntu 9.04 de 32bits, en este solo funcionaba el sonido por los auriculares y con la actualizacion ya suenan los altavoces integrados.