Ubuntu Hardy sound card configuration
I am running Ubuntu Hardy on my Dell XPS M1530 laptop. I’ve had no major sound issues on the laptop except one. All programs using sound seem to lock each other out from time to time. This was only mildly annoying and I have lived with it for some time.
Today I decided to get sound working on my Virtual Box Vista VM and so I discovered that it worked well, but I was then unable to play sounds through my Ubuntu host. And so I decided to fix the problem once and for all.
Below is the procedure I went through and it seems to have fixed the problem.
1. Install the following additional packages:
-
sudo apt-get install libao-pulse libasound2-plugins
2. Edit the /etc/asound.conf file and make sure it looks like the following (create it if it does not exist):
-
pcm.pulse {
-
-
type pulse
-
-
}ctl.pulse {
-
-
type pulse
-
-
}
-
-
pcm.!default {
-
-
type pulse
-
-
}
-
-
ctl.!default {
-
-
type pulse
-
-
}
3. Edit the /etc/libao.conf and make sure it looks like the following (create it if it does not exist):
-
default_driver=pulse
4. Go to System->Preferences->Sound and set the “PulseAudio Sound Server” for first four options and set the Default mixer to your sound card name. In my case it was “HDA Intel (Alsa mixer)”
5. Install a few more useful audio packages:
-
sudo apt-get install libflashsupport padevchooser pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-module-hal
6. Making sure the correct libSDL is installed :
-
sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian libsdl1.2debian-alsa
-
-
# make sure the following sources are in your /etc/apt/sources.list
-
# deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/zman0900/ubuntu hardy main
-
# deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/zman0900/ubuntu hardy main
-
-
# update apt and install libSDL
-
sudo apt-get update
-
sudo apt-get upgrade
-
sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio
7.Go to Applications->Sound & Video->PulseAudio Device Chooser.
Once the program is running it will show up as a plug in notification area.
Left click the plug icon, click Preferences, and make sure “Start applet on session login” check box is checked.
8.Restart and all should be well.
Hope this works for someone else, it worked well for me.
Dell XPS M1530 running Ubuntu Hardy
A couple of weeks ago I finally got a new laptop a Dell XPS M1530.
I’ve record a screencast showing some of the great interface features that come with Ubuntu linux, mainly the compiz environment. Windows Vista is running using Sun VirtualBox.
