So if your like me, you’ve been suffering through some painful sound problems in Ubuntu Hardy, apparently its a known kernel issue, so just sit tight. However, if your like me (or 90% of nerds) then you need some sort of music to code. A little digging revealed that I did not in fact have any of the alsa kernel modules installed for my current kernel. apt-get left me high and dry (also without an nvidia driver yet, but that’s an easy fix).
The simple remedy is to just build the alsa modules yourself, a pretty painless task. The problem is, if you want to have any hope of keeping your install halfway clean, then you need to get those files tracked by dpkg so we avoid conflicts when the modules are fixed. There’s a simple solution:
sudo apt-get install module-assistant
sudo m-a update
sudo m-a prepare
sudo m-a a-i alsa
This utilizes the handy module-assistant package to automatically build alsa for you. 
Reboot and enjoy!
Do you Ubuntu users have to reboot to use some kernel modules? Running depmod and modprobe on the right driver should have been enough.
You could just modprobe, but for users who don’t know the make/model of their integrated soundcard, its just easier.
All I did was (depmod is handled by m-a):
sudo modprobe snd-hda-intel
for my:
82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller
on a:
Dell Latitude D820
..they did put out one bad kernel in alpha, but the main problems for me now are apps that don’t play nice with PulseAudio.
Haha, its the same old problem i got with Ubuntu 7.10. But yes this works well
This problem isn’t common enough that I have any idea what you’re describing from the detail provided
ALSA modules are installed and working fine for me on Hardy.
Yeah, my sound is laggy as hell with some apps.
Not feeling pulse audio tbh.
changing gstreamer to use ALSA instead of pulseaudio fixed it for my rhythmbox lag issues.
No problems with pulse audio, after I finally got it working. What I really hate is having to do this every time a new kernel image is released.
This tip does not work for me. I have a NForce 570 mobo, which as every NForce uses the snd_hda_intel driver for sound. But even by applying this patch the soundcard is completely mute… :’(
There’s a ticket about that at the following URL :
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/213206
If you encounter some trouble, you should really update this ticket since it should be considered as a showstopper for the release if it is quite widespread.
I finally solved the issue by applying the following command :
sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils reset
Thanks! This fix worked like a charm for my ALC883 in Ubuntu Hardy.
I just upgrade to Ubuntu Hardy, and sound gone off. Then I installed alsamixergui, and I saw that sound is muted. It was not shown on console version of alsamixer. The problem is about mute at me, and it is solved now.
wo0t. Thanks for the fix, bro ^_^
I’m getting to the step `sudo m-a prepare`, which gives the following output. Can I proceed with the next step from here?
Getting source for kernel version: 2.6.22-14-generic
apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.22-14-generic
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Package linux-headers-2.6.22-14-generic is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package linux-headers-2.6.22-14-generic has no installation candidate
Creating symlink…
apt-get install build-essential
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
build-essential is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Done!
i have Lenovo Y410, and since i install Linux I never hear any sound from the speaker also from head jack. my device is Alc262 and i add options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=benq with sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base at the end of this file, now i hear something from my speaker but still no sound from head jack. i wish some could help me fixes this sound probblem, i also did the way above and reboot but still no sound from my head jack. Pls help me i got no money to buy new laptop but still want to use Ubuntu Hardy.
This is no surprise to me, sound breaking has been an issue for me since Gutsy, but I just did what I always did and rebuilt ALSA. Interesting to see this problem still affects people. Module Assistant certainly made the rebuilding process a lot easier
Well, I followed your codes, rebooted, and still no sound. I’m running a Dell Dimension 2300. I had no sound on 7.04, regained it in 7.10, and not have lost it in 8.04. It is frustrating. Each time I upgrade I anticipate that something isn’t going to work but alwasy cross my fingers. Everything on this upgrade works except sound.
Thank you so much - it worked like a charm. I spent hours trying to fix the sound after I upgraded to Gutsy and I about pulled my hair out when the sound went out after upgrading to Hardy. You are awesome!
Thank you Kevin! You saved my evening
Thanks! I followed the instructions in the OP and I now have sound again in my newly hardy-upgraded ubuntu.
Thanks you for the info. Life is better when you have music to drown out annoying people
Worked like a charm!
Thanx
I’ve been wrestling with this for a few days. Thank you very much for your easy to apply solution. I knew it was something to do with the alsa modules but had no idea how to go about it. I thought at first it was a hardware issue as the sound worked. It stopped, curiously enough, after I hooked up a PATA hard disk drive. Unplugging it did not help. Very weird and possibly coincidental. Thanks again.
You don’t need to reboot. After issuing the above commands, Run:
sudo alsa force-unload
sudo modprobe snd-hda-intel
I got my alc660 working using moduleassistant… I just wonder why they are taking so long to fix these issues.
Man oh man….. where were u all this time…..!!! Now my sound in works perfectly welllllllll….. g8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! using compaq pressario V3000
I tried the shortest of the above fixes and it worked like a charm on my Presario v6000.
sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils reset
Many many thanks
The command sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils reset fixed my sound problem, thanks a bunch. I have Hardy and I had no sound. I’m 60 years old and love Ubuntu, no more windows for me!