Ubuntu 12.04 no sound

**lonestarone** · 2012-05-08 17:42

Hello - All,
Here's one for the ubuntu geeks !! I've never had this problem with any distro of ubuntu...Sound just always works.
NOT with 12.04....I've read all the forums I know of and still NO FUN. This seems to be the problem with lots of folks.
I'm running win7-64bit on virtual box. All mint 11/12 and ubun tu 11.10 works OK.
What I see in sound properties on the speaker near the right top, for sound s/pdif ? No way to change that. using pulse sound volumn control nothing works there either? s/pdif is NOT for regular computer speakers?? I've tried every way to adjust sound in pulse and alsamixer - which says everything is set correctly.
Mint works great!!!
Thanks for suggestions.
John in Dallas

**cafed00d** · 2012-05-12 12:24

I feel your pain. Sound under Ubuntu refused to work on my desktop with a PCIe sound card, even though Ubuntu showed the card active for sound output. I spent days trying to get the sound to run, no luck. But last month I wiped my prior 10.04 64-bit version and installed 12.04 64-bit and was pleasantly surpised to hear the welcome tone - sound was working! If I recall correctly, I am also getting sound out of my Ubuntu 12.04 VM in VirtualBox, but that is the 32-bit version. I'll try installin a 64-bit Ubuntu VM and see if I get any sound out of it. oh, wait, you said your Windows host is 64-bit, you never said what Ubuntu is... BTW, did you install the VirtualBox clienttools, and if so, do you get them from VirtualBox or from Ubuntu package manager? also, which version of VirtualBox?

**cafed00d** · 2012-05-12 17:21

OK, I have my Ubuntu VM up and I am getting sound. Here are the specs:

Ubuntu VM:

12.04
32-bit
virtualbox-guest-additions 4.1.12-1 (installed from package manager)
Sound config:

u1204-1.png

VirtualBox:

4.1.14
Ubuntu VM audio settings:
- Host Audio Driver: Windows DirectSound
- Audio Controller: ICH AC97
  - (The other options for this setting are "Intel HD audio" (I think this is for the audio on the motherboard, which I am not using) and "Soundblaster 16" (probably refers to the SoundBlaster card which I am using, but I haven't tried this setting)

Windows Host:

Win 7 Pro SP1
64-bit
SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio card

I hope this helps!

**lonestarone** · 2012-05-14 14:38

Thanks for your input. I'm running all 64bit ubuntus/mint. Still NO sound..
VB client tools??? What are they? Not in pkg mgr or on VB site?? Are you meaning guest additions? They are working OK..Everything works great except for
NO sound in 12.04.
Intel I-5 8gigs ram ...nvidia audio high def and windows sound, stand alone NOT integrated..

Originally upgraded to 32bit...didn't work so I burned CD 64bit....still no sound...Surely can't be a bug in VB?? I'm on version 4.10....I'm very unsure how to upgrade it....Won't work trying within ubuntu...d/l to my windows system, sometimes it finds where to install then NOT!! I then have two completely NEW versions....
thanks / john

**lonestarone** · 2012-05-15 13:40

Today::::a one from HELL !!!
I decided to upgrade virtual box from 4.1.10?? to current 4.1.14 ....NOW, can't open the vm?? response:::can't access the kernel driver? be sure the module has been loaded successfully???? What does that mean?
I upgraded from 4.8 to 4.10 the same way in windows, it integrated OK, everything worked...So what happened this time?
Thanks for suggestions

**lonestarone** · 2012-05-16 10:42

Today::::Well, seems the VB extension pack ( didn't ) install correctly?? Solved that misery, now my speakers are listed similar to yours in your post...But----NO SOUND!!!!
Thanks for mint 12, at least I have a good, working OS.. I 'm sure this is a BUG in ubuntu 12.04, too many people on the forums are having similar problems?

**cafed00d** · 2012-05-16 21:33

Originally Posted by lonestarone

VB client tools??? What are they?

Sorry, meant "guest additions". I think "client tools" is a VMWare term...

**lonestarone** · 2012-05-29 16:23

Finally., found the answer....YEAH!!!! Hope this might help others ....

Is your audio setting for your Ubuntu guest virtual machine set to ICH AC97?
ICH AC97 is the only VirtualBox VM audio setting which allows me to get sound when running Ubuntu as a guest and either Windows or OS X (10.6.8) as the host.
In particular, if a VM's audio setting is Intel HD Audio then sound does not work in an Ubuntu 12.04 desktop guest.
On the other hand, sound will only work for a Windows 7 (64-bit) guest when the audio setting is Intel HD Audio. This can be rather annoying when you are working with a VM which dual boots either Ubuntu or Windows 7 as the guest OS.
I have never investigated this further to find out why it works this way or if there is a way to work around it. If you happen to find one, please let us know about it.
Note: You will have to "power off" your VM to change its audio setting.

**Chris Cooper** · 2012-06-28 15:28

Over the last few months I've installed a variety of PCs & laptops with Ubuntu 12.04 / Mint12, and now Mint13 Cinnamon. All those versions are full of problems. I had great hopes for Mint13 Cinnamon but, despite it appearing classy on the surface, it is so bug prone and crashy that I frankly do not think it should have been released from beta. Surprisingly, the torrent of updates and fixes appear to be adding more problems than they are solving.

I’ve gone back to Mint 11.04 which, apart from the occasional panel applet error message (easily fixed), continues to do, with style, most of what most people would need.

Once again, the problem appears to be caused by the Linux community continually trying to trump each other’s distro rather than pooling their resources to develop two or (perhaps three) viable alternatives to Windows.

What a pity

Cheers all, Chris

**handcuff36** · 2013-02-10 07:54

Good morning, all U'u users.
I have a large problem. I had U'u 12.04 running fine to the extend that I gave back the install CD to my friend and he is far away now. Yesterday, I accepted a whole bunch of updates and that crashed my machine. I D/L'd a new install CD and it seems to be keyed for a Windows install. My machine has two HDs and they are pristine, flushed ! Can anybody point me to a DOS-like D/L that would boot from the CD device and install any version of U'u ? My CD shows a wubi.exe and seeks to run but quits after about 15 seconds. Is this wubi.exe messing up the works ? Thanks. JP.

**Tinto Tech** · 2013-02-11 02:05

Originally Posted by handcuff36

Can anybody point me to a DOS-like D/L that would boot from the CD device and install any version of U'u ?

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

**handcuff36** · 2013-02-11 08:43

Good day, TT.
Thanks for the URL but it is not the proper one, these links will install a wubi.exe in all the D/Ls and I can not use it as the machine is pristine, no Windows of any kind. So far, I must have made some 10 coasters, CDs, all from this site. I need a DOS-like install.
Thanks a mega anyway, I know that you were trying to help me. JP.

**Tinto Tech** · 2013-02-11 12:08

Well that does surprise me. I've downloaded and performed a clean install of Ubuntu from there several times in the past.

It might have changed since last I used it, so I'm downloading a fresh copy just now and will report back later....

**Tinto Tech** · 2013-02-11 14:04

Update..... that download location works just fine as expected.

I downloaded Ubuntu 12.10 from the first download button (not the wubi Windows installer link further down the page).

Correct download link:

correct download.JPG

Windows Installer package (Wubi.exe):

incorrect download.JPG

I burned the ISO to disk, booted up a different machine from the DVD and loaded straight into the live distro. From there there was the normal option to run as a Live session or to install on the hardware. I went a couple of steps into the installation route just to verify that all was normal.

Not sure why you have the Windows installer package being burned to disk. Is there any chance of a mix up in the downloaded files or something else? Does your DVD burning package create a project that references downloaded files...could it be picking up and earlier download and not the latest one?

**handcuff36** · 2013-02-11 14:05

Hello TT.
I am getting a little further ahead. I now D/L'd it on the specific machine, a 32 bit one and it seems to install properly. I get the dual boot prompt, I select Ubuntu and it does a little something but stops at NTFS5 error address missing ! ???? I will go back and get the exact wording. Later : it added : prefix is missing, not address.

OK, I will delete all reference to U'u and try your steps to get 12.10. I promise to be back ;-)

I am back. Hello TT. I got it going ! I had, as a last resort, to use that old machine with just one HD, I totally ignore why at this time, this was the solution, I had tried all the offered options when running the install CD, along side XP, on HD D:\ and many others. Baffles me for sure. The main point now is that it runs.

You were just as perseverant as I was. Thanks. Jean.

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