Getting Sound to Work Again on Ubuntu 12.04

Well, it happen again--I did what I thought would be some simple updates on my Dell Vostro 1500 running Ubuntu 12.04 and boom--no sound!  I did a little googling and found this very useful write up.

I was unable to get anything to work (but I understood what the issue was by following the steps in the write up), then I come across the section titled: Getting the ALSA drivers from a *fresh* kernel.

I performed the following commands to freshen up my ALSA drivers.

sudo apt-get --purge remove linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils

sudo apt-get install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils

sudo apt-get install gdm ubuntu-desktop

aplay -l

After running aplay -l and subsequently seeing that my drivers looked secured, I head back to The Casters YouTube video on Terminal and Initial Objects that I want to watch and was happy to listen to audio again!  Thank you LordRaiden!

How I Fixed Ubuntu Boot Issue with Error Message, "Starting up... Undefined video mode 31f"

I ran some updates on Ubuntu 10.10 and found that when I booted up I got the message, "Starting up... Undefined video mode 31f".  (Sorry I am not sure which update caused this.)

I hit space and allowed it to continue.  I then watch Bleach 296, did a few other things and called it a day.  The next day when I booted up, same issue (I was kind of hoping it was a non-issue issue, O-well).

I googled the error message and found this post, which made perfect sense to me (I also found a lot of other posts that made no sense and gave no real fixes).  Following what was in post in the form, I did the following:

apt-get install hwinfo
sudo hwinfo --framebuffer

Giving me:

02: None 00.0: 11001 VESA Framebuffer                        
  [Created at bios.464]
  Unique ID: rdCR.zrHRJLheAS6
  Hardware Class: framebuffer
  Model: "NVIDIA G84 Board - p410h1b "
  Vendor: "NVIDIA Corporation"
  Device: "G84 Board - p410h1b "
  SubVendor: "NVIDIA"
  SubDevice:
  Revision: "Chip Rev"
  Memory Size: 14 MB
  Memory Range: 0xfb000000-0xfbdfffff (rw)
  Mode 0x0300: 640x400 (+640), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0301: 640x480 (+640), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0303: 800x600 (+800), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0305: 1024x768 (+1024), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0307: 1280x1024 (+1280), 8 bits
  Mode 0x030e: 320x200 (+640), 16 bits
  Mode 0x030f: 320x200 (+1280), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0311: 640x480 (+1280), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0312: 640x480 (+2560), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0314: 800x600 (+1600), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0315: 800x600 (+3200), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0317: 1024x768 (+2048), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0318: 1024x768 (+4096), 24 bits
  Mode 0x031a: 1280x1024 (+2560), 16 bits
  Mode 0x031b: 1280x1024 (+5120), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0330: 320x200 (+320), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0331: 320x400 (+320), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0332: 320x400 (+640), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0333: 320x400 (+1280), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0334: 320x240 (+320), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0335: 320x240 (+640), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0336: 320x240 (+1280), 24 bits
  Mode 0x033d: 640x400 (+1280), 16 bits
  Mode 0x033e: 640x400 (+2560), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0345: 1600x1200 (+1600), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0346: 1600x1200 (+3200), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0347: 1400x1050 (+1400), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0348: 1400x1050 (+2800), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0349: 1400x1050 (+5600), 24 bits
  Mode 0x034a: 1600x1200 (+6400), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0352: 2048x1536 (+8192), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0360: 1280x800 (+1280), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0361: 1280x800 (+5120), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0362: 768x480 (+768), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0364: 1440x900 (+1440), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0365: 1440x900 (+5760), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0368: 1680x1050 (+1680), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0369: 1680x1050 (+6720), 24 bits
  Mode 0x037c: 1920x1200 (+1920), 8 bits
  Mode 0x037d: 1920x1200 (+7680), 24 bits
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

I figured I'd use 0x0369

I then edited grub using:

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

I look for the "vga=" and change it to the mode value I wanted to use (0x0369)

## ## End Default Options ##


title Ubuntu 10.10, kernel 2.6.35-23-generic-pae
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic-pae root=UUID=3608162f-dcd7-4b92-b1d9-c2162c720162 ro quiet vga=0x0369 
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-23-generic-pae
quiet


Restarted and now no more error message!

How I Fixed Flash's Sound In Chrome

I recently upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10 (which is really fast, very nice looking, and all around great). Everything worked great out of the box for the most part. A few issues with the Wireless (it was picking an unsecured network instead of mine). One big problem, my sound in Flash did not work, which means I could not watch Bleach on YouTube!

It took a bit, I installed many different version of flash, moved files around, but atleast it did not work. Then I came across this thread, entry number 7. I brought up alsamixer (just type alsamixer in your terminal).

Arrowed over to Speaker (just use the right arrow key on your keyboard):

Do you see the MM, right above 64<>64 on the far right? Well, that is what is stopping your sound. That's right the speakers are muted!

Hit m (just type the letter m on your keyboard) to unmute:

See the OO, that means that you are no longer muted. Hit Esc to exit and return to the terminal.

I did this all while running Bleach in Chrome on YouTube and what happen?!? I heard sound; lovely sound!

All is well with my computer now (sad, but true).