Ubuntu 9.10 x64 has no sound, while Ubuntu 9.04 32 bit does

Question

I installed Ubuntu 9.10 x64 recently. Up until now I've been on 32 bit Ubuntu. For the first time since installing it, I went and tried to play a Youtube video. There was no sound. So a quick test to the system reveals that nothing will play sound (And I've tried turning the volume too full, as some have said output is quite quiet, but there is no sound at all). Further research shows that in sound preferences, the only output device listed was Dummy Output.

Why would it work in 9.04 x86 and not 9.10 x64? While booting up, and occasionally with the sound preferences dialog open, I get a loud click (even though it isn't recognising my sound card).

It's a Dell Studio 17 laptop. I'm not sure what the exact model of sound card is.

Answer 1

Turns out that there was 64 bit drivers available. However, they didn't work on the old kernel I was using (and I forgot to update my menu.lst so I was still booting the old 9.04 kernel).

Answer 2

Why would it work in 9.04 x86 and not 9.10 x64? While booting up, and occasionally with the sound preferences dialog open, I get a loud click (even though it isn't recognising my sound card).

There are no 64-Bit drivers for your sound card that came with the disk. I would check on the vendors website and see if they have released 64 bit drivers.

Answer 3

most likely you just don't have the sound driver installed. Go to system>administration>hardware drivers and make sure its not waiting to be downloaded there. Or you could go to Dell's website and see if they have any linux drivers available for download. And as a last resort you could search Google to see if any one has made a driver or fix for this problem. good luck.

Answer 4

Hey, I had the same problem and solved it. Just don't install the "modem driver" the system ask you to install at the first start up (in the case you did it, just remove it!!) and you'll have the sound drivers working. Please check that and let me know if worked for you!!