Ubuntu: Crackling audio noises on a Dell M1530 (or HDA cards)

The problem I found (so did everyone else) when updating to Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic was static/popping noises when your sound card is silent (aka goes into power-save mode). It applies to my Dell XPS M1530 laptop’s on-board sound and probably to the same chipset elsewhere.

The fix couldn’t be simpler! Simply edit this file (as root):

/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

and comment out the last line. Then, restart ALSA to save you having to do a reboot to check it worked:

sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils stop sudo alsa force-reload sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils …

in Linux · Sat 16 January 2010

Ubuntu: PulseAudio Joy

Well, it’s a sad state of affairs when simply unplugging your set of USB headphones causes your Intrepid Ibex install of Ubuntu to crap itself. Even with the same set of headphones plugged back into the same port not 10 seconds later. Painful.

But, the good news is that after a few hours of pain, PulseAudio works and it’s magical in comparison to the older audio systems (3 apps playing audio at once..wow).

Check out http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=789578 for a great walk-through on how to set it up on Hardy or Intrepid. Unfortunately …

in Linux · Tue 06 January 2009