Ubuntu Linux Sound Problems? Have a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi card? How about another card? Try this…

Craig Huffstetler — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:28:24 +0000

Have sound problems in Linux? Generally most computers, now-a-days, ship with multiple sound devices (one “on board” [on the motherboard] and one separately installed, which you want to use…usually — such as the Creative X-Fi card or another “higher quality” sound card). Sometimes this creates conflicts with your system or users just need to tell your system which sound to actually USE for their sound. And that’s sometimes why sound is not coming out of those nice speakers.

Something I always recommend installing: asoundconf-gtk.

What is it? It allows you to configure your system’s default “base” sound card. As the package describes it’s “useful if you have two sound cards, and [need] to switch between the two.” I know the function is already there in Gnome, however this seems to just work. And I like things that just work. It’s also GUI (Graphical…) based. So, now need for all the command typing.

So let’s get going:

Fire up Synaptic (System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager). Or if you’re a command-line junkie like me:

sudo apt-get asoundconf-gtk

Now if you used Synaptic Package Manager – a few last steps:

Search for: asoundconf-gtk

Double click on the package OR right click on it and go to “Mark for installation”

Now click “Apply” in the toolbar.

Now go to System > Preferences > Default Sound Card. Select your X-Fi card or whichever card you intend on using.

NOTE: This may, and usually does, require a system restart.

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Ubuntu Linux Sound Problems? Have a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi card? How about another card? Try this…