Category: Troubleshooting

Back to Alsa

digitaleagle Skype, sound, Troubleshooting, Ubuntu, Uncategorized 1 Comment

I have tried to make Skype work, but I have finally given up on Pulse Audio.  My problem right now is that I can hear the other person, but I can’t make it loud enough for the other person to hear me.

These instructions I found here: Pulse + skype delay issues in jaunty.

This kills all of the currently running pulseaudio processes:

#killall pulseaudio

This uninstalls pulseaudio:

#sudo aptitude remove pulseaudio

It gave this output:

The following packages are BROKEN:
 ubuntu-desktop
The following packages will be REMOVED:
 linux-headers-2.6.28-13{u} linux-headers-2.6.28-13-generic{u} pulseaudio
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 3 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 76.5MB will be freed.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 ubuntu-desktop: Depends: pulseaudio but it is not installable
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

Remove the following packages:
ubuntu-desktop

Leave the following dependencies unresolved:
libpulsecore9 recommends pulseaudio
Score is -81

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]

I went ahead and said yes.  Again, the output is:

The following packages will be REMOVED:
 linux-headers-2.6.28-13{u} linux-headers-2.6.28-13-generic{u} pulseaudio
 ubuntu-desktop{a}
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 76.5MB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]

Now, installing esound to replace Pulse Audio:

$sudo aptitude install esound

It gave this output, to which I said yes:

The following packages are BROKEN:
 pulseaudio-esound-compat
The following NEW packages will be installed:
 esound
0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 28.1kB of archives. After unpacking 102kB will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 pulseaudio-esound-compat: Conflicts: esound but 0.2.40-0ubuntu3 is to be installed.
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

Remove the following packages:
pulseaudio-esound-compat

Score is 119

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]

Finally, remove the pulse audio configuration file.

#sudo aptitude remove /etc/X11/Xsession.d/70pulseaudio

No, I can hear only out of one side of the headphones, and I still don’t have the volume for the Mic.  I think my biggest problem is that I can’t turn on the Mic Boost!  Here are some posts I have searched.

Ddell Inspiron 1720, Ubuntu with Skype & Mic problem please……

Bug #289419

This might have a solution!

So, now, I am going to try to go back to pulse audio.

First, remove esound:

#sudo aptitude remove esound

result:

The following packages will be REMOVED:
 esound
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Now, reinstalling pulse audio

#sudo aptitude install pulseaudio

Reinstalling one of the dependencies that I noticed it removed earlier:

#sudo aptitude install ubuntu-desktop

Now, installing the volume panel that is supposed to fix my problem (from here):

#sudo apt-get install gnome-volume-control-pulse

I rebooted just to make sure I was doing it right.  Then, I found the sound applet by the clock in the notification area.  I was able to right click on the sound icon and choose “Sound Preferences”.  On the input tab, the volume was set at somewhere between 50% and 75%.  When I adjusted it up, I had plenty of volume.

Sound in Jaunty

digitaleagle sound, Troubleshooting, Uncategorized Leave a comment

When I upgraded to Juanty, my sound did not work on my laptop.  I found a couple of posts that helped me get it back up and running.

Ubuntu Forums: HOWTO: PulseAudio Fixes & System-Wide Equalizer Support

I think I found this post from this one:

Ubuntu Forums: No sound after upgrade from 8.10 to 9.04

I have had trouble with the pulseaudio service not running, and so I did a little research to find the command to restart it.  I haven’t tried these so be warned.

This article suggests:

pulseaudio -k; sleep 4; pulseaudio -vv

This article points out that you can use “pulseaudio –check” to see if an instance is running.  Also, they mention that if the -k doesn’t work, you can use “killall pulseaudio”.

Finally, since I use Skype, I have been contemplating going back to alsa.  I am not ready for that, but I am keeping this in my back pocket:

Mariuz’s Blog: Pulse + skype delay issues in jaunty

Gnome Keyring Password Issue

digitaleagle Desktop, Troubleshooting, Ubuntu, Uncategorized Leave a comment

I just upgraded my desktop to Xubuntu 9.04, and my Gnome Keyring password quite working.  This meant that I could not connect to wireless with the network manager.

So, I deleted the file $HOME/.gnome2/keyring/default.keyring.  I had to reenter the passwords, but this was no problem because it is a Desktop that is only on one network.

Hope it helps someone else.

Resources

Grub Boot Error

digitaleagle Troubleshooting, Ubuntu, Uncategorized 1 Comment

If you have any suggestions, please post a comment!

I have an old computer with an Abit VP6 motherboard.  I attempted to install Xubuntu 8.10 on it, but it does not want to boot.  It stops at “grub loading stage 1.5”.

I initially thought it had to do with the fact that I installed an SATA controller and started using an SATA drive as my OS drive (the only drive in the system because my IDE drive failed).  I thought that maybe the BIOS did not support booting off the drive, but it is at least getting to grub.  I don’t have grub installed on anything else that is bootable when the CD is not in the drive.

I have tried reinstalling Grub using these instructions, but that did not help.

Update: I installed Xubuntu 8.04 on the same machine, and installs and boots with no problem.  (My wireless card doesn’t work and the video driver needs work.)  So, I am pretty sure this isn’t a hardware issue.

Update: I posted a question to the forum here.

Sound for Mythbuntu

digitaleagle Mythbuntu, Troubleshooting, Uncategorized Leave a comment

I couldn’t get my sound to work.  Here is what I went through.

This command will help you figure out what is installed:

skp@peanut:~$ lspci -v | grep -i audio
00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)

This command can also help identify what is installed:

skp@peanut:~$ asoundconf list
Names of available sound cards:
NVidia

This command will also give you some clues:

skp@peanut:~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC883 Analog [ALC883 Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: ALC883 Digital [ALC883 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

My problem was that this command said there were no sound devices.  I found I need to make the following changes.

I added these lines to the  /etc/modprobe.d/options file:

# from: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6313016
options snd-hda-intel model=3stack

I added these lines to the /etc/modules:

# from: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6313016
snd-hwdep
snd-hda-intel

Then, I rebooted, and the sound worked!

X Configuration for My ESA Plasma TV

digitaleagle NVidia, Troubleshooting, Ubuntu, Uncategorized Leave a comment

We bought a TV a while ago with the thought that one day we could hook the computer up to it.  Well, that day has come, but I had trouble getting it to display correctly.

I enabled the restricted drivers for the nvidia video card.  I could run nvidia-settings to configure the displays.

I had to add some options to me screen section in the xorg.conf to make it look like this:

Section “Screen”
Identifier     “Screen0”
Device         “Device0”
Monitor        “Monitor0”
DefaultDepth    24
Option         “TwinView”
Option         “NoTwinViewXineramInfo” “1”
Option         “metamodes” “1024x768_85,NULL”
Option         “TwinViewOrientation” “RightOf”
Option         “ModeValidation” “AllowNon60HzDFPModes,NoEdidModes,NoEdidDFPMaxSizeCheck,NoVertRefreshCheck,NoHorizSyncCheck,NoMaxSizeCheck,NoDFPNativeResolutionCheck”
Option         “UseEDID” “FALSE”
SubSection     “Display”
Depth       24
EndSubSection
EndSection
Then, I found a nice tool to generate mode lines.  I put the modeline in the monitor section:

Section “Monitor”

# HorizSync source: builtin, VertRefresh source: builtin
Identifier     “Monitor0”
VendorName     “Unknown”
ModelName      “CRT-0”
HorizSync       28.0 – 55.0
VertRefresh     43.0 – 72.0
Option         “DPMS”
ModeLine       “1024x768_85”     69.54   1024 1056 1320 1352    576  586  594  605
EndSection

Resources

Options for xorg.conf

Modeline Tools

Java + Compiz

digitaleagle Compiz/Fusion/Beryl, Eclipse, Java, Troubleshooting, Ubuntu, Uncategorized Leave a comment

I have been having trouble with getting blank Windows with my Java programs.  The problem first appeared in programs I was working on in Eclipse, but then I found other programs I had downloaded from SourceForge also had the same problem.  Apparently, the problem comes from a conflict with Compiz-Fusion and Java.

Here is the solution:

Add the following line to /etc/environment —

AWT_TOOLKIT="MToolkit"

You possibly need to reboot for this change to take effect.

When I did this I got this error:

java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Can't load library: /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/i386

The problem appears to be caused by using OpenJDK.  The solution was to use Sun’s JDK.  This post will not go into detail about how to switch, but here are some things to consider:

  • Install Sun’s JDK with Add/Remove Programs, apt-get, etc.
  • Use update-alternatives to point the OS to the correct Java Home
  • Run java -version to check that the correct version is in use
  • Update the installed JVMs in the Eclipse preferences to make sure that Eclipse is lauching programs with the correct JVM

Resources

winmail.dat

digitaleagle Email, Thunderbird, Troubleshooting, Uncategorized Leave a comment

I received an email today from a user with Outlook.  The email contained an attachment called winmail.dat.  I tried to figure out how to view it in Thunderbird, and I couldn’t figure it out.  I finally was able to view it online in GMail.

First, I tried to install the LookOut extension, but it didn’t work.  I am guessing it doesn’t support new versions of Outlook.  I don’t know.

Then, I tried TNEF.  You can install it with “sudo apt-get install tnef”.  I downloaded the winmail.dat file and ran “tnef winmail.dat”.  The response was “Seems not to be a TNEF file”.

In synaptic, I noticed another program called ytnef.  I tried that: “sudo apt-get install ytnef”.  Again, “ytnef winmail.dat”.  Reponse was “ERROR: Signature does not match. Not TNEF.”.

Finally, I checked my mail online with Gmail, and it displayed the embedded image without even complaining about a winmail.dat file!

Sorry that is not much help, but it solved the problem for now.  Please comment if you know another solution.

Resources

Recovering Windows Vista Password

digitaleagle Troubleshooting, Uncategorized, Windows Leave a comment

I had a relative tonight forget her password to Windows Vista.  She hadn’t used her computer in three months, which is a shame because it is a relatively nice one.

Here is a walk-through of what I did.  You may want to read through the whole thing before you try it so you don’t repeat the steps that did not work.

Step 1.  I downloaded Trinity Resource Kit.  I tried to copy it to a USB key and boot from USB, but that didn’t work for some reason.  I had to burn the ISO to a physical CD.

Step 2.  At the boot menu, I tried several options before it would work.  I am guessing it had a conflict with the graphics card.  I finally got it to work by choosing the option #14, (Alternate boot 1).

Step 3.  Once it booted I got a command-line.  I typed:

winpass -u Administrator

Step 4.  Then, the command asked me to choose the Windows installation.  This computer had two Windows options.  Possibly, one of them was the recovery partition.  I didn’t know which one to choose, so I guessed the first option.  Apparently, this was a wrong guess because it just took me to a command-line registry editor.  I hit “q” to quit and it took me back to the command-line without doing anything.

Step 5.  I tried the same winpass command again.  This time, I chose the second “Windows installation”.  This time it gave me a menu.  The menu was different than my instructions, and so, I just hit q for quit.  I could have reset the administrator account, and that would have solved them problem, but I would have had to logon as the administrator and sorted out the account information.

Step 6.  I noticed in the winpass output (before the menu) that it displayed a list of usernames.  I knew which one my relative used, and I substituted the actual username for administrator:

winpass -u <username>

Step 7.  At the menu, I chose 4 to unlock the account — just in case.  I wasn’t sure that it was locked, but they had tried many guesses before I got the computer.

Step 8.  I ran the whole winpass command one more time, and at the last menu, I chose option 1 to blank out the password.

Step 9.  I typed reboot at the command-line to restart the computer.  It ejected the CD before it restarted, and I removed it to let it boot into Windows.  When it started, it bypassed the login screen and logged in automatically.

Problem solved!

Resources