I run a HP g7-1070us with the latest Kubuntu. In the beginning sound worked perfectly but as of late I've had to return to Ubuntu because 1) sound no longer works in Rhythmbox or Amarok 2) at times sound will cut off for everything including flash videos. I'm not really sure how to diagnose this or fix it?

Can you check to see if Pulseaudio is in use, and confirm that the correct Pulseaudio connector for your current Phonon backend (likely GStreamer) is installed?

How do I do that in Kubuntu?

Would the fact that sound still works in Ubuntu signify anything?

Check the output of "pa aux | grep pulseaudio", and check to see if "ls /usr/lib*/gstreamer-*/libgstpulse.so" returns anything.

this is from the first command:

sushi 9409 0.7 0.1 341120 7112 ? S<l 21:04 0:00 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog
sushi 9424 0.0 0.0 94816 3040 ? S 21:04 0:00 /usr/lib/pulseaudio/pulse/gconf-helper
sushi 9846 0.0 0.0 14560 896 pts/1 S+ 21:05 0:00 grep --color=auto pulseaudio



the second command only returns

/usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstpulse.so

This is just for Rhythmbox and Amarok playback though. Everything else works perfectly.

anyone? i really like kubuntu and don't want to go back to unity but if this doesn't get resolved i'll really have no choice.

If you check in KMix when the audio cuts out, can you verify that the audio settings under Playback streams are set appropriately?

Something could be muting it (especially the case if an application in a category such as Voice starts playing, it could possibly cause applications in other categories to automatically mute)

I am having the same problem -- but it is system-wide. The only "fix" when it cuts out is to restart the computer. That's not really a fix.

I tried the commands suggested above and got the following output:

"pa aux | grep pulseaudio"

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pa: command not found

"ls /usr/lib*/gstreamer-*/libgstpulse.so"

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ls: cannot access /usr/lib*/gstreamer-*/libgstpulse.so: No such file or directory

That said, in Audio and Video Settings - Backend, Gstreamer 4.6.3 is listed.

Does the above suggest that there is something that can be done?

Thanks.

typo, correct command is "ps aux | grep pulseaudio"

you could try to uninstall pulseaudio (you will maybe have to reconfigure "kcmshell4 phonon" afterwards as well as other clients like vlc, if they're explicitly configured to use pulseaudio as backend) and see whether this still happens.

Here are the results from "ps aux | grep pulseaudio"

Code: Select all

mbwd      2005  0.3  0.1 439316  6820 ?        S<l  11:20   0:23 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog
mbwd      3560  0.0  0.0   9456   948 pts/6    S+   13:13   0:00 grep --color=auto pulseaudio

If I uninstall pulseaudio, do I reinstall it or leave it uninstalled?

ALSO: I noticed that the sound tends to die after I put the laptop to sleep. Hopefully, that is a helpful clue!

You leave it uninstalled.

FYI:
http://www.google.com/search?q=pulseaud ... 20to%20ram

Eeeesh. I uninstalled pulseaudio and everything went haywire. Can no longer control sound from my keyboard. Sound on Amarok cuts off during playback. No audio on Firefox.

I took a look at your google link, but there were no solutions. Getting rid of pulseaudio would be fine if the rest worked. Right now it doesn't. Is there a way to fix the others with pulseaudio gone?

phonon (and depending on the phonon backend) vlc may be configured to use pulseaudio - you've to change that and use alsa as sink (run "kcmshell4 phonon" for a start - i don't know what FF uses for sound, but assume gstreamer; that will likely require gstreamer-properties to be configured - it though may pickup the PA absence after a reboot)

Or not, gconftool-2 should do as well:
http://m.webupd8.org/2010/03/how-to-swi ... ad-of.html