http://blog.chinaunix.net/uid-14132119-id-282704.html
After so many many attempts to solve my audio problems when upgrading to Karmic, I finally found a working solution !
First, let me decribe what the problem was:
1) no audio card was detected at all
=> cat /proc/asound/cards returned an empty content
=> cat /proc/asound/devices did not include any audio devices
=> 'Hardware' tab in sound preferences was empty
2) the audio tray indicated a "dummy output"
SOLUTION
========
For those who do not have a fresh Karmic install (in other words thosewho have upgraded their Jaunty install), you should update your GrubBEFORE applying the 2 steps described hereunder:
sudo update-grub
Step1: make the sound card being recognized
=>
Purge alsa-base and pulseaudio, eg:
sudo apt-get remove
--purge alsa-base
sudo apt-get remove
--purge pulseaudio
sudo apt-get install alsa-base
sudo apt-get install pulseaudio
sudo alsa force-reload
Now, reboot, you shoud now SEE (but maybe not yet hear) your soundcard.
Give a try to:
cat /proc/asound/cards
and see if any card is listed...
Step2 : If the sound is crapy, you MAY have to edit the alsa config file:
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base-conf
a) comment (#) the following line:
# options snd-hda-intel power_save=10 power_save_controller=N
b) Add a new line
options snd-hda-intel probe_mask=1 model=
hp
Replace "
hp" with appropriate computer model. See
http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/sound/alsa/HD-Audio-Models.txt