Linux kernel update issues with sound
Recently I updated the kernel on my Ubuntu Linux 8.04 (Hardy Heron) box from 2.6.24-22 to 2.6.24-23 and, after a reboot, my sound quit working. No sound means no music. 🙁
I checked all of my sound settings multiple times and confirmed that this was not an issue with Alsa or the sound drivers, nor was it an IRQ issue. After doing a quick search in Google, I determined that others were having the same issue. After setting boot options to 2.6.24-22 and rebooting, everything was working correctly again.
I would suggest holding off on updating the kernel until the next version, but if you have already upgraded and are experiencing issues with sound, the following instructions should get you back up and running.
- Open a terminal session by going to Applications->Accessories->Terminal in the menu bar.
- Type sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst and press Enter.
- Enter your login password when prompted.
- Count each "title" line (starting at 0) until you get to "Ubuntu 8.04.2, kernel 2.6.24-22-generic".
- Go to the top of the file and about 15 lines down you should see a line that begins with "default".
- Change the number on this line to the entry number that you counted in step 4.
- Save the file and quit gedit.
- Restart your computer.
After your computer comes back up and you log in, your sound should be working properly again. Fortunately, Ubuntu and most other flavors of Linux keep the last several kernel updates that you installed on your system and listed in the boot configuration file for this reason. Any time a kernel is updated, it may cause unintended side effects.