No sound
The Alsa mixer has the speakers turned down to zero volume by default. I have installed all the patches and retrograde packages to no avail. I may have to write a script to run at startup to set the volume higher otherwise its a lot of trouble just to get the sound working each time.
Failure to shut down
Shutting down just brings up the login screen again. I have tried all the suggestions found on the Ubuntu forums to no avail, but I have discovered a way round the problem. Right click on the top panel (the bar at the top of the page), select "add to panel" and install the power off button. When you click on this it gives all the power down options like suspend, hibernate and switch off. It turns my laptop off OK. Not ideal but at least it works.
The real question is how the latest release of Ubuntu managed to ship out of Beta with these two major faults. Its not good at all. if I was a conspiracy theorist I would be thinking that Microsoft had paid someone to do it.
Update 13/05/2010 I have now fixed both faults.
Fixing the audio
- Right click on the speaker icon in the top right (this is called the audio applet).
- Select sound preferences.
- Click on the output tab.
- Make sure stereo analogue is selected if you are given an option.
- Make sure its set to analogue speakers at the bottom.
- Turn the volume up in alsa mixer and it should be saved on each reboot.
The cause of this problem seems to be that alsa has assigned the volume control to the soundcard headphone or line output rather than the speakers.
Getting the laptop to shut down
Right click on the bar at the top of the screen select "Add to panel" and add the power off button. This seems to shut down the power OK.
