A while back, Ubuntu released their latest update, Jaunty Jackalope. Yes, a Jackalope… Anyway, I usually wait a while to update my home computer because our internet connection is slower there (than at work). A couple nights ago, I decided the time was right, so I started the download and let it run overnight. The next day, I finished the upgrade, and rebooted. While I was at work, I got a call from my wife. We had no sound on the computer. Nothing was muted, and the speaker volume was fine. Great…

When I got home, I started troubleshooting, trying various audio settings, and changing volume levels on pretty much everything. I finally had some success when I switched the audio engine to OSS. I’ve been using Linux long enough to know that it wasn’t the solution I wanted. OSS is an old, deprecated sound system that is only kept around because some applications haven’t been updated in ages.

This at least gave me a starting point in my search on the Ubuntu forums, which are always super helpful. But audio issues on Linux are a dime a dozen, so it took me a while before I stumbled upon this post. I tried a couple of the things they mentioned, but nothing was working. Finally, there was mention of another post, which includes some information from one of the lead PulseAudio developers. As it turns out, the original implementation of PulseAudio by Ubuntu was very poorly done, and if you were upgrading, you still had all those broken settings lying around now that they’ve fixed things in Jaunty Jackalope. I followed the instructions for removing all the broken stuff, and tada, I had sound again. I celebrated by watching Hancock, and cranking the volume.