im not using any other audio card than one that comes default with my mobo and i did update my bios to the latest version available, recently…, (intel dg33fb)… no old cpu… there are two slots in the front panel for headphones a and a mic… i’ve never used a mic…
how do i update alsa driver oldcpu? 
You can update alsa per the openSUSE alsa update page that I created some time back (fortunately, an openSUSE/alsa developer packages cutting edge state of the art rpms, and I maintain this installation guide for those rpms):
Alsa-update - openSUSE
For openSUSE-11.1 (with your installed alsa apps, and with your pae kernel) when connected to the internet, open a gnome terminal or a kde konsole, and type “su” (no quotes and enter root password when prompted). Then into that konsole/terminal copy and paste the following 6 zypper commands one at a time, in sequence:
zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/multimedia:/audio/openSUSE_11.1/ multimedia
zypper install alsa alsa-utils alsa-tools alsa-oss alsa-pulse alsa-plugins-pulse alsa-firmware libasound2
zypper rr multimedia
zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/multimedia:/audio:/KMP/openSUSE_11.1/ multimedia
zypper install alsa-driver-kmp-pae
zypper rr multimedia
and once successfully complete, restart your PC and test your audio.
If that does not work, you may need to try some of the model options for the /etc/modprobe.d/sound file, and I can help provide guidance for that.
updating alsa didn’t work…:disapointed:
OK, we may need to try some model options. But as a quality check, please run in a gnome-terminal or a kde konsole the diagnostic script:
/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh
and please also run the following so I can do a quality check on what rpms you installed:rpm -qa | grep alsa
rpm -qa | grep pulse
rpm -q | libasound2
uname -a
cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
here’s the output of the first command:)
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=3e5d7a0da6800a6e71a89936cf8fde217cda81aa
here’s the output of second set of commands
ZXDSL831II:/home/ashan # rpm -qa | grep alsa
alsa-driver-kmp-pae-1.0.19.20090206_2.6.27.7_9.1-4.1
alsa-oss-1.0.17.git20080715-2.17
alsa-utils-1.0.19.git20090206-1.1
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.19.git20090123-1.5
alsa-1.0.19.git20090203-1.1
alsa-tools-1.0.19.git20090120-1.8
alsa-firmware-1.0.19.git20090120-1.1
alsa-plugins-1.0.18-6.12
ZXDSL831II:/home/ashan # rpm -qa | grep pulse
pulseaudio-module-gconf-0.9.12-9.6
libpulse-mainloop-glib0-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-utils-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-module-bluetooth-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-module-jack-0.9.12-9.6
libxine1-pulse-1.1.15-20.8
libpulse-browse0-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-module-zeroconf-0.9.12-9.6
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.19.git20090123-1.5
libpulsecore4-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-esound-compat-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-module-lirc-0.9.12-9.6
libpulse0-0.9.12-9.6
vlc-aout-pulse-0.9.8a-0.pm.4
pulseaudio-module-x11-0.9.12-9.6
ZXDSL831II:/home/ashan # rpm -q | libasound2
rpm: no arguments given for query
bash: libasound2: command not found
ZXDSL831II:/home/ashan # uname -a
Linux ZXDSL831II 2.6.27.7-9-pae #1 SMP 2008-12-04 18:10:04 +0100 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
ZXDSL831II:/home/ashan # cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
u1Nb.AZA7aVMRMwD:82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
im currently downloading archive from realtek website which claims to be ‘linux driver’… can you help me install it oldcpu? its named linuxpkg_5.09.tar.bz2
You don’t need those sources as they are already included in Alsa 1.0.19.
OK, so your PC has an ALC888. The alsa rpms look ok. I gave you the wrong command to check libasound2. The command should have been:
rpm -q libasound2
anyway, its possible the autoprobe of the alsa is not working appropriately at PC boot. Possibly due to your having an ndiswrapper for wireless, or possibly due to your hardware …
You could try a custom model option in your /etc/modprobe.d/sound file, … selecting the option from this list from the HD-Audio-Model.txt file:
ALC883/888
==========
3stack-dig 3-jack with SPDIF I/O
6stack-dig 6-jack digital with SPDIF I/O
3stack-6ch 3-jack 6-channel
3stack-6ch-dig 3-jack 6-channel with SPDIF I/O
6stack-dig-demo 6-jack digital for Intel demo board
acer Acer laptops (Travelmate 3012WTMi, Aspire 5600, etc)
acer-aspire Acer Aspire 9810
acer-aspire-4930g Acer Aspire 4930G
medion Medion Laptops
medion-md2 Medion MD2
targa-dig Targa/MSI
targa-2ch-dig Targs/MSI with 2-channel
laptop-eapd 3-jack with SPDIF I/O and EAPD (Clevo M540JE, M550JE)
lenovo-101e Lenovo 101E
lenovo-nb0763 Lenovo NB0763
lenovo-ms7195-dig Lenovo MS7195
lenovo-sky Lenovo Sky
haier-w66 Haier W66
3stack-hp HP machines with 3stack (Lucknow, Samba boards)
6stack-dell Dell machines with 6stack (Inspiron 530)
mitac Mitac 8252D
clevo-m720 Clevo M720 laptop series
fujitsu-pi2515 Fujitsu AMILO Pi2515
fujitsu-xa3530 Fujitsu AMILO XA3530
3stack-6ch-intel Intel DG33* boards
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)
As you can see, there are a lot of options, and they need to be tried and tested one at a time.
You could start with the option “auto”, by changing your /etc/modprobe.d/sound file to the following:
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel model=auto
# u1Nb.AZA7aVMRMwD:82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
and restart your alsa sound driver with su -c ‘rcalsasound restart’ enter root password when prompted for a password, then restart your mixer, and test your sound.
If that does not work, replace “auto” with “3stack-dig” and save the change, restart alsa the same way as noted above, restart your mixer, and test your audio. Keep doing that for each model option until you find one that works.
Good luck!
sorry oldcpu but i have a question how come my sound works perfectly in ubuntu hardy heron installation without ever configuring any sound file? is it because i installed it in windows… (ubuntu disk comes with an option to install in windows. i don’t use virtual boxes)…
but since i have to select the ubuntu os from boot menu there cant be a connection between windows and ubuntu. or windows drivers… this puzzles me… does this mean that ubuntu people have figured out my driver way ahead?
Its likely because the developers at Ubuntu found a solution, but following Ubuntu policy, did not submit the fix upstream. Something like 80% of the time, when Ubuntu dev’s apply a Linux fix, they do not provide it to anyone. Not to Debian, not to any other Linux. Not to anyone. That is documented on the web by a Ubuntu dev who stated as much. The remaining 20% they send the fixes to Debian, but not to any other Linux. Then for that 20% sent to Debian, we have to hope that Debian send them upstream. But the Debian developers may not, and even then, there is a very big time lag.
It means that Ubuntu have a policy in place that other Linux distributions do not gain that much from the Ubuntu Dev work.
Hence that is one reason why I refuse to use Ubuntu.
Note both Red Hat/Fedora and openSUSE send all their bug fixes upstream.
Now if this works for you under Ubuntu, you could run the previous diagnostic script under Ubuntu, and post here the output URL, and I can check to see if I can figure out what they are doing.
Did you try the model options (one by one) that I suggested?