So far I installed Ubuntu on more laptops than I can count and about half of them needed extra effort in order to make the sound work. Why are they spending time and mony on things like software center and cloud computing without first perfecting the most basic functions of the computer? How can I recommend Ubuntu to the average user without fear of spendings hours in the forums configuring ALSA? Why Ubuntu does not ship with the latest ALSA version? Why is it not easy to upgrade to the latest ALSA version?
It kills me everytime i see a friend with a slow Windows computer, filled with adware and Useless IE tool bars, yet I cant recommend Ubuntu for them. Something will come up; sound may not work, external display won't work, keyboard volume control wont work. And i'll get the usuall request to go back to Windows.
Having said that, Ubuntu is by far my OS of choice and I can't imagin a Linux world without it. I wish that Mark Shuttelworth would just stop wasting time on (ugly) themes and backgrounds and button locations and pour some man-hours and/or funding on the basic functions of the computer, like sound and preferals. Recently I had no problems with wifi and printing but there are problems with graphics, sound, keyboards with Fn key compinations and trackpads with scrolling. These problems seem so basic and ignorable but i have seen them be the reason why users wanted to go back to windows.
I understand that Canonical, people who make Ubuntu, are good people who helped move Linux to the mainstream but i truly believe my suggestions will improve Ubuntu and will encourage us to recommend it for more and more users.
Update:
Here is how I got the sound working under these new Sony Vaio laptops (VPCEB15FG and VPCEB15FX)
- Update ALSA to the latest version from this PPA (apt-get install linux-alsa-driver-modules-'uname -r')
- Remove sudo password prompt (dangerous)
- Install hda-verb
- Add this line to the startup programs: sudo hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x19 SET_PIN_WIDGET_CONTROL 0x22
When i see a suffering windows user but seems that he might accept something new, i introduce ubuntu to him! Of course, it starts with the live cd and see what works and what doesnt! Usually all the stuff that doesnt work out of the box has a workaround to get them functioning in Ubuntu Documentation site! Which is why at the end, they become Ubuntu users! I'm like an infection! :)
ReplyDelete"I wish that Mark Shuttelworth would just stop wasting time on (ugly) themes and backgrounds and button locations and pour some man-hours and/or funding on the basic functions of the computer, like sound and preferals."
LOL, agreed! But hey, you can see Mark and Jono starting to make some major movements, although I consider most of them are plain dumb! Having Unity and dropping xorg for wayland are just two huge movements! The thing is, because ubuntu is doing such vague decisions, I cannot propose ubuntu anymore and have to wait and see where this is exactly going! I might have to leave ubuntu :(
PS: I think apt-get install linux-alsa-driver-modules-'uname -r' shoule have back-ticks ` instead of the apostrophes ' :)