Category Archives: Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

I have no audio when using Flash

One of the first issues I had with running Kubuntu was that I had no audio while playing Flash based applications.  I had installed a SoundBlaster card in my machine, so I was no longer using the onboard sound as my default device.  I had already setup my default audio device in Multimedia System Settings to my new card, but that did not seem to affect the default device in Flash.

After some searches on the Internet, I came across this thread: Changing default ALSA soundcard in Karmic, now with asoundconf gone.  I found some information that allowed me to update the default device for ALSA, which I had read, Flash uses.  These are the steps that I followed:

1.  You need a listing of your current sound devices.  Open up a root terminal window (sudo bash) and type: “cat /proc/asound/modules”

You should get a short list of your sound devices back:

0 snd_hda_intel
1 snd_usb_audio
2 snd_emu10k1

Please note the number preceeding the device you need to make the default.  In my case, I wanted to use the snd_emu101k1 device.

2.  Next, you need to edit your alsa-base.conf file.  In the terminal window type: “nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf”

Hit CTRL+W to search for abnormal in the conf file.  You should now be on this line:

# Prevent abnormal drivers from grabbing index 0

Above this line, add the following, but replace index=2 with the same number you noted above:

#added options to choose sound blaster
options snd_ctxfi index=2
# Prevent abnormal drivers from grabbing index 0

Hit CTRL+O and save the file.  Hit CTRL+X to leave nano.

3.  Now we need to restart the alsa server:

Type: “/sbin/alsa-utils stop” and press Enter.
Type: “alsa force-reload” and press Enter.
Type: “/sbin/alsa-utils start” and press Enter.

4.  Enjoy your sound in your Flash applications!