All sorts of new hardware.

[Zak Jones!]

Just tonight, I threw a new motherboard, CPU, and video card into my chassis.

Of course, some issues with that are unavoidable. I just have no idea how to fix them. :p

Right now, I have no sound. Linux tells me: "No volume control GStreamer plugins and/or devices found." I guess it doesn't see something? :s

Also, the new video card is top of the line. Nvidia 8600 GFX or something like that. Anyway, yeah. I'd like to enable some desktop effects. When I go into System > Preferences > Appearance > Visual Effects and click 'Extra' I get the very simple error message "Desktop Effects could not be enabled."

I have no idea what to do. :)

Appreciate any help you'd like to render. Thanks guys.

[i845_]

I'm suspecting driver problems. If I'm right, you'll need to supply us with a little more info:

a. The make and model of your mainboard (so that we get to know what chips it uses...)
b. The name of the distro you're trying to use.

If possible, also tell us:

c. The exact model of your graphics card (that problem should probably be solved by installing the restricted NVidia drivers in most cases...)
d. The audio chip your mainboard uses. If you can tell us this, ignore Question a.

[saikee]

You will find the latest versions of Linux distros come in handy.

Over the weekend I have installed 1 Vista, 2 Win7 and 14 Linux to a 1.5TB hard disk. The machine has a Intel i7 920 CPU on a Gigabyte mobo with 6Gb DDR3 ram and a Geforce 9800GT video. The Linux distros with 2.6.27 and 2.6.28 kernel performed very well. Those with 2.6.28 kernel were able to install beyond the 15 partition boundary and I am trying to install them backward from the 60th partition. Haven't run into any hardware conflict yet but Xp and Win2k refused to be installed in the new set up.

[Zak Jones!]

Oh, yeah, duh. Thought I included the distro. My bad.

I'm using Ubuntu 8.10, with the most recent kernel.

I'm at school right now, so I can't tell you the motherboard. I'll edit this post as soon as I get home. It's an ASUS board, but I can't remember the exact model.

The graphics card is a nVidia 8600 GFX. (I can't actually find that card on nVidia's webside. There's an nVidia 8600 GFS, though. Close enough, so it's probably the same card.)

[gamblor01]

As i845 mentioned, you probably haven't enabled the nvidia driver yet. Ubuntu comes by default with an open source video driver, but they give you the option to enable the proprietary driver if you wish. I don't have a 8.10 box near me at the moment, but for 8.04 you just have to go to System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers. Select the nvidia driver from the list and enable it. After that you should be able to use the visual effects.

Also, besides the sound card being used on your system, if you want to open a terminal and give us the results of the follows commands it may help:

# sudo lsmod
# sudo lspci

[i845_]

For your GPU-related problems, you could try this (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia).

It's an Asus board, but I can't remember the exact model.

Most Asus boards come with a Realtek HDA codec built in (most of these are pretty well-supported AFAIK). You could take a look here (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshooting), and see what can be done.

(ed) I'm guessing your mobo is a P5Q-EM. Let's see how good I am at guessing! ;) :p :)

[Zak Jones!]

@gamblor01

I enabled the recommended driver (NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (version 177)). In the description, it's mentioned that without it, I won't be able to enable desktop effects. I still get the same error message when I try to enable the effects though.

Output of lsmod (sorry it's so huge. I don't know how to make it any smaller):

zak@zakscomputer:~$ sudo lsmod
[sudo] password for zak:
Module Size Used by
af_packet 25728 4
binfmt_misc 16904 1
rfkill_input 12672 0
sco 18308 2
bridge 56980 0
stp 10628 1 bridge
bnep 20480 2
rfcomm 44432 0
l2cap 30464 6 bnep,rfcomm
bluetooth 61924 6 sco,bnep,rfcomm,l2cap
ipv6 263972 35
ppdev 15620 0
acpi_cpufreq 15500 1
cpufreq_userspace 11396 0
cpufreq_ondemand 14988 1
cpufreq_conservative 14600 0
cpufreq_stats 13188 0
freq_table 12672 3 acpi_cpufreq,cpufreq_ondemand,cpufreq_stats
cpufreq_powersave 9856 0
sbs 19464 0
container 11520 0
pci_slot 12680 0
video 25232 0
output 11008 1 video
sbshc 13440 1 sbs
wmi 14504 0
battery 18436 0
iptable_filter 10752 0
ip_tables 19600 1 iptable_filter
x_tables 22916 1 ip_tables
ac 12292 0
parport_pc 39204 0
lp 17156 0
parport 42604 3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
arc4 9984 2
ecb 10880 2
crypto_blkcipher 25476 1 ecb
b43 131356 0
rfkill 17176 3 rfkill_input,b43
mac80211 216820 1 b43
cfg80211 32392 1 mac80211
led_class 12164 1 b43
usblp 20480 0
input_polldev 11912 1 b43
evdev 17696 7
nvidia 6909268 26
i2c_core 31892 1 nvidia
button 14224 0
shpchp 38036 0
pci_hotplug 34976 1 shpchp
intel_agp 33724 0
agpgart 42184 2 nvidia,intel_agp
pcspkr 10624 0
ext3 133256 1
jbd 55828 1 ext3
mbcache 16004 1 ext3
sd_mod 42392 3
crc_t10dif 9984 1 sd_mod
sg 39732 0
usbhid 35840 0
hid 50560 1 usbhid
pata_marvell 11776 2
ata_piix 24580 0
ata_generic 12932 0
pata_acpi 12160 0
libata 178208 4 pata_marvell,ata_piix,ata_generic,pata_acpi
ssb 40580 1 b43
scsi_mod 155212 3 sd_mod,sg,libata
dock 16656 1 libata
atl1e 40212 0
ehci_hcd 43788 0
uhci_hcd 30736 0
usbcore 149360 6 usblp,usbhid,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
thermal 23708 0
processor 42156 2 acpi_cpufreq,thermal
fan 12548 0
fbcon 47648 0
tileblit 10880 1 fbcon
font 16512 1 fbcon
bitblit 13824 1 fbcon
softcursor 9984 1 bitblit
fuse 60828 3
zak@zakscomputer:~$


Output of lspci:


zak@zakscomputer:~$ sudo lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 1
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 5
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 6
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 90)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JIB (ICH10) LPC Interface Controller
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) 4 port SATA IDE Controller
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SMBus Controller
00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) 2 port SATA IDE Controller
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8600 GTS (rev a1)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Attansic Technology Corp. L1 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (rev b0)
03:00.0 IDE interface: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE6101 single-port PATA133 interface (rev b2)
05:01.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
zak@zakscomputer:~$


@i845_

My motherboard is an ASUS P5QL PRO. Close, but no cigar. :p

[i845_]

My motherboard is an ASUS P5QL PRO. Close, but no cigar. :p

Darn! :p :p :p

For anyone interested, here (http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=YYermRswb7n46yAX&content=specifications) are the complete specs for the Asus P5QL Pro.

@Zak

Your motherboard has a Realtek ALC1200 audio chip. The lspci listing you provide us, doesn't mention it, though (meaning, Linux couldn't even detect it). This may be due to the fact that support for the ALC1200 has been introduced in ALSA from version 1.0.18 onwards (changelog (http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Changes_v1.0.17_v1.0.18); search for ALC1200). Ubuntu 8.10 uses version 1.0.17 of the same.

By the way, ALSA is the kernel component that does all the audio-related autoconfiguration for you.

I suggest you wait for a few days (21, to be precise). Ubuntu 9.04 is going to be released soon. Do an apt-get dist-upgrade then, and enjoy!

[Zak Jones!]

Ahhh. Lamee.. So no sound? Oh well. I can deal with that, I guess.

What about my video drivers?

[Zak Jones!]

Hah, impatience solved.

As I type, I am updating my brand new 9.04b box. :p Sadly, the migration manager didn't work like it was supposed to, and I lost all my old stuff. :'(

It's okay though. Anyways, I'll let you know how the ALSA and video stuff works out.

Thanks for helping!