[tlug] Sounds of Silence

[CL <az.4tlug@example.com>]

It's Summer, work is slow, so I decided to do a bunch of improvements to 
my OS and hardware and broke them instead.  I've lost the ability to 
listen to audio streams or hear the sound which accompanies online video 
-- such as BBC and CNN news feeds.  I can hear event sounds and can hear 
proper analogue stereo output through the speakers when in the Audio 
Setup page.  I can also hear some event sounds in some programs -- like 
the game Shisen-sho -- but not in other games with streaming audio -- 
like Super Tux.  I can play music CDs with Audigy, but not video DVDs 
(which is Not A Big Thing since the movie DVD / Blu-Ray playing machine 
is the one "over there" attached to the television (as HDMI 4) and has 
all Medibuntu upgrades, which this "work" machine hasn't).

Changes I made since having a working  Kubuntu 13.04 (five desktops) + 
VirtualBox 4.1.26 running WIN XP:

- "Upgraded" WIN XP to WIN 7 32-bit; but DID NOT upgrade VirtualBox (4.2 
version runs flaky on this box).
- Added a webcam -- a USB Elecom UCAM-DLE-300T.
- Added an iBuffalo -- a USB microphone / headset (which I want for VOIP 
use only) but kept the standard speakers, which I want to use for 
regular sounds and noises (the problem began before this was installed, 
I just added complexity).
- Upgraded Skype for Linux to latest version.
- Firefox may have self-upgraded to a later version during this adventure.

PC is home built with a six-core AMD CPU and 8Gb of memory (only two 
memory slots).  Main OS is Kubuntu 13.04 amd-64.  I have several issues 
that have popped up but want to fix them one at a time and think that 
correcting this sound issue is the most important.  I have been all over 
the Kubuntu users groups for 4~5 days and don't see anything that 
answers my concerns directly.

I was having problems with buzzy speakers when they were plugged into 
the mobo connections, so I dragged out my old reliable Creative Audigy 
24 PCI sound card.  Buzzing stopped.  I could play audio CDs and had 
sound to accompany all Firefox video content.  In Firefox, I have 
specified the VLC plugin(s) in all areas that aren't handled by Flash or 
Shockwave.  When I installed WIN 7 in VirtualBox, it self-selected OSS 
Audio over the old reliable PulseAudio and selected a different 
controller.  After that, I had no sound in Linux, either.  I re-set the 
Audio to the same sound settings as I'd had when using WIN XP as a 
VirtualBox, along with all of the other "old" settings" which worked 
fine in WIN 7.

Everything I have set up is configured for basic analogue stereo (two 
front speakers).  Kubuntu "sees" the HDMI controller on my video card 
(HDMI), which is connected to the TV (as HDMI 1) but isn't configured 
for video server output ... yet.  It also sees the Audigy card (CA0106) 
and headset (CM108, which is suddenly greyed out as I check while 
writing this up) and sees the onboard audio when it is switched on in 
BIOS (it is turned off now and was before the problem started).  I have 
set preferences for the Audigy card, then HDMI, then the headset, which 
Skype can't find as a discrete unit and is an upcoming problem to solve 
after this one is done.

When I restart the system, the preferred device is automatically reset 
to the HDMI controller by Kubuntu.  I can play the startup sounds 
through the speakers during testing but they do not play when I restart 
the system.  Speakers work when I test stereo output (KDE Mixer -> 
Playback Streams -> Settings -> Audio Setup) but not in general use.

I have reached a point where I have too much information and not enough 
ideas for solutions.  Can someone else see what I am getting wrong?

--
CL

I can