no sound after upgrade to 9.10

[Daniel]

I upgraded from 9.04 to 9.10 but now sound is not working. Here's the output from ALSA Information Script:
It looks like the kernel did not update--it's using the 9.04 kernel. How do I update just the kernel? Is that possible?

Ubuntu 9.10 \n \l DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 9.10"

!!DMI Information
!!---------------

Manufacturer: HP Pavilion 061
Product Name: DQ109A-ABA A375C

!!Kernel Information
!!------------------

Kernel release: 2.6.28-16-generic
Operating System: GNU/Linux
Architecture: i686
Processor: unknown
SMP Enabled: Yes

!!ALSA Version
!!------------

Driver version: 1.0.18rc3
Library version: 1.0.20
Utilities version: 1.0.20

!!Loaded ALSA modules
!!-------------------

snd_intel8x0
snd_usb_audio

!!Sound Servers on this system
!!----------------------------

Pulseaudio:
      Installed - Yes (/usr/bin/pulseaudio)
      Running - Yes

ESound Daemon:
      Installed - Yes (/usr/bin/esd)
      Running - No

ProblemType: Bug
AlsaDevices:
 total 0
 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 60 2009-11-04 17:22 by-id
 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 80 2009-11-04 17:22 by-path
AplayDevices: aplay: device_list:223: no soundcards found...
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices: arecord: device_list:223: no soundcards found...
AudioDevicesInUse: Error: command ['fuser', '-v', '/dev/dsp1', '/dev/dsp', '/dev/snd/by-id', '/dev/snd/by-path', '/dev/sequencer2', '/dev/sequencer', '/dev/seq'] failed with exit code 1:
CheckboxCommand: alsa_record_playback
CheckboxDescription:
 Pair a Bluetooth headset with your system. Then open the volume control application by right-clicking on the speaker icon in the panel and selecting "Sound Preferences". Select the "Input" tab and choose your Bluetooth device. Select the "Output" tab and choose your Bluetooth device. When you are done, click the Test button, then speak into the microphone. After a few seconds, your speech will be played back to you.

 Did you hear your speech played back?
CheckboxTest: alsa_record_playback_bluetooth
Date: Wed Nov 4 21:20:40 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: alsa-base 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu5
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.28-16.55-generic
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Tags: checkbox-bug
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-16-generic i686

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Hi Daniel,

There are several ways that you can wind up booting an old kernel after an upgrade. Bug #470490 describes one of the most common, and includes instructions on how to correct your menu.lst if this is the problem you're having.

Have you previously modified the grub menu.lst configuration on this system? Were you prompted on upgrade whether you wanted to keep your local modifications to menu.lst, or install the package maintainer's version?

[Daniel (djr1215)]

Steve Langasek wrote:
> Hi Daniel,
>
> There are several ways that you can wind up booting an old kernel after
> an upgrade. Bug #470490 describes one of the most common, and includes
> instructions on how to correct your menu.lst if this is the problem
> you're having.
>
> Have you previously modified the grub menu.lst configuration on this
> system? Were you prompted on upgrade whether you wanted to keep your
> local modifications to menu.lst, or install the package maintainer's
> version?
>
> ** This bug is no longer a duplicate of bug 470265
> jaunty to karmic upgrade failed to update menu.lst (update-grub missing from kernel-img.conf)
>
> ** Package changed: alsa-driver (Ubuntu) => grub (Ubuntu)
>
> ** Changed in: grub (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
>
>
Hi Steve,
Thanks for your attention to my problem. To answer your questions, yes
I did modify my grub menu.lst configuration with the grub editor I had
installed with Ubuntu 9.04. I edited out some of the older kernels that
were listed. When I upgraded to 9.10 I was asked if I wanted to keep my
menu.lst configuration and I answered yes as I have a dual-boot system
with Windows XP on another hard drive and I didn't want to loose access
to that OS. When I found out that the reason I had no sound was because
the kernel did not update I tried installing the 2.6.31.5 kernel that
according to linux.org was the latest stable version. That did not
install properly but in the process my grub/menu.lst file got updated
with the correct kernel that I needed (2.6.31.14-generic). How that
happened I don't know but I'm using that kernel now and everything seems
to be working fine. I have sound, video, internet. I still want to
edit the menu.lst file to remove the 2.6.31.5 kernel that I don't
need. I've gotten conflicting advice on how to do that. The grub
editor app that came with 9.04 worked great. Why was that eliminated?
Daniel
Than

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Ok - since you edited menu.lst by hand, I'm marking this as a duplicate of bug #470490, thanks.

If by "grub editor app" you're referring to kgrubeditor, this was removed precisely because it did not interact appropriately with the grub package's update-grub script, leaving users with no idea that manual action was needed to get kernel updates installed - including security updates. Having a GUI editor for grub entries is less important than making sure users' systems are secure and usable.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

As for removing the other kernel that was added by hand, bug #470490 includes a link to the 9.10 release notes with information about this issue (and the recommended way for getting your menu.lst back to where it can be automatically managed for you).

[Daniel (djr1215)]

Steve Langasek wrote:
> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 470490 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/470490
>
> As for removing the other kernel that was added by hand, bug #470490
> includes a link to the 9.10 release notes with information about this
> issue (and the recommended way for getting your menu.lst back to where
> it can be automatically managed for you).
>
> ** This bug has been marked a duplicate of bug 470490
> [MASTER] Grub does not update menu.lst when it was hand-edited (so it defaults to old 2.6.28 kernel after upgrade to ubuntu 9.10 from 9.04)
>
>

Steve,
Thanks for the reference to bug 470490. I edited the menu.lst file as
you suggested and now the unwanted kernel is no longer in my boot menu.
However, when I installed the updates today with update manager it tried
to update the kernel that I just edited out of the menu.lst file (kernel
2.6.31.5). The update manager returned an error "exit status 2" on
trying to update kernel 2.6.31.5. Is there a way to remove this kernel
from the system completely?
Daniel

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

ah - update-grub works by scanning /boot for any kernels it can find. So the simplest way to remove this 2.6.31.5 kernel from the menu and keep it out is to remove the files from /boot and rerun sudo update-grub.