[ale] multimedia woes in Ubuntu Hardy/Intrepid

[Dow_Hurst]

Hey, I have a XPS M1530 with Hardy.

Set to use ALSA.
Turn up all the volumes of everything in the mixer.
Double check you can get sound and then adjust mixer
levels til you find what you like.  The digital mic
is required for the mic to work.  The analog setting
won't work only the digital.  I would add medibuntu
as a repository and install Mplayer from there.  The
codecs from there ought to fix your Dad's problem.

Personally, I found that keeping the dell repository
caused me problems on updates.  A friend found differently
on her XPS M1330.  She had to just redo settings.  I
think the initial large number of updates required
to bring a Dell Hardy up to date does cause some problems
for each system they ship.  I had real problems with my
touchpad, while she did not.  I didn't have problems
with network manager and wifi settings while she had to
redo all her wifi settings and make sure a kernel module
was loading.  Obviously, Dell should test updates and 
make corrections as necessary.  Shipping new systems
already updated would be better.  However, you can
save out the LinDVD deb from the recovery partition.  Make
some notes on all the special settings that are applied
by scripts in the recovery partition.  Then, you 
can wipe the drive, install Ubuntu Hardy from scratch,
and then apply those same changes manually.  The machine
will work more consistently for some reason.  I did this
with a Inspiron 1420N that came with Gutsy and was upgraded
to Hardy.  It was easy to just reinstall Hardy with a
Ubuntu Hardy vanilla install and then apply the Dell changes
manually.  That system works better now.  I haven't yet
gone that far with my 1530 since it is running just fine.
Best wishes,
Dow


-----Original Message-----
>From: Daniel Howard <dhhoward at comcast.net>
>Sent: Feb 14, 2009 2:28 PM
>To: ale at ale.org
>Subject: [ale] multimedia woes in Ubuntu Hardy/Intrepid
>
>Well, my dad's new Dell Inspiron 1525 with Hardy Ubuntu has been great
>for him, except this weekend on a visit he tried to play an encrypted
>DVD.  No go, and then I tried to play mp3s, also no go.  Get Totem error
>of invalid stream for both cases.  Verified that libdvdcss and
>libdvdread are installed, still no go.  Saw blogs about updates to
>Ubuntu breaking mp3 and DVD playback and giving same error message about
>invalid streams, and to try going into preferences, sound, and choosing
>something other than autoselect (alsa, pulseaudio, etc.) none of them
>work either now.  He ran a full update a while back, so I'm suspecting
>that.  Worse, since his dell came with LinDVD, that doesn't even launch
>now.  Anyone seen this problem and have ideas for fixing?  I can burn a
>restoration DVD to put his laptop back into factory setup in worse-case.
>
>Daniel 
>
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