How to fix the "no sound" in Ubuntu 7.10 on a laptop or notebook

I spent hours working this out, literally. There are lots of different things you can do to try and get sound back (as I'm sure you're aware if you're reading this). I tried backport-modules, alsamixer, everything.

The real problem with the sound on your laptop is really daft, it's about "External Amplifiers"

System->Preferences->Sound

Load up preferences and make sure that each item is checked to appear in the mixer. Make sure none of them are muted.

Then click on the "Switches" tab. At the bottom of the list is an "External Amplifier" switch. Toggle that to off, you should now have sound.

Why?
What that's doing is telling Ubuntu not to supply sound to the headphone jack or to the laptop's speakers because it's expecting an external amplifier to be connected. There's no explanation as to why this is true and I don't think I know anyone who has an amp connected to their laptop.

Try that, if my instructions don't make sense then have a read of this thread on the UbuntuForums. It's really stupid and it cost me a good 6-10 hours of my life.

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