Ubuntu - issues resolved

Posted 22:07, on 5/11/2007 in Ubuntu

I managed to fix quite a few of my remaining 'niggles' with Ubuntu today after 20 mins or so of Googling. So here are the problems and solutions incase they help anyone else:

Lack of 5.1 surround (Realtek AC'97)

Here's the contents of my .asoundrc config file (which I setup last time I was trying to fix this):

pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "surround51"
    slave.channels 6
    route_policy duplicate
}

but I was still only getting sound from the front two speakers. The solution? Type alsamixer into a console window - this will give you an ascii volume control for each channel. Crank up the rear speakers (the volume of which was defaulted to 0), and voila.

A nice sound configuration GUI is one thing that Ubuntu lacks.

No flash player (64-bit related)

As I understand it, Adobe don't do a 64-bit version of their flash player, so I have been using the open source (but limited) 'gnash' player up until now. However
in Gutsy, you can now install the normal 32-bit flash player package (flashplayer-nonfree), as this will also automatically install a package called nspluginwrapper, which allows 32-bit plugins to work in 64-bit Firefox. Simple!

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