Sound Blaster Audigy on Ubuntu

I had problems getting my Sound Blaster Audigy to output any sound on Ubuntu. My desktop has an AMD/ATI Radeon HD card that has HDMI (which means there's some sound capabilities that make things more confusing) and a web cam that has an in built microphone, also making things more complicated.

Now on to the fix:

First, we need to install gnome-alsamixer

If you like the terminal, type

sudo apt-get install gnome-alsamixer

...Or use Ubuntu's software center or your favourite package manager (such as Synaptic) to get that step done.

Then, find and run it:

Now choose the tab labelled something like "SigmaTel…" and
Enable/check the box beside the text "Audigy Analog/Digital Output Jack":

...And now your sound should be working again!

Credits go to my source: http://bit.ly/FLbY

Which 11.10?

Just thought it may be useful to someone... If you're into Linux, you may feel confused with the latest changes in our good old desktops. Gnome 3, Unity, etc.

For what is worth, I'm using Xubuntu 11.10 on my netbook (Asus EeePC 1015PX)
and Ubuntu 11.04 (64 bit version) on my desktop (Phenom II quad-core rig I assembled myself). I love the fact that I can choose Gnome 2 (Ubuntu classic) at login, as shown by this screenshot:

If you have any question, post them on your comments. I'll be glad to answer them, as soon as I have the time.

Sun Java on Ubuntu 11.10

Decided to 'fork' my previous post because since Ubuntu 11.10, Sun/Oracle Java has been removed from Canonical's partner repository. Fortunately, Roberto Ferramosca is providing the appropriate packages in his personal package archive (PPA).

So open your terminal, and let's go:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ferramroberto/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts

And that's it. Hope it's helpful. Now if you want to ensure Sun's JRE & JDK are the default, type in the terminal:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

and select your preferred alternative from the list. To select a Java compiler, type

sudo update-alternatives --config javac

Now on to the testing. You should get the version numbers of the currently installed and default runtime and compiler by typing (in the terminal):

java -version
javac -version