Ubuntu is notorious for its audio problems. Both Desktop PCs as well as laptops mostly fail to recognize the audio device. This post is specifically meant for solving the audio problem in Ubuntu in Sony Vaio laptops.
Reason for failed Audio
Ubuntu 10.04 is loaded with the old version of ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) , which fails to play most of the audio devices. To solve this problem simply upgrade to the latest version of ALSA and reboot.
How to Upgrade ALSA Driver
One of the blogger has given a detailed instruction on how to upgrade the ALSA driver. I strongly recommend you to follow the instructions (
http://monespaceperso.org/blog-en/2010/05/02/upgrade-alsa-1-0-23-on-ubuntu-lucid-lynx-10-04/). Once you follow the instructions in the link above do the following steps.
Add this code into the repository ppa:ubuntu-audio-dev/ppa
Update the repository
Then in the terminal enter the following code sudo apt-get install linux-alsa-driver-modules-2.6.32-22-generic
(In the above code, change the version accordingly)
In the terminal enter sudo apt-get install linux-backports-alsa-2.6.32-22-generic
Reboot the machine
By default the volumes will be low, so open any sound mixer and increase the volume ( You can use alsaconf , pulse audio or the inbuilt audio configure window)
