Dell XPS M1710 Sound Issues - NE Help?

[dericson]

New to PCLINUXOS and trying to make sense of it all.  Hope I am in the right forum and am following the right etiquette.
Been in the Microsoft world far too long - since 1984 to be exact...  I think I just dated myself. Oh well.
Loaded up PCLINUXOS 2010.10 on my Dell XPS M1710 and So far I love what I see.
I am however having a couple of issue with sound.  Dell Support shows the driver as being a SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio set.

Pasted from the config in the control center - PCLINUXOS sees my soundcard as the following.
Identification
Vendor: ‎Intel Corporation
Description: ‎N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller
Media class: ‎Audio device
Connection
Bus: ‎PCI Express
PCI domain: ‎0
Bus PCI #: ‎0
PCI device #: ‎27
PCI function #: ‎0
PCI revision: ‎0x01
Vendor ID: ‎0x8086
Device ID: ‎0x27d8
Sub vendor ID: ‎0x1028
Sub device ID: ‎0x01ce
Driver
Module: ‎snd_hda_intel
Alternative drivers: ‎unknown

The issues I am seeing is the sound works but I really have no volume control.  My function keys do not work nor the front panel buttons. I have loaded and attempted to map the keys with Keytouch etc.  It detects the keys fine when I utilize the configurator for Keytouch - they just don't work.  My rewind or Previous Track button seems to be the only button that does anything and it is somehow mapped to increasing the volume.

That being said - I have two volumes.  Full or mute.  I have to figure this out or I can't utilize this OS and really want to get it working.  I have to do my experimenting and computing at night when the kids are in bed and I am fearful of any sound generated from this thing waking them up!!!

Is this the right drivers?  Wish I was more versed in Linux and the configurations etc.  I feel so weak in this!  I have my MCSE creds as well as a couple cisco certs and a number of other Windows world creds so I am not a nube to the pc world having years of experience in MS since well before the dawn of DOS and on...  I am the IT Director for a fair sized company and I got here from the trenches.

And yet here I am eating humble pie with no peers to turn to that are versed in the linux world...

NE Help NE1?

[Old-Polack]

dericson:

That's life for you... 30 years devoted to becoming an expert, only to become a raw newbie over night.

On the bright side, Linux in general, and this PCLinuxOS distribution specifically, has gotten a whole lot easier to install and use than it was about 12 years ago when I started with it. 

Have you done a configuration of your sound card in PCC?  This icon -->

PCC --> Hardware --> Sound Configuration

That's a good place to start, and if you still have problems, we can take it step by step to get it working. Hang in there.

[Phil]

Is Kmix in the system tray (or in Application launcher > Sound > Kmix), if so try upping the volume