HP dc5100 Audio Problems in Linux

After installing Fedora Core 6 Linux on an HP dc5100 SFF (small form factor) machine with an "Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)", I had a number of problems.

• The system beep always went through the on-board speaker.
• Mute did not work.
• The head phone jack did not disable the sound playing on the built-in speaker.

Headphone Jack

Getting the head phone jack working was the easiest. Although finding out how to do this was not.

1. Open Volume Control, this is found under System|Preferences in GNOME.
2. Select Edit|Preferences.
   
3. Check the "Headphone Jack Sense" button.
   
4. While you're there you might as well check "Line Jack Sense" button as well.

This will add some entries to the "Switches" tab, or add the tab if it did not already exist.

Next

• Check the "Headphone Jack Sense" and "Line Jack Sense" buttons on the "Switches" tab.

This will enable the detection of a headset or line device and automatically disable the built in speaker.

System Beep

It also turned out to be easy to disable the system beep.

1. Open the Sound Preferences applet under System|Preferences|Sound.
   
2. Select the "System Beep" tab.
   
3. Uncheck "Enable system beep".
   
4. Optionally check "Visual system beep" and "Flash window titlebar" or "Flash entire screen".

I prefer entire screen. That way if I am on a different virtual desktop, I still see the flash. Because I have "Desktop Effects" enabled I do not get a flash, I get a reverse flash. The entire screen dims.