Fixing Sound in Ubuntu

If your sound quits working randomly after installing updates via the apt system (via sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade) or via the Software & Updates graphical program, it's possible that some of the drivers have not been installed with the latest kernel updates.

To fix this, try running the below command:

sudo apt install linux-modules-extra-$(uname -r)

Reboot.  Your sound should hopefully work again!

If the above command doesn't work (older versions of Ubuntu do not have this package), please see the generic information here:

https://itsfoss.com/how-to-fix-no-sound-through-hdmi-in-external-monitor-in-ubuntu/

Intel Original Compute Stick – Keep WiFi from Breaking – Block Kernel Updates and Chestersmill-Settings Updates

If you have the original Intel Compute Stick (STCK1A8LFC [1GB of RAM] or STCK1A32WFC [2GB of RAM] models from 2015), you'll need to prevent a few software packages from updating so that these updates won't break your WiFi!  I've never been able to get the WiFi to work with these Intel Compute Sticks running a kernel newer than version 3.16 on any version of Ubuntu.  I've also never been able to get the WiFi to work on anything but Ubuntu 14.04, so you might be stuck having to run this older version of Ubuntu.  Also, updates to the chestersmill-settings package can break your WiFi.  To prevent both scenarios from breaking your WiFi, simply prevent the below packages from being updated.

Preventing packages from being updated can be accomplished using hold statuses in the apt system as explained on AskUbuntu:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/18654/how-to-prevent-updating-of-a-specific-package

Basically, you'll need to run the below commands to prevent WiFi from breaking due to buggy kernel and chestersmill-settings package updates:

sudo apt-mark hold chestersmill-settings
sudo apt-mark hold linux-image-$(uname -r)
sudo apt-mark hold linux-image-generic
sudo apt-mark hold linux-generic

You can now safely update software packages without worrying about your WiFi being broken by kernel and chestersmill-settings package updates!

Get Latest Software from Ubuntu Advantage for Ubuntu 14.04

Ubuntu 14.04 is also still supported via the Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) Ubuntu Advantage program (https://ubuntu.com/advantage).  

To get updated software and packages until April of 2022, you'll need to get an Ubuntu Advantage key.  Get your key using your UbuntuOne account on this page:  https://ubuntu.com/advantage

Now, install the Ubuntu advantage client by using the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ua-client/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-advantage-tools

Set your key using the command below (using your key rather than YOUR_KEY_HERE):

sudo ua attach YOUR_KEY_HERE

Now update and install the upgraded packages available via Ubuntu Advantage:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Installing Nvidia's Latest Drivers in Ubuntu using a Custom Compiled Kernel

I compiled the latest kernel 3.7.9 in my Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid following this guide here:  http://www.howopensource.com/2011/08/how-to-compile-and-install-linux-kernel-3-0-in-ubuntu-11-04-10-10-and-10-04/

Everything worked properly, but I ran into problems when attempting to install Nvidia's latest drivers (version NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.32).  The DKMS build would not work and I received errors like "Unable to determine the target kernel version", "bad exit status 2", and "kernel header file does not exist" in the make.log file (along with others) in the /var/lib/dkms/nvidia folder.  The installer would always fail.  So, here's how to get the latest drivers installed and working properly with DKMS support.

First, we need to remove anything Nvidia that may already be installed.  There may be some Nvidia packages that are already installed on your system even though you've yet to install the Nvidia drivers!

Step 1: Download Nvidia Driver and Blacklist Other Drivers:

You can download the Nvidia drivers from http://www.geforce.com/drivers

Nvidia Drivers will only install if you are not running X, so you'll have to install this in a terminal.  Stop GDM before running the rest of the commands.

sudo service gdm stop

Now, we'll need to Blacklist some drivers.  To do this, launch a terminal, and use the following commands:

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Add the following entries to the bottom of the file:

blacklist vga16fb
blacklist nouveau
blacklist rivafb
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist rivatv

Run the following command:

sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia-*

Step 2: Creating Symbolic Links

For some reason, after compiling the latest kernel, the symbolic links the Nvidia installer relies on do not exist.  We'll need to create them.  Run the following commands in a terminal:

sudo ln -s /usr/src/linux-$(uname -r)/include/generated/uapi/linux/version.h /usr/src/linux-$(uname -r)/include/linux/version.h
sudo ln -s /usr/src/linux-$(uname -r) /usr/src/linux

Step 3: Prerequisites

Install the following prerequisites by running these commands:

sudo apt-get install dkms

Step 4: Run the Nvidia Installer

Now, run the Nvidia installer and the DKMS module should build.

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.32.run

Or whatever version you downloaded.