A couple a days ago, I installed a whole bunch of games, all from within Ubuntu. Compared to installations on Windows, it’s so easy although the revised Ubuntu Software Center is not really handy compared to the older versions (uninstalling several programs at once is such a hassle with the new version). IMHO there was no need to fix it, as it was not broken…
Anyway, after shutting down the laptop and restarting, there was no sound. Nada. The Hardware tab in System → Prferences → Sound was empty as well. I was still able to hear the drum roll when the X-server started but after that, nothing.
Based on experience, I started grepping processes for anything containing oss, esd etc. but couldn’t find anything suspicious. Some googling found me a good sound troubleshooting page for Ubuntu but still nothing.
In the end, deleting the following files and folders fixed the issue:
me@laptop:~$ rm .esd_auth
me@laptop:~$ rm -rf .pulse
me@laptop:~$ rm -rf .pulse-cookie
Please don’t ask me why and how I fixed that. My guess is that some game came with something that can’t handle pulseaudio yet. I’m just glad it works again.
Printing under linux used to be a pain but it’s getting better. Even newer gear such as a Canon MP640 works. Canon even released a nice shellscript that installs the printer, USB or wireless – your choice.