Q I recently installed Fedora on my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop after about six months of using Fedora and I'm having mixed feelings about it. I love how it automatically finds and configures my widescreen display, but I'm rather disappointed that since installation my soundcard no longer makes any sound. It worked fine in FC3 without any intervention from me, but now I run Soundcard Detection and it plays no sound but gives me a very long model name: 'Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller' and the module 'snd-intel8x0'.
I seem to remember the AC'97 in Fedora, but the rest is Greek to me. My laptop is dual booted with Windows XP Professional, where the soundcard works fine, giving me the name 'SigmaTel C-Major Audio' under the device manager. A similar problem has occurred with my Logitech Quickcam for Notebooks Pro webcam. It worked without a hitch in GnomeMeeting on FC3, but in the same program on FC4 only the microphone seems to work. It comes up in Soundcard Detection as 'unknown'. I'm disappointed that a newer version of Linux seems to be less compatible with my devices than older versions. Has anyone else had this problem? I live in the US Midwest, where Linux isn't very well known at all, but I'm working to change that! So I'd like to say thanks and keep up the good work...
A There are lots of changes in new versions of Fedora, so you may simply want to jump back to one you trust, ensure you have the correct updates, and submit some bug reports to Red Hat to find out if anyone else has the same issues. Unless you follow through with bug reports and make sure that people working on USB and sound support know that it's a problem, FC5 is going to be just as broken. There are also a number of mailing lists and IRC channels associated with Fedora that may help solve your problems, or at least make sure that the information is routed to the correct individual. Almost every US city has a LUG of some variety, even in the Midwest - check out your local universities or colleges, as these are often great places to get information from fellow Linux enthusiasts.