No sound on ubuntu 8.04

The Ubuntu file browser does not show hidden files or folders by default, only the files that your user has access to.
Here’s what file browser looks like when browsing the root file system normally:

As you can see, all of the hidden/system folders are not shown. If you hit Ctrl+H at this screen, you will immediately see all the hidden files:

Fairly useful shortcut key. If you would just prefer to make this be the default setting when using file browser, go to the Edit menu and select Preferences:

Check the “Show hidden and backup files” checkbox, and you should now see the hidden files all of the time.

Off a fresh install of Ubuntu (GNU/Linux) there is often a problem withthe sound not working right away. I have found a simple fix for thiswhich does not require additional drivers or any downloading. Istarted with a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala.

First, right click on the speaker icon at the top near the clock and select Sound Preferences.
Turn up the "Alert volume" to about 75-100%, make sure it's above half,the default is 50%. Also make sure the Output volume is near 100% also.

Now this next step is where the magic happens:
Then tab over to the Hardware tab in the preferences. At the bottom of this tab you will see "Settings for the selected device:" and below that is "Profile:" This is where you will mouse over the "AnalogStereo Duplex" flick the mouse wheel up once so it reads "Analog StereoOutput" and then flick the mouse wheel down again back to "AnalogStereo Duplex". Close the properties now, and the sound should work. (If you don't have a mouse wheel, just left click on it to change the selections.)

Also from time to time, something goes down with pulseaudio (the sound) and simply running this command in a terminal window will bring it back to life.
This is the command:

sudo killall pulseaudio

All this command does is kill all processes using the audio, therefore refreshing the audio devices and freeing it up. This does not remove any packages or drivers, just stops all processes using audio. If you are playing a song in Rhythmbox, you will have to restart the song again, no problems there.

This command I have tested with Ubuntu and Mint and works with both, I imagine it works in all Debian-based Linux distributions. I hope you found this information helpful, if so please rate me with the blue thumbs!