Solution found: Tried to compile the newest alsa-driver, lib and plugins (1.0.14rc4). This did not help with the media-key problem, the sound quality did however get significantly better when using headphones. With this alsa- driver the first channel is changed from 'Master' to 'Headphone'. The channel doesn't seem to have any effect however. The same problem still persisted with the 'Headphone' channel even though the channel it's self had no effect on the volume. As now I now control over the volume with the media keys, I ended up going through gconf-editor.
By changing the value in desktop > gnome > sound > default_mixer_tracks from 'Headphone' to 'PCM' (without the quotes) makes the media keys control the 'PCM' channel instead of 'Headphone'. The PCM channel does not get muted just by lowering the volume as did the Master (and Headphone) channel, thus the system never ends up in the state described in the original report. I would assume the same fix works even without upgrading the drivers. -- volume control unable to increase volume from zero with media keys on HP dv2000 with feisty https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/105633 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is the bug contact for Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs