System upgrade kills sound?

[ZiaTioN]

I recently hooked up a friends system with some plugins for his browser (flash and java) and while I was there installed apt for him and did a dist-upgrade and update via apt-get for him and now his speakers do not work anymore. He said he knows they worked prior and we even did a little swap-tronics and tried another set of speakers that are a known good and they do not work either.

I assume during the update process some new drivers or app conflict with his hardware but am a little lost as where to look. I do not use speakers on any of my Linux boxes so I of course have no experience with this area. He is running RH 9 and I forget the manufacturer of his speakers but can find out and post back if this info is needed.

Any direction would be much appreciated. He is a new Linux user and I do not want to leave a sour taste in his mouth over this ordeal.

[Void Main]

Did you upgrade the kernel? What model of sound card does he have? Does he use ALSA? Can I assume you started the mixer and ensured nothing was muted and the volumes were all turned up? Can I assume that when he logs in he has read/write permissions to the necessary devices (/dev/dsp, /dev/mixer, etc)? Does he use Gnome, KDE or another desktop environment?

[ZiaTioN]

Ok sorry for the late reply but here we go.

Did you upgrade the kernel?

No.

What model of sound card does he have?

Not sure but I can now find out. I set him up with ssh remote access through his router and enabled it on his box using iptables. Just tell me where to look (remotely) because I do not currently have physical access to his machine.

Does he use ALSA?

I could not tell you but since it is not known then I would have to say no he does not.

Can I assume you started the mixer and ensured nothing was muted and the volumes were all turned up?

Yes you may..

Can I assume that when he logs in he has read/write permissions to the necessary devices (/dev/dsp, /dev/mixer, etc)?

I would have to check but I am sure he does. Like I said he said they worked prior to the upgrade and I do not believe that any package upgrade he got changed his permission settings.

Does he use Gnome, KDE or another desktop environment?

I believe he uses Gnome.

[ZiaTioN]

I guess no one has ever had this problem?