Comment 55 for bug 88570

If anyone is getting the following when trying to build the alsa drivers: -

rich@rich-laptop:~/alsa-driver-1.0.14rc4$ ./configure
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables
See `config.log' for more details.
rich@rich-laptop:~/alsa-driver-1.0.14rc4$

You need to install build-essential from the synaptic package manager which can be started up by doing the following: -

1. From the top menu bar select System-->Administration-->Synaptic Package Manager
2. Press Search button within the Synaptic Package Manager Window
3. Enter 'build-essential' into the 'search' field and press the search button.
4. If not already installed (the box beside build-essential should be green), click on the box and select 'Mark for Installation'
5. Press the apply button.

You will then need to do the following to create the alsa drivers and install them: -

1, Call up a terminal window by selecting Applications-->Accessories-->Terminal from the top menu bar
2. Enter the following lines into the terminal window.

wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-driver-1.0.14.tar.bz2
tar -xjf alsa-driver-1.0.14.tar.bz2
cd alsa-driver-1.0.14
./configure
make
sudo make install

Reboot the system, hopefully everything will then work as it should ;)