sound control gone missing on Dell laptop

[gfm]

I'm a Kubuntu newbie (but a seasoned Unix user). I just installed Kubunbtu 7.04 on a new Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop. It all went well at first. Since then I've installed some system updates and some new apps via the Adept package manager. Somewhere along the way, I lost the sound volume control that appears in the system tray as an image of a speaker. Also, I used to be able to control the volume via the buttons along the front of the laptop case - I no longer can. I'm guessing that the cause of both problems is the same.

Does anybody have a clue what went wrong? How can I get them back? My dmesg output is available at http://menhennitt.dreamhosters.com/dmesg_output

Thanks for any assistance,
Graham

[SheeEttin]

Re: sound control gone missing

To get the little speaker icon back, run "kmix". (You can configure it to start automatically or not once it's running.)

As for the buttons, I'm not sure what controls that.

[gfm]

Re: sound control gone missing on Dell laptop

Thank SheeEttin, you're right - kmix is the missing icon. But how do I get it to start automatically when I log in? And the hard buttons still don't work.

Graham