I spoke too soon. When I came to use Skype 2.0 Beta (which, coincidentally, works great with Ubuntu Gutsy and a Logitech QuickCam) I discovered there are issues with the Intel integrated sound card on these machines. The internal speakers and mic work fine, but the jacks in the front of the case are ignored so you can't use a headset or external speakers. This is pretty much down to Gutsy not shipping with the very latest ALSA driver and the laptop being too new.
It took a bit of research, but the resolution is actually fairly straight-forward:
I spoke too soon. When I came to use Skype 2.0 Beta (which, coincidentally, works great with Ubuntu Gutsy and a Logitech QuickCam) I discovered there are issues with the Intel integrated sound card on these machines. The internal speakers and mic work fine, but the jacks in the front of the case are ignored so you can't use a headset or external speakers. This is pretty much down to Gutsy not shipping with the very latest ALSA driver and the laptop being too new.
It took a bit of research, but the resolution is actually fairly straight-forward:
1. Install the latest ALSA drivers:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Gutsy_Intel_HD_Audio_Controller
http://www.alsa-project.org/
You may need to do this too, but I didn't:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=3566719&postcount=8
2. Add this line to the end of /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base:
options snd-hda-intel model=acerhttp://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=314383
3. Reboot. =)