Having trouble getting sound to work in Pidgin? Gstreamer is enabled, but does not output any sound? I am here to offer a couple of suggestions. First things first, install the following packages: bplay and alsa-utils. (Note: As of this tutorial, i am running Kubuntu 7.10.)

In Pidgin, go to Tools > Preferences. Under the Sound tab, choose "command" as your choice of sound method. In the box below it, type in 

aplay -q %s

Test your sound to see if it works; which it should.

You may be wondering: Why did i install bplay for if i'm not using it? I said to install bplay just so you can have something to fall back on if aplay doesn't work. I've noticed that bplay works when i don't have Amarok playing some music, so other media players or similar programs may cause bplay to not work—but i must have my music. xD Same may go for aplay; certain media players or similar programs may cause it to not work. Therefore, aplay was sufficient enough and the alternative for bplay for me, while allowing me to use my favorite Linux music player.

To use bplay, use the following command:

bplay %s