getting audio in 64-bit Debian 5.0.4?
 

What codecs/drivers/whatever do I need to get sound working on my debian 64bit install? I can play video files, but they have no sound. In fact the only sound my computer will produce at all is the system beep. This is getting really frustrating for me, any help would be appreciated.

Hi there,

it usually helps to tell us what you've tried so far, so that we aren't suggesting things you've already done.

However, the first thing I suggest is checking `alsamixer` and making sure the appropriate things are not muted, and that the channel(s) & speaker(s) you want to use are not muted and are turned up sufficiently.

To do that, run this as root from a terminal:
After turning up the master vol, PCM vol, and whatever speaker channel(s) you want, and making sure nothing you wish to use shows an <MM> at the bottom (that means MUTED, which can be changed by pressing M or SPACE) then try some sound. If it works, great. Hit ESCAPE to exit the mixer. Then, to save the settings, do this as root:

Now it will save the settings you just set.

There is also a tool called `alsaconf` which will try to automatically try to set up your sound hardware by asking you a few questions. You could run that as root too and see what happens.

If these ideas do not help, please show us the output from `lspci -v` and/or tell us what sort of sound chip you have.

P.S. - maybe a silly suggestion, but check the BIOS of your computer to make sure the sound hardware is actually turned on if you aren't sure.

Best of luck.

I have a dualboot win7 and debian 5.0.4 (my lq profile says differently, haven't updated it yet), and sound works fine in Windows, so I know the card itself is on.

I installed several packages for this that were suggested by others, but none did anything. One that someone told me I should get but haven't tried yet is w32codecs-all (something like that), because I'm on a 64 bit version and that isn't in the DVD repository (can't connect the Debian laptop to the net at the moment). Is that the library I need, maybe?

When trying to make audio work in other ways, I tried loading an OGG in Amarok, it said that an appropriate device couldn't be loaded (or something like that).

and just now I tried your suggestions. alsamixer put out this
alsaconf said no drivers loaded, and it couldn't find a sound card.

Then lspci -v put this out:

So I'm guessing that in the end, debian doesn't recognize my soundcard. But thats a little odd to me, since Mandriva does recognize it (but Mandriva included proprietary drivers, so that may be the issue).

Ok, here's the sound card:

And a quick google took me to here: http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/SND_HDA_INTEL.html which appears to indicate that at least some incarnations of this device are supported by the Linux kernel's built-in HDA Audio driver. It appears that on your machine, one of two things is going on: either your kernel has not got the alsa driver necessary, OR your particular device is not supported. My vote goes to the first idea for now..

If you would do:
again, and just paste us the chunk that matches the audio device, as I have copied here, it will show us an extra line with a AAAA:BBBB formatted entry, which allows us to identify precisely what version of this device you have.

Also, try:
and look for "snd_hda_intel" in the list. It probably isn't there. If not, try (as root):
and if that returns nothing, do the `lsmod` again and see if the module is now present in the list. If it is, repeat the alsamixer stuff from earlier; if it is not, I believe you'll need to recompile the kernel with the necessary support, OR we will have to examine the `lspci -vn` output and do some more research on the exact device..

I do not believe that any proprietary drivers should be needed (can always be wrong, but so far I don't think so..)

Further reassurance: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=87536

Appears to be the same device over there, and the problem was solved with a kernel upgrade. I dunno what kernel version you have, but if it's really old, upgrading should help. If it's pretty new, it should be adequate.

Post output from:
when you get a moment, and we can see what kernel you're running.

kernel version is 2.6.26.2 -amd64

about to check the rest

Version *should be* new enough - according to kernel mailing list (device driver database to be exact) it came in at 2.6.12 - but maybe full support to the degree that works with this exact device, was implemented later. I or you'd have to examine the kernel HDA Audio source-code for your kernel version, to see if your device ID is coded in yet or not.

Even if it is not, there are workarounds that may work; the snd-hda-intel driver accepts some parameters which can be used to "program" it when it's inserted, to tell it what device it's supposed to drive, but we'll deal with this bridge when we get there.

k, the lspci -vn brought back a bunch of stuff but didn't have any audio device specifically named as such. saw Device 1303 on the original output, and found it with two numbers in that format: the first was 8086:3b56, the second was Subsystem: 1043:1303

lsmod didn't have it in the list.

the modprobe commands you gave returned absolutely nothing, just opened another terminal prompt with no output at all. does the hda refer to the harddrive, or something else?

I'm downloading the 2.6.34.1 kernel now, I'll try upgrading it and see how it works. Should be an interesting learning experience ^_^) b

question though, are there separate kernels for different architectures, or will cover a 64 bit arch?

and is the patch seriously only 64kb? or is the dl bad or something?
Should I use the full source or the patch? I'm guessing patch, but probably should make sure

HDA refers to "High Def Audio", which basically refers to a set of audio chips & their respective drivers. HDA chips come from different manufacturers, such as Realtek, Intel, etc..

A successful modprobe command should return nothing, but it should NOT open a new terminal all by itself. This is why I mentioned (I think I did..) to re-run the lsmod command after the modprobe command. A failed modprobe will show an error, but a good one will show nothing.

As for the `lspci -vn` yes, the name (the human readable name anyhow) does not show; you have to visually identify the same block of data as being for the right device. Probably combining a bunch of lspci options will show both, but I haven't taken the time to figura out that combination :)

Chances are that one of:
are the device ID, if you correctly matched the right block of lspci text; google should easily identify one of these as being the audio device if it is. I would google for "Linux AAAA:BBBB" and see what comes back (of course putting the right codes there for AAAA & BBBB).

One kernel covers all architectures, however you are downloading the wrong thing. :)
You want these (about 65 Mb):
The `sign` file is used to verify the authenticity of the kernel archive. You would do:
to check the signature. If you do not have the key, you will get errors telling you you're missing the key you need.. If so, you will want to get that key:
replacing the ABCD1234 with the correct last 8 characters of the key that it tells you is missing.

will I lose anything from a kernel recompile, or will all my apps and stuff still be there afterwards?

You won't lose anything at all.

In fact you will want to ADD your new kernel to your bootloader, but NOT replace your existing one with it. This is because, if your new kernel is borked and doesn't boot for some reason (it happens!!) then you can still boot your old working kernel.

If you've never built a kernel, you will have a learning process ahead of you. I can help to some degree, as I've been building my own kernel for a few years now. However, each distro tends to have its own way of installing the kernel, so once your kernel is built, you'll need the help of a Debian person to do the installation. It's easy, but just will be slightly different from what I do on my system.

Also, I don't know what bootloader you use (GRUB or LILO probably) and I have no experience with GRUB as I use LILO. If your Debian installation is pretty stock, it will have whatever bootloader Debian installs.

You may wish to go now and locate a decent Debian-based kernel compile & install tutorial for reference, and have a read of it before beginning. Have a grasp what you're going to have to do, before starting it. :)

http://linux.about.com/od/linux101/l/blnewbie_atoc.htm I found this, looks like a pretty good guide to me, but is it pretty much still correct? Its a little old so I'm not sure if anything has changed since that was written

I recommend something newer. A lot may have changed in 10 years. Lemme see what I can find - but I'd still prefer a Debian-experienced member make the final assesment of any tutorial either of us find.