Sound problems in Etch after Install on Laptop

Tons of Fun · 03-13-2008, 07:40 PM

I just installed Debian Etch on my Gateway 7330GZ laptop, and it finished about 90%. After tweaking the broadcom wireless, I am down to my final issue, no sound. At first, when I tried to open the meters on mixers, I got an error stating "cannot connect to sound daemon. Please run 'esd' at the command prompt.". I ran alsoconf and alsactl start and those problems went away. Next I installed gnome-audio, and the meters responded to the sample, but still no sound. All inputs on the Alsa mixer have been un-muted, and all levels are up. So everything seems to work except no sound out of the built-in speakers.

I ran lsmod with the following results:

snd_intel8x0 30332 2
snd_ac97_codec 83104 2
snd_ac97_bus 2400 1
snd_pcm_oss 38368 1
snd_mixer_oss 15200 2
snd_pcm 68676 4
snd_timer 20996 1
snd 47012 9
soundcore 9248 3
pcspkr 3072 0
snd_page_alloc 10148 3

I don't know how to read those, but knew to run them due to other threads. Does anything stand out in what I have provided? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

budword · 03-13-2008, 07:52 PM

First, I'd install the latest versions of Alsa-driver, Alsa-lib, and Alsa-utils. You can find them here.

http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page

Then follow these instructions. They are ubuntu specific, but should work fine on debian. They also go into detail on how to install the new versions of Alsa, and what files to edit and exactly how.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto

Good luck... let us know how it turns out....

David

P.S. This worked for my gateway. Good luck..

Tons of Fun · 03-16-2008, 11:47 AM

Thanks for the help. I got most of the way through before running into a snag. I downloaded and compiled the latest drivers per the Ubuntu article. Then I went to the cat /proc/asound... section, and that is where I got stuck. In my install, Debian Etch, there is no asound directory. I looked, and I didn't see any directory relating to sound. How else can I determine what model my sound card is? I seem to remember another way to determine these things, but cannot remember how to save my life. The laptop is a Gateway 7330GZ.

Thanks

Tons of Fun · 03-16-2008, 05:27 PM

Update: I seem to have gone backwards. I followed the instructions and still have no sound. However, I now cannot open the Volume Control; I get the following error: No volume control GStreamer plugins and/or devices found. When I try to run alsaconf, it cannot find any sound devices. Running lsmod no longer shows the modules that I got in my first post. And I cannot open the meters again, but I cannot fix it this time because alsaconf can't run. Any ideas?

Thanks.

budword · 03-16-2008, 06:25 PM

Go through the instructions again. When you hit the part about finding your soundcard in the dir that you don't have, don't worry about it. Just continue. When you get to this part..

************* *

Open /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base with the following command:

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

Then paste the following line at the end of the file (change MODEL with the type of sound card's model, in our example it should be "acer" (without quotation marks)):

options snd-hda-intel model=MODEL

*****************************

Append this to the file..

options snd-hda-intel model=gateway

And continue with the rest of the instructions.

Let us know if it worked...

David

P.S. Does that make sense ?

Tons of Fun · 03-27-2008, 05:28 PM

OK, here is the update. I was having other issues, so I reinstalled Etch. I still didn't have sound, but I had no errors. I opened the volume control (I'm using gnome) and un-muted all of the settings; still no sound. So then I opened the volume control preferences, selected External Amplifier, looked at the switches tab, and noticed that it was selected. I unchecked the External Amplifier box, and all of my system sounds now work. So I only have 1 more audio problem.

When I open Amarok, I selected the welcome audio track and received the following error:

xine was unable to initialize any audio drivers.

Here is a copy of lsmod | grep snd:

Case:/home/hank# lsmod | grep snd
snd_intel8x0 30332 2
snd_intel8x0m 15980 0
snd_pcm_oss 38368 1
snd_mixer_oss 15200 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_ac97_codec 83104 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_intel8x0m
snd_ac97_bus 2400 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm 68676 4 snd_intel8x0,snd_intel8x0m,snd_pcm_oss,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer 20996 1 snd_pcm
snd 47012 9 snd_intel8x0,snd_intel8x0m,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 9248 2 snd
snd_page_alloc 10184 3 snd_intel8x0,snd_intel8x0m,snd_pcm
Case:/home/hank#

Here is the result of cat /proc/asound/cards:

Case:/home/hank# cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [I82801DBICH4 ]: ICH4 - Intel 82801DB-ICH4
Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with unknown codec at 0xe02ff800, irq 169
1 [Modem ]: ICH-MODEM - Intel 82801DB-ICH4 Modem
Intel 82801DB-ICH4 Modem at 0xe800, irq 169
Case:/home/hank#

Finally, here is my lspci:

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Rioworks Unknown device 202f
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 169
I/O ports at e400 [size=256]
I/O ports at ee80 [size=64]
Memory at e02ff800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
Memory at e02ff400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

It looks like the issue is the unknown codec, but I am not real sure. Google got me this far, but cannot seem to find this answer.

Thanks for all of the help thus far!

Tons of Fun · 03-27-2008, 07:08 PM

Another update. I got audio working with Amarok by changing the xine output engine output plugin from auto to esd. Finally, my last hurdle is audio output in videos. I have a series of CBT Nuggets, and need to be able to play them. Video plays fine in the built in movie player, but no audio. The files are AVI's, and I am using Totem. I tried VLC, but the video flashes like it's running under regular lights. That aside, it also had no audio output.

I opened one of the AVI files with Amarok, and Amarok played the audio, so the problem must be the video players. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Japser · 03-27-2008, 08:01 PM

I have made a script that continually shows which application accesses which sound device. I would like you to use it:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

test "$1" != "--help" || {

    echo "card-use [interval(=5)] shows which processes access any device in the group audio"

    exit

    }

seconds=5
test -z "$1" || seconds=$1

while true
do

    clear

    echo
    echo -- processes using devices in the group audio:
    echo

    lsof -w $( find /dev -group audio 2>/dev/null )

    echo
    echo
    echo \( refresh every $seconds sec. \)

    sleep $seconds

done

read

HTH --Japser.

Tons of Fun · 03-27-2008, 08:14 PM

Thanks for the script. I wish I had a clue how to read it, but that will come in time. Anyway, here is the output when I try to launch an avi movie in Totem:

-- processes using devices in the group audio:

COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
esd 3332 hank 5w CHR 14,3 5548 /dev/dsp
totem 4063 hank 29r CHR 14,16 5417 /dev/mixer1
totem 4063 hank 30w CHR 14,19 5401 /dev/dsp1

( refresh every 5 sec. )

Here is the output when launching the same avi with VLC:

-- processes using devices in the group audio:

COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
esd 3332 hank 5w CHR 14,3 5548 /dev/dsp

( refresh every 5 sec. )

To get audio to play in Amarok, I had to change the xine output device from alsa to esd. I also have system sounds, so it appears the only thing left is audio out in videos. One thing I noticed is the output of cat /proc/asound/cards:

Case:/home/hank# cat /proc/asound/cards 0 [I82801DBICH4 ]: ICH4 - Intel 82801DB-ICH4 Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with unknown codec at 0xe02ff800, irq 169
1 [Modem ]: ICH-MODEM - Intel 82801DB-ICH4 Modem
Intel 82801DB-ICH4 Modem at 0xe800, irq 169
Case:/home/hank#

It knows what the audio card is, but has the unknown codec message. Does that have something to do with this?

Thanks for the help.

Japser · 03-27-2008, 09:30 PM

Long story: Linux is migrating from OSS to ALSA as its sound infrastructure.

oss uses /dev/dsp
alsa uses /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p

You have alsa installed, and alsa -emulates- oss.

So you see /dev/dsp is used by esd .

That works, but is not as it should be.

I would do the following:

Remove esd from the system.

Try to make a pure alsa-system, you will see many things start to work directly on top of alsa ( if alsa is really there ).

Then if you still want esd, ( you need it for the system sounds ) then make sure that it is installed with libesd-alsa0 and -not- with libesd0

You can also keep trying to get things working on /dev/dsp but then you are working backwards....

--Japser.

Tons of Fun · 03-30-2008, 09:40 AM

That sounds great, I want a pure alsa system. I guess where I am stuck is what to do next. I have alsa installed, it just seems to be missing something. I did notice that when I look in Amarok's configuration window, the xine engine currently has esd as the output plugin. When I change it to alsa, the alsa device configuration is blank and greyed out. From what I have seen in various Googled searches, my sound device information should be in there. That is why I believe there is something missing or I have a conf file that needs tweeking. Problem is, I am lost.

Thanks for your help, and any further help you can provide.

Japser · 03-30-2008, 01:25 PM

If I run my script I have this output:

Code:

-- processes using devices in the group audio:

COMMAND    PID USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
esd       2751   rj  mem    CHR 116,16      4907 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
esd       2751   rj    5r   CHR 116,33      4773 /dev/snd/timer
esd       2751   rj    6u   CHR 116,16      4907 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
mixer_app 2810   rj   40u   CHR  116,0      4930 /dev/snd/controlC0


( refresh every 5 sec. )

As you see esd runs and uses the alsa-devices.

I installed amarok just to see what happens.

It plays in 'automatic', 'alsa' and 'esd' output-setting ( after restarting the program ).

I -also- noted the grey alsa-settings but that changed when I pushed the 'apply' button on the bottom of that screen.

Running in the automatic and alsa setting I had this output of the script:

Code:

-- processes using devices in the group audio:

COMMAND     PID USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
esd        2751   rj  mem    CHR 116,16      4907 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
esd        2751   rj    5r   CHR 116,33      4773 /dev/snd/timer
esd        2751   rj    6u   CHR 116,16      4907 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
mixer_app  2810   rj   40u   CHR  116,0      4930 /dev/snd/controlC0
amarokapp 10759   rj  mem    CHR 116,16      4907 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
amarokapp 10759   rj   16r   CHR  116,0      4930 /dev/snd/controlC0
amarokapp 10759   rj   18u   CHR 116,33      4773 /dev/snd/timer
amarokapp 10759   rj   19u   CHR 116,16      4907 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p


( refresh every 5 sec. )

You see that amarok and esd can play independently.

So, do you see anything similar? Are these alsa-devices there at all :

Code:

ls -l /dev/snd

??

If not, reinstall alsa ? dpkg-reconfigure alsa-base ? I am just guessing.

--Japser.

Tons of Fun · 04-10-2008, 05:52 PM

I finally got it fixed. I found this article:

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/2006/07/...er-processing/

I didn't follow it from beginning to end; I added the files in the Sound Mixing section, added multimedia links in my sources list, installed the multimedia-keyring, added the keys, and then installed the rest of the files under Multimedia. Afterwards, it all worked.

Thanks to everyone who helped. From all of my research on this topic, it seems that this is a current issue with many different distros. I'm sure in time, this will all work itself out.