Help needed: Configuring sound card: REALTEK AC97 Audio
 

Hi guys!

I have a problem with Slackware 10. I have got a REALTEK AC'97 Audio sound card but I couldn't make it work! When I start the GUI it gives me this error: "artsd crashed".

I tried to run alsaconf but I didn't get any good result.

Have you got any suggestion?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Estel Elessar, welcome to lq. What did alsaconf return, did it find the card, were you able to configure it? I've read somewhere, please excuse my lapse in memory, that the oss modules may have better support for this card at the present time.

Could you please post the output from /sbin/lspci -v, and lsmod?

good luck.

alsaconf detected the sound card as ATI Technologies Inc soundMAX integrated Audio, and it loaded kernel module snd-atiixp. In fact I found snd-atiixp in the output of lsmod.

Output of lspci -v gives for the sound card:

00:14.5 Multimedia audio controller: ATI Technologies Inc soundMAX integrated Audio
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI]: Unknown device 0052
Flags: bus masters, 66Mhz, slow devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
Memory at d8004400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]

Have you tried alsamixer to unmute your device volumes, and set your default volume levels? From alsamixer anything that is muted will have an m at the top of the particular device, pressing the m key on your keyboard will unmute the device. For setting volume levels, you'll need to use the arrow keys on your keyboard.
good luck.

I tried to run alsamixer but it says: "No mixer elems found"

Maybe I am not using it in the right way.

mmm I was finally able to use alsamixer but it's still not working! I set the volumes levels, but it doesn't work it keeps giving me the error "The application Soundserver (artsd) crashed and caused the signal 6 (SIGABRT).

Any suggestion?

Try disabling arts, and are you rebooting after changes? If so don't, once you've run alsamixer successfully, run alsactl store, this should save your mixer settings across a reboot.
good luck.

How do I disable arts?
I tried to run artsd from the console and gives me "ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:549: (snd_pcm_hw_start) SNDRV_PCM_IOTCL_START failed: Broken Pipe" what does that mean?

Thanks in advance!

Are you booting to the gui or the console? Could you post the output of lsmod? What channels are present in alsamixer?
good luck.

I'm booting to the console.
These are alsamixer channels: master, master m, pcm, surround, center, lfe, line, line-in, cd, mic, mic as c, mic boos, mic sele, video, phone, iec958, iec958 i, iec958 p, pc speak, aux, mono out, capture, mix, mix mono, duplicat, external.

This is my lsmod.


Module Size Used by Not tainted
snd-pcm-oss 37736 0 (unused)
snd-mixer-oss 12504 0 [snd-pcm-oss]
usb-storage 66176 0
usb-ohci 19240 0 (unused)
ehci-hcd 17580 0 (unused)
usbcore 59308 1 [usb-storage usb-ohci ehci-hcd]
snd-atiixp 8584 0
snd-atiixp-modem 6760 0
snd-pcm 56072 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-atiixp snd-atiixp-modem]
snd-timer 13604 0 [snd-pcm]
snd-page-alloc 6328 0 [snd-atiixp snd-atiixp-modem snd-pcm]
snd-ac97-codec 49500 0 [snd-atiixp snd-atiixp-modem]
snd 30852 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-atiixp snd-atiixp-modem snd-pcm snd-timer snd-ac97-codec]
soundcore 3396 7 [snd]
ohci1394 24112 0 (unused)
ieee1394 42276 0 [ohci1394]
8139too 14376 1
mii 2272 0 [8139too]
crc32 2880 0 [8139too]
ds 6548 2
yenta_socket 10336 2
pcmcia_core 39972 0 [ds yenta_socket]
ide-scsi 9328 0
agpgart 43940 0 (unused)

Any idea?

Try adding this module

snd-atiixp-modem

to your /etc/hotplug/blaclist file. You may want to reboot for that to take effect. Then try alsamixer, you can test it with.

aplay file_name.wav

If it's still no go try toggling the external amplifier.
good luck.

Hey it worked!!!!!!

Thank you, you're really the best!

One thing: can you explain me why it worked now?

Was atiixp-modem a bad module?

Thank you again!

I'm still researching the problem, for some reason the snd-xxxm modem modules cause problems with sound. I've seen it several times with different cards and the ac97 codec. If and when I find an answer, I'll post it. Just guessing I'd have to say these chips are also winmodems "so to speak" and generally they don't work well in *nix.

On a higher note, I'm so glad you're sorted. :0 I love a success story, and this may help someone down the road. Happy computing with your linux experience.
good luck.

<edit>Sorry, I was so glad to see you've worked it out, I forgot to say Your welcome, glad to be of service.</edit>

Change settings in gnome-alsamixer
 

I had the same problem in Linux Mint with AC97 graphic card. I was able to hear sound with external speakers or headphones but I wasn't able to hear nothing from the internal speaker in my HP PC.

The solution was install gnome-alsamixer. With this tool I could enable the "Master M". Hope this helps to anybody that have the same problem.