no sound with intel ich5 / ad1985
 

I'm having issues playing any sound. I've been trying to test it using $ play /usr/share/sounds/KDE_Startup.wav. It acts like it's playing. I used Totem Media Player on the same file and the picture moves around like something is playing, the volume is at max, but I don't hear anything.

I've just installed Mandrake 10.0, Linux 2.6.3-7mdk (first Linux install for me). In WinXP the integrated sound on my Intel D865PERL, which is AD 1985 using 82801EB / ICH5, works fine.

Installation detects this as 82801EB AC'97 Audio and defaults to module snd-intel8x0.

I've tried to read other posts and use the online help, so far this is what I've done -

# lspcidrake -v | fgrep AUDIO
snd-intel8x0 : Intel Corp.|82801EB AC'97 Audio [MULTIMEDIA_AUDIO] (vendor:8086 device:24d5 subv:8086 subd:a000)

# grep sound-slot /etc/modules.conf
alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0

/sbin/lsmod includes the lines:
snd-seq-oss 31232 0
snd-seq-midi-event 7552 1 snd-seq-oss
snd-seq 51024 4 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq-midi-event
snd-pcm-oss 51812 0
snd-mixer-oss 17952 1 snd-pcm-oss
snd-intel8x0 32776 1
snd-ac97-codec 58148 1 snd-intel8x0
snd-pcm 93156 2 snd-pcm-oss,snd-intel8x0
snd-timer 24484 2 snd-seq,snd-pcm
gameport 4480 1 snd-intel8x0
snd-page-alloc 11972 2 snd-intel8x0,snd-pcm
snd-mpu401-uart 7072 1 snd-intel8x0
snd-rawmidi 23616 1 snd-mpu401-uart
snd-seq-device 8008 3 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq,snd-rawmidi
snd 52484 14 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq-midi-event,snd-seq,snd-pcm-oss,snd-mixer-oss,snd-intel8x0,snd-ac97-codec,snd-pcm,snd-timer,snd-mpu401-uart,snd-rawmidi,snd-seq-device
soundcore 9248 1 snd

# /sbin/chkconfig --list sound
sound 0-off 1-off 2-on 3-on 4-on 5-on 6-off

# /sbin/chkconfig --list alsa
alsa 0-off 1-off 2-on 3-on 4-on 5-on 6-off

/sbin/fuser -v /dev/dsp returns nothing

alsamixer shows I'm not muted on master mono, master surround, pcm, surround, center, lfe, line, cd, mic, phone, iec958 playback ac97-spsa, pc speaker, or aux.
I turned everything to max volume in aumix, and did the same in kmix.

I tried plugging my speakers into each of the 5 jacks on the back of my motherboard with no luck each time.

I ran alsaconf, which chooses Intel Corp. 82801EB AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02). This is the same intel8x0 that the installation program chose. This seemed to complete successfully but still no sound.

From Intel's website I got ftp://download.intel.com/design/motherbd/rl/intel8x0-alsa-1.0.1.sh.gz, followed the instructions, it appeared to install the same intel8x0 as listed above but still no sound.

The installation program lists alternate drivers as ali5455, i810_adio, and nvaudio. After trying to choose those in the installation program and not getting any better results, I added them to /etc/hotplug/blacklist as this had been suggested in another post I read to solve what seemed like a similar problem - still no sound.

Being new to Linux, I'm not sure if I'm missing something or where to go from here to troubleshoot. Anyone have any ideas?

Welcome to LQ. It certainly sounds as though you have addressed all the common issues, but I'd suggest the following as possible next steps:

1. In addition to the volume settings in ALSA, the sound app (such as XMMS, etc) also have their own volume controls. Make sure that they are up as well.
2. For CD playback, is the thin cable connected between the CD drive and the sound card?
3. Are you getting any error messages? Along these lines, what are the permissions on /dev/dsp and /dev/mixer? (They should both be 666, use chmod to change them if necessary)
4. "Obvious Dept" - if you are using external speakers, are they plugged in, powered on, and is the volume knob turned up?

Good luck with it. I don't know if any of the above will help but they are things I'd at least check. -- J.W.

Everything was set up perfectly as far as I could tell with permissions, application settings, mixer settings, cables, and hardware. I wasn't sure where to look for error messages, I ended up reading just about every file in /var/log, but nothing jumped out at me.

Finally I gave up on 10.0 Official. When I tried installing 10.1 Community, all of the sudden sound worked again. So I never found out what the root of the problem was. It works now, and I suppose that's what counts, but I still wish I knew the why...