Setting up sound card
 

Hello once again all,

I am trying to currently setup my AC97 onboard sound card but cannot seem to get the sound to work properly. Basically i had it disabled in bios before and was using my SB-live 24bit sound card but due to some application problems i was having on windows I decided to revert back to my onboard. Now it currently seems like it can see the soundcard but i am not able to get sound. So I figured I was lacking the proper drivers to have it working properly. I was not able to find any rpm's for it in either my fedora repos nor Livna. So i went to the alsa website and downloaded the drivers from there.

So extract the files and when i try to run the ./configure function I get the following error.

[Screw32@localhost alsa-driver-1.0.4]$ ./configure
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking how to run the C preprocessor... /lib/cpp
configure: error: C preprocessor "/lib/cpp" fails sanity check
See `config.log' for more details.

Now I did some googling and was able to locate bits of information that said I need to find a compliler that can work with CPP files. But was not able to locate any additional information as to what files I would need to install to do this.

From what I gathered so far I should always be using rpms but since i was not able to locate any I can only assume this is my next step? Any info you all could offer would be awesome. Thanks folks.

System info is as follows:
Fedora 5 - 2.6.17-1.2145_FC5smp
AMD 4400+ X2
ASUS an8 - PCI premium
BFG 7800 GTX OC

Here is a copy of my scsound.log file I get when i run the automatic sound card detection. While the sound card is correct I fail to get any sound to play.

[root@localhost alsa-driver-1.0.4]# cat /root/scsound.log
------- System Config Soundcard --------
Sat Jul 15 15:03:15 MDT 2006

------- lspci --------
00:00.0 Memory controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Memory Controller (rev a3)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 ISA Bridge (rev a3)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation CK804 SMBus (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a2)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:04.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev a2)
00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 IDE (rev f2)
00:07.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller (rev f3)
00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller (rev f3)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:0a.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0d.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 7800 GTX (rev a1)
05:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy LS
05:0a.0 RAID bus controller: Silicon Image, Inc. SiI 3114 [SATALink/SATARaid] Serial ATA Controller (rev 02)
05:0b.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB22/A IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)
05:0c.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8001 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 13)

------- lsmod --------
Module Size Used by
rfcomm 45781 0
nls_utf8 6337 1
autofs4 25925 1
hidp 25025 2
l2cap 31937 8 rfcomm,hidp
bluetooth 56869 3 rfcomm,hidp,l2cap
vmnet 40620 13
vmmon 182060 0
sunrpc 162173 1
video 20677 0
button 10961 0
battery 14021 0
ac 9156 0
joydev 13953 0
ipv6 264033 14
lp 17033 0
parport_pc 31205 1
parport 41225 2 lp,parport_pc
snd_intel8x0 36445 0
snd_ca0106 35908 1
ohci1394 39045 0
snd_rawmidi 29761 1 snd_ca0106
snd_ac97_codec 96225 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_ca0106
ieee1394 303001 1 ohci1394
floppy 62789 0
snd_seq_dummy 8133 0
ehci_hcd 36941 0
snd_seq_oss 37185 0
ohci_hcd 25821 0
snd_seq_midi_event 11841 1 snd_seq_oss
sg 38493 0
snd_seq 59441 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device 13005 4 snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss 43985 0
snd_mixer_oss 21825 2 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 88005 4 snd_intel8x0,snd_ca0106,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
forcedeth 34253 0
skge 41425 0
snd_ac97_bus 6593 1 snd_ac97_codec
nvidia 4560660 12
snd_timer 28613 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 59973 11 snd_intel8x0,snd_ca0106,snd_rawmidi,snd_ac97_codec,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,sn d_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 14113 2 snd
snd_page_alloc 14665 3 snd_intel8x0,snd_ca0106,snd_pcm
i2c_nforce2 11201 0
i2c_core 26305 2 nvidia,i2c_nforce2
dm_snapshot 22381 0
dm_zero 6209 0
dm_mirror 26769 0
dm_mod 63833 6 dm_snapshot,dm_zero,dm_mirror
ext3 134857 2
jbd 62549 1 ext3
sata_nv 13637 2
sata_sil 13641 0
libata 72145 2 sata_nv,sata_sil
sd_mod 24385 3
scsi_mod 140009 3 sg,libata,sd_mod

------- /etc/modprobe.conf --------
alias eth0 skge
alias eth1 forcedeth
alias scsi_hostadapter sata_sil
alias scsi_hostadapter1 sata_nv
alias snd-card-0 snd-ca0106
options snd-card-0 index=0
options snd-ca0106 index=0
remove snd-ca0106 { /usr/sbin/alsactl store 0 >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-ca0106
alias snd-card-1 snd-intel8x0
remove snd-intel8x0 { /usr/sbin/alsactl store 1 >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-intel8x0
options snd-mpu401 index=1
remove snd-mpu401 { /usr/sbin/alsactl store 1 >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-mpu401

------- /etc/asound.conf --------
#Generated by system-config-soundcard, do not edit by hand
#HWCONF
#DEV 0
pcm.!default { type hw card 2 device 0 }
ctl.!default { type hw card 2 }

------- aplay -l --------
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 0: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 1: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 2: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 3: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: CK804 [NVidia CK804], device 0: Intel ICH [NVidia CK804]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: CK804 [NVidia CK804], device 2: Intel ICH - IEC958 [NVidia CK804 - IEC958]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

------- amixer --------


------- /proc/asound/version --------
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.11rc4 (Wed Mar 22 10:27:24 2006 UTC).

------- rpm -q alsa-lib --------
alsa-lib-1.0.11-4.rc2

------- rpm -q alsa-utils --------
alsa-utils-1.0.11-4.rc2

------- /proc/asound/modules --------
0 snd_ca0106
1 snd_intel8x0

------- /proc/asound/pcm --------
00-03: ca0106 : CA0106 : playback 1 : capture 1
00-02: ca0106 : CA0106 : playback 1 : capture 1
00-01: ca0106 : CA0106 : playback 1 : capture 1
00-00: ca0106 : CA0106 : playback 1 : capture 1
01-02: Intel ICH - IEC958 : NVidia CK804 - IEC958 : playback 1
01-01: Intel ICH - MIC ADC : NVidia CK804 - MIC ADC : capture 1
01-00: Intel ICH : NVidia CK804 : playback 1 : capture 1

------- system-config-soundcard --------

/usr/share/system-config-soundcard/soundcard.py:251: DeprecationWarning: use gtk.ComboBox
self.primaryDeviceOptionMenu = gtk.OptionMenu()
/usr/share/system-config-soundcard/soundcard.py:273: DeprecationWarning: use gtk.ComboBox
self.primarySubDeviceOptionMenu = gtk.OptionMenu()
/usr/share/system-config-soundcard/soundcard.py:308: GtkDeprecationWarning: gtk.timeout_add is deprecated, use gobject.timeout_add instead
self.timer = gtk.timeout_add (100, self.checkStatus, self)
/usr/share/system-config-soundcard/soundcard.py:548: GtkDeprecationWarning: gtk.TRUE is deprecated, use True instead
gtk.main()
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/system-config-soundcard/sound-sample.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
[root@localhost alsa-driver-1.0.4]#

It seems that correct alsa driver for AC97 is loaded.
aplay is trying to use nv device. ?

Did you alsa-conf?

I think when I installed FC in my box I had to run alsaconf logged in a terminal as root...or was it alsaconfig hmmmm try both sorry.

Perhaps this may work
 

I am a newbie with linux and my audio has been a problem in the past for me too! Have you tried this?:

1.) Launch a command terminal (under root preferably).
2.) Type the command "alsamixer" and hit enter.
3.) You should be able to adjust the volumes here I think with the tab key.
4.) Hit the "escape" key to get out.
5.) Type "alsactl store" to save the adjustments you made.
6.) Now test out your sound? ( you may have to reboot but shouldn't be needed; it's not windows!).

Good luck!:)

It's alsaconf

I will give those a try and let ya know the results. Thanks for the help everyone!

Update: I tryed "alsamixer" and here is the result I got.

[root@localhost /]# alsamixer

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device

I found alsa.conf file but as stupid as it sounds I am not able to run it as root. I get "premission denied". I can view the file in a text editor however but it looks more like code to run a program then a file i would edit.

Does your pegnuin have any suspcicous (infromative) line in log or dmesg?

It looks like your soundcard is installed correctly. A couple things to check would be: If you can "play" a sound file from your shell using the play command. If you're using KDE you may need to run KMIX to enable the sounds. The volume seems to be disabled by default in some distros.