SiS AC'97 Audio

kungfur@mone · 12-12-2010, 06:24 PM

Hi all,

Simply put, my SiS AC'97 sound controller does not work. It looks like the kernel just isn't loading the driver, although the hardware is detected by Sysinfo.

I'm running Kubuntu 10.04, with a generic 2.6.32-24 kernel.

Does anyone have any basic "here's how to install the proper kernel module" advice? I've googled and poked around on forums to no avail, and my attempts to compile and install the driver myself have resulted only in shameful failure.

Thanks in advance!

andrewthomas · 12-12-2010, 07:00 PM

It might help if you would post the section of the output of

Code:

lspci -v

that concerns this controller.
Does

Code:

lsmod

show that snd-intel8x0 is loaded?
Also the output of

Code:

aplay -l

kungfur@mone · 12-12-2010, 10:34 PM

lspci -v reports:

Code:

00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)
        Subsystem: Fujitsu Technology Solutions Device 109f
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 173, IRQ 9
        I/O ports at 1400 [size=256]
        I/O ports at 1000 [size=128]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel modules: snd-intel8x0

lsmod does not show snd-intel8x0

aplay -l returns:

Code:

aplay: device_list:223: no soundcards found...

So it looks like snd-intel8x0 is not present. How would one go about loading that sucker?

Thanks for the reply!

andrewthomas · 12-13-2010, 06:22 AM

Load the module with

Code:

modprobe snd-intel8x0

kungfur@mone · 12-13-2010, 07:09 PM

So trying that results in:

Code:

WARNING: Could not open '/lib/modules/2.6.32-24-generic/kernel/sound/core/snd-page-alloc.ko': No such file or directory
WARNING: Could not open '/lib/modules/2.6.32-24-generic/kernel/sound/core/snd.ko': No such file or directory
WARNING: Could not open '/lib/modules/2.6.32-24-generic/kernel/sound/core/snd-timer.ko': No such file or directory
WARNING: Could not open '/lib/modules/2.6.32-24-generic/kernel/sound/core/snd-pcm.ko': No such file or directory
WARNING: Could not open '/lib/modules/2.6.32-24-generic/kernel/sound/ac97_bus.ko': No such file or directory
WARNING: Could not open '/lib/modules/2.6.32-24-generic/kernel/sound/pci/ac97/snd-ac97-codec.ko': No such file or directory
FATAL: Could not open '/lib/modules/2.6.32-24-generic/kernel/sound/pci/snd-intel8x0.ko': No such file or directory

Is there a package for ubuntu/debian (kernel-header-files, maybe?) that makes the modules available?

andrewthomas · 12-13-2010, 07:51 PM

First, look in the /lib/modules/2.6.32-24-generic/kernel/sound/ directory and see if the files are there.

They should be.

You do not need to install anything other than linux-image-2.6.32-24-generic.

If, for some weird reason, they are not there, then reinstall the kernel.

kungfur@mone · 12-13-2010, 10:05 PM

Hmm...very interesting. I reinstalled (actually, slightly upgraded) the kernel to 2.6.32-25-generic. When I do a modprobe snd-intel8x0, it now does not return an error, but /lib/modules/2.6.32-25-generic does not contain that specific driver. It has:

Code:

acore  core  drivers  i2c  isa  oss  pcmcia  soc  soundcore.ko  sound_firmware.ko  synth  usb

A locate finds the snd-intel8x0 in older linux directories under linux-2.6.whatever/sound/pci.

Sound still doesn't work in KDE after doing the modprobe, and trying to test ALSA in system settings crashes the app.

dmesg returns:

Code:

[ 5856.260117] Intel ICH 0000:00:02.7: PCI INT C -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[ 5856.600024] intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 50761 usecs (2442 samples)
[ 5856.600031] intel8x0: clocking to 48000

So, in short, it looks like the module loaded and found the sound card, but the desktop can't use it.

Thanks for the tips so far, very helpful!