ALSA problem with VIA 8233/A/8235
 

I recently installed kernel 2.6.2 and configured ALSA support in kernel, together with OSS emulation modules. Rebooted, everything works perfectly except the sound. I coudn't get anything out off my headphones no matter how hard I tried. I installed alsa-utils, tried alternate installation with alsa-driver 1.02c compiled separated from the kernel. Alsactl detects my chipset, loads the correct modules, unmutes the volumes, but still nothing.

Here is some output that may identify the problem:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
root@zamolxis:~# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333]
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333 AGP]
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905B 100BaseTX [Cyclone] (rev 30)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233A ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT8233/A/C/VT8235 PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 23)
00:11.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 23)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 40)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 MX/MX 400] (rev b2)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
root@zamolxis:~# cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [V8233A ]: VIA8233A - VIA 8233A
VIA 8233A at 0xe000, irq 5
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
root@zamolxis:~# cat /etc/modules.conf

alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias char-major-116 snd
# ALSA Aliases
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
options snd-card-0 port=0xe00 irq=5
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
# OSS/Free portion - card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
alias char-major-195 nvidia
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
root@zamolxis:~# cat /proc/asound/oss/sndstat
Sound Driver:3.8.1a-980706 (ALSA v1.0.2c emulation code)
Kernel: Linux zamolxis 2.6.2 #3 Tue Feb 10 15:53:46 EET 2004 i686
Config options: 0

Installed drivers:
Type 10: ALSA emulation

Card config:
VIA 8233A at 0xe000, irq 5

Audio devices:
0: VIA 8233A (DUPLEX)

Synth devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Midi devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Timers:
7: system timer

Mixers:
0: VIA Technologies VIA1612A
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


That's about it.
If anyone has any ideea of what's going on, please help me. I don't know what to do anymore.

I noticed you listed /etc/modules.conf. 2.6 kernels uses /etc/modprobe.conf by default. Are you running modinittools or modutils? Some log info would also be useful.

Ok. Let me give aditional info. Alsaconf placed in modprobe.conf the following lines:

# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
# --- ALSACONF verion 1.0.2 ---
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
alias sound-slot-0 snd-via82xx
# --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

Should I copy the relevant lines from modules.conf and place them alog these? I mean OSS emulation and stuff.

As for logs, the only relevant thing I found is a line in syslog:

Feb 10 19:15:14 zamolxis kernel: ALSA /usr/local/cos/kit/Linux/alsa-driver-1.0.2c/alsa-kernel/pci/ac97/ac97_codec.c:2164: ac97 quirk for ASRock K7VT2 (1106:4161)
I really don't know what's that all about. My mainboard is Soltek 75DRV5.

yes, you should give that a try. especially the device number aliases.

Ok. tried that and still nothing. When I try to play a .wav I can hear the background noise, but no sound. I checked the volumes again and they all seem fine. I have a question. What's that IEC958 Output? And what about that "quirk" in syslog? What does it mean?

- Do you get any errors from trying to play the sample?
- lsmod to check if the sound drivers are loaded.
- Not sure about the quirk, but my SiS7018 sound device (AC97 trident compatible) would exhibit a similar problem when I the system is rebooted from Windows (as opposed to a cold boot).

Ok. The drivers are loaded, since /proc/asound seems all ok. I got no errors. cat a.wav > /dev/dsp takes some time(probably equal to the length of the sample) and I can hear only the usual background noise while it is playing. As soon as it stops playing silence takes over again. And about that quirk: do you mean that there is a chip setting that is preserved during reboots and windows changes it such as sound in linux doesn't work any more? (:D I know it sound complicated). The problem is I don't have windows. Only linux.

For my case, I'm not sure what went wrong. Some kind of hot/cold initialisation problem or maybe just buggy Linux drivers. That happened when I was on kernel 2.4. I haven't tested this on 2.6 yet.

Anyway, for your problem, I'm fast running out of ideas. When you said "change the volume", was that the physical software volume knob? Or software/mixer volume? ALSA, I believe, sets the mixer volume level to 0 when it initialises. Also, PCI devices are supposed to be PnP, so it's not required to specify the IRQ and IO port options.

Wow. I tried "aplay a.wav". And I can hear a VERY FAINT sound in my headphones. I mean very faint. With absolute silence in the room I can barely notice it. All the software volumes are at maximum. Of course that was the first thing I have tried after noticing the sound doesn't work. Now the question is why the sound is sooooo faint. Also, the "background noise" I hear when doing cat a.wav > /dev/dsp is not background noise at all. It's sound beeing misinterpreted and at a very low volume. So the sound works but there is a problem with the volumes. But as I said, they are all at maximum.

Oh, and about that setting with "options snd-card-0 port=0xe00 irq=5", I didn't put in into modprobe.conf. I realized too that it is for nothing

When I try to aplay some wav the following error shows up in syslog:

ALSA /usr/local/cos/kit/Linux/alsa-driver-1.0.2c/alsa-kernel/pci/via82xx.c:720: invalid
via82xx_cur_ptr, using last valid pointer.

I tried everything, I searched the net over and over again for info. What the hell is the matter with ALSA?

I finally solved it. I can listen to music once again!

The problem was the following: There is a paramater named ac97_quirk for snd-via82xx. Normally it is set to autodetect and correct some problems on strange hardware. Well, in my case it autodetects wrong. And setting it to 0 in modprobe.conf solved the problem. I shall mail this to the author of the driver.

Hi!

I have the same motherboard and I had the same problem. ac97_quirk=0 works also on my machine :D
It's odd that this parameter was explained only in the kernel documentation. I haven't seen even a mention on http://alsa-project.org/ or http://alsa.opensrc.org/ concerning ac97_quirk. After few weeks of fight with ALSA I can hear the music once again :)

i've the same problem! but unsolved!
 

hello!
i'm a newby in linux and i i NEED your HELP please!
this parameter ac97_quirk=0 in modules.conf doesn't exist!

i can't hear any sound of my sound-card.... modprobe doesn give any error message and the mixer also set to the highest volume. no error message with xmms or aplay/mpg123 etc... but also NO sound

I'm using unstable debian with kernel 2.6.4 on a ASRock K7VT4-4X

my error logs and other information is here:
lsmod::study:
snd_pcm_oss 48548 0
snd_mixer_oss 17280 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_via82xx 21376 2
snd_ac97_codec 59332 1 snd_via82xx
snd_mpu401_uart 5824 1 snd_via82xx
snd_rawmidi 19680 1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device 6536 1 snd_rawmidi
nls_cp437 5376 2
snd_pcm 83364 3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_via82xx
snd_page_alloc 9220 2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
snd_timer 20548 1 snd_pcm
snd 44196 12 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_via82xx
,snd_ac97_codec,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,
snd_seq_device,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 6880 1 snd

modules.conf in /etc/ :study:

#ALSA PORTION
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx

#MODULE options should go here

#OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

#Card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

modprobe.conf in /lib/modules/modules.conf :study:
## update-modules: start processing alsa ###
### DEBCONF MAGIC
# This file was automatically generated by alsa-base's debconf stuff

alias char-major-116 snd
alias char-major-14 soundcore

options snd major=116 cards_limit=4

alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
alias /dev/dsp* snd-pcm-oss

alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx

alias snd-slot-0 snd-card-0
alias sound-slot-0 snd-slot-0

### update-modules: end processing alsa ###

### update-modules: start processing sound ###
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
alias sound-slot-0 snd-via82xx

### update-modules: end processing sound ###

lspci :study:
tugi:/etc# lspci
0000:00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)

i hope its enough!

I really hope you can help me with this!
thank you very much, daniel

I got the same problem, but im on debian. I'll tell contact you if i fix it