Can't use second soundcard anymore

Lauren.c · 01-10-2010, 12:37 AM

Hi all,

I have a problem with my second sound card. It used to work fine months agos. But I didn't use it anymore for months (since I upgraded to squeeze actually).

Now I'm trying to make it work again, but I'm having some trouble.

My card is here :

Code:

 lspci | grep audio
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:0c.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 0a)

But I can't use it :

Code:

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SI7012 [SiS SI7012], device 0: Intel ICH [SiS SI7012]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Code:

cat /proc/asound/cards 
 0 [SI7012         ]: ICH - SiS SI7012
                      SiS SI7012 with AD1980 at irq 18

cat /proc/asound/modules
 0 snd_intel8x0

cat /proc/asound/pcm
00-00: Intel ICH : SiS SI7012 : playback 1 : capture 1
00-01: Intel ICH - MIC ADC : SiS SI7012 - MIC ADC : capture 1

So I was thinking it might be a module issue, but all the modules needed (at least the emu10k* as far as I know) are here :

Code:

lsmod | grep snd
snd_emu10k1x           13140  0 
snd_emu10k1_synth       5368  0 
snd_emux_synth         25336  1 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_seq_virmidi         4680  1 snd_emux_synth
snd_seq_midi_emul       5216  1 snd_emux_synth
snd_emu10k1           116176  1 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_intel8x0           26584  4 
snd_pcm_oss            32232  0 
snd_ac97_codec         91264  3 snd_emu10k1x,snd_emu10k1,snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus                1456  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_util_mem            3876  2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
snd_mixer_oss          12368  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_hwdep               6120  2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
snd_pcm                62416  7 snd_emu10k1x,snd_emu10k1,snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm_oss,snd_ac97_codec
snd_seq_midi            5688  0 
snd_rawmidi            18596  4 snd_emu10k1x,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_emu10k1,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event      6212  2 snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                42304  5 snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_midi_emul,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              17460  5 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device          6136  5 snd_emu10k1_synth,snd_emu10k1,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd                    49028  18 snd_emu10k1x,snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_emu10k1,snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm_oss,snd_ac97_codec,snd_mixer_oss,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore               6184  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          8116  4 snd_emu10k1x,snd_emu10k1,snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm

Now I have no clue of what I cold try next.

Any ideas ?

Thanks in advance

aus9 · 01-10-2010, 01:33 AM

hi

is ac97 an onboard sound device?

1) if so you could disable it in the bios and then see if kernel detects Sb

2) Is SB fully embedding into pci slot?

3) is sb got any blacklisting in /etc/modprob.d/blacklist*

4) according to your aplay list the hardware is not available.

So initially I am thinking its a hardware issue.

5) have you ever installed pulseaudio?

6) have you setup an index /etc/asound.conf or similar file?

Shadow_7 · 01-10-2010, 05:08 AM

$ cat /proc/asound/cards

It looks like you have the modules loaded. You should have a second card in that listing. Otherwise your alsa configuration is off, or you're using modules from two different kernels or something. If you're running LiLo, then you might need to update the current kernel in it. If you're running from an initrd image then that might need updating. Something is not right there. I'm assuming that you've rebooted since updating (which fixes a lot of issues, if you (or your distro) don't manually unload / load, stop / start, restart the appropriate elements).

$ /etc/init.d/alsasound stop
$ /etc/init.d/alsasound start

It could also be that your configuration has a cards_limit=1 or other it's doing what it was told to do options. Could also be the bios disabling the card. Although that would affect the integrated one before the secondary one. Could be that your card is not fully seated in it's slot, or has gone bad. Lots of possibilities.

Lauren.c · 01-11-2010, 05:57 AM

I don't know what did it. I might be the reboot or the fact that I disabled the other sound card in the bios, but now it's working again.

Thank you very much.

Now I just have to figure how to use alsamixer to have a great sound (I really don't understand how all these switches are working).

aus9 · 01-11-2010, 04:46 PM

post your image after press f5 to show all

alsamixer -c 0 ....shows card index 0 or press f6 to swap cards or
alsamixer -c 1 to show second card

assuming you have not set special indexs in a config file

also

Code:

man alsamixer