[SOLVED] Onboard sound VIA82xxx not working in Slackware-current and 13.1

gargamel · 03-24-2011, 02:47 PM

Hi all,

I did, what one should not do: I changed a running system. I removed a PCI sound card, replaced a damaged DVD+RW drive and upgraded to Slackware-current (Slackware 13.37 RC-3). The mainboard is an MSI KT4V with VIA8235 onboard sound.

Now, my problem is a bit weird: Everything seems to work just fine. E. g., programs like speaker-test, play and aplay show no error message. In fact, they seem to be able to play sound. E. g.,

Code:

play /usr/share/sounds/pop.wav

gives no error message.

But: I don't get any sound out of my speakers.

Here is some additional information. I'd be really grateful, if someone could point me to relevant information or useful advise, what this problem could be caused by.

Code:

# lsmod | grep -i snd
snd_seq_dummy           1119  0 
snd_seq_oss            25900  0 
snd_seq_midi_event      4696  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                42680  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm_oss            34554  0 
snd_mixer_oss          14726  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_via82xx            17595  2 
gameport                6861  1 snd_via82xx
snd_ac97_codec         90095  1 snd_via82xx
ac97_bus                 834  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                59843  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              15717  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc          5925  2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
snd_mpu401_uart         5095  1 snd_via82xx
snd_rawmidi            15638  1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device          4505  4 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
snd                    43891  15 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
soundcore               4641  1 snd

Code:

 lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400/KT600 AGP] Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 PCI Bridge
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1)

Code:

# speaker-test

speaker-test 1.0.24.2

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 1 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 32 to 32768
Period size range from 16 to 16384
Using max buffer size 32768
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 8192
was set buffer_size = 32768
 0 - Front Left
Time per period = 2.222208
 0 - Front Left
Time per period = 2.899413
 0 - Front Left
Time per period = 2.900668
 0 - Front Left
Time per period = 2.900656
 0 - Front Left
Time per period = 2.900652
 0 - Front Left
Time per period = 2.900629
 0 - Front Left
[...]

Change to /usr/share/sounds.

Code:

# play KDE_Startup_new.wav 

KDE_Startup_new.wav:

 File Size: 971k      Bit Rate: 706k
  Encoding: Signed PCM    
  Channels: 2 @ 16-bit   
Samplerate: 22050Hz      
Replaygain: off         
  Duration: 00:00:11.01  

In:43.9% 00:00:04.83 [00:00:06.18] Out:106k  [!=====|=====!] Hd:0.0 Clip:0    
Aborted.

The only indication, that something is fundamentally wrong is this:

Code:

$ speaker-test 

speaker-test 1.0.24.2

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 1 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory

As I said, I hope, that someone can provide a clue. I am out of ideas, currently.

Thanks a lot in advance!

gargamel

Totoro-kun · 03-24-2011, 03:01 PM

Hello,
Problem is indeed weird, but can also be a very simple one, just have to ask if there is any chance of audio being muted? (eather in software or hardware level). If so, then I suggest running alsamixer and unmuting/rising volume, then run "alsactl store" command as root. And check your audio system if it has volume turned down all the way (sometimes that happens too), or maybe wires are not connected correctly. Well just make sure there is no problems in such small things first.

If this is not the case, then could you post "lspci -v" output? And have you tried to play anything from a graphical enviroment such as kde or xfce? If so, then which media player? have you checked their oudio output settings to use alsa?

gargamel · 03-24-2011, 04:27 PM

Thanks,

but everything is unmuted, so the problem must be something else. I've gone through the ALSA setup sequence of alsaconf, alsamixer and alsctl a dozen times, tonight, but to no avail. Also, I've checked the volume of my sound system and the connections; I even checked that the speakers are ok on another computer, and they produced clear and loud sound.

I've tried several programs on the CLI, such as play and aplay and with a GUI, such as Kaffeine in KDE, with no success. BTW, Kaffeine receives DVB-T tv as it should. In the past, when there was a problem with the sound system, Kaffeine complained about it, and wouldn't start trying to receive DVB-T tv. Currently it doesn't notice the problem.

Below is the output of lscpi -v. Thanks again, for any help!

gargamel

Code:

# lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400/KT600 AGP] Host Bridge
        Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. KT4AV motherboard (KT400A)
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 8
        Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Capabilities: [80] AGP version 3.5
        Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2
        Kernel driver in use: agpgart-via
        Kernel modules: via-agp

00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 PCI Bridge (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
        Memory behind bridge: dde00000-dfefffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: cdd00000-ddcfffff
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2
        Kernel modules: shpchp

00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. KT4AV motherboard
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 21
        I/O ports at e400 [size=32]
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2
        Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
        Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. KT4AV motherboard
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 21
        I/O ports at e800 [size=32]
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2
        Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
        Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. KT4AV motherboard
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 21
        I/O ports at ec00 [size=32]
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2
        Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
        Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. KT4AV motherboard
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 21
        Memory at dfffff00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2
        Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
        Kernel modules: ehci-hcd

00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
        Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. KT4AV motherboard
        Flags: bus master, stepping, medium devsel, latency 0
        Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2
        Kernel modules: i2c-viapro, via-ircc

00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. KT4AV motherboard
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 255
        [virtual] Memory at 000001f0 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8]
        [virtual] Memory at 000003f0 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [size=1]
        [virtual] Memory at 00000170 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8]
        [virtual] Memory at 00000370 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [size=1]
        I/O ports at fc00 [size=16]
        Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2
        Kernel driver in use: pata_via

00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7120
        Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 22
        I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
        Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2
        Kernel driver in use: VIA 82xx Audio
        Kernel modules: snd-via82xx

00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7120
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 23
        I/O ports at dc00 [size=256]
        Memory at dffffe00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
        Kernel driver in use: via-rhine
        Kernel modules: via-rhine

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 9980
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
        Memory at de000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Expansion ROM at dfee0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [44] AGP version 3.0
        Kernel driver in use: nouveau
        Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidiafb

gargamel · 03-24-2011, 04:43 PM

Additional information.

Running speaker-test as root seems to work fine, except that there is still no sound coming out of my speakers, although root is not a member of the audio group. But there's no error message, at least:

Code:

# speaker-test -w pop.wav 

speaker-test 1.0.24.2

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 1 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 32 to 32768
Period size range from 16 to 16384
Using max buffer size 32768
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 8192
was set buffer_size = 32768
 0 - Front Left
Time per period = 2.224415
 0 - Front Left
Time per period = 2.893722
 0 - Front Left
Time per period = 2.901153

But when I try to run speaker-test as a non-privileged user, I get:

Code:

$ speaker-test

speaker-test 1.0.24.2

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 1 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory

Hmmmm. Any ideas?

Thanks a lot!

gargamel

Totoro-kun · 03-24-2011, 04:44 PM

Well, to me everything looks good and tidy, which is weird. DO you know for sure that this onboard sound is in a good working order? Maybe that sound card you have removed, was there for a reason?

--Edit
This is a fairly common sound card, so to test that it works for sure, you could bot from ubuntu live cd or something simmilar, and then if you still hear no sound, then it's most likely faulty hardware.

gargamel · 03-24-2011, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Totoro-kun

Well, to me everything looks good and tidy, which is weird. DO you know for sure that this onboard sound is in a good working order? Maybe that sound card you have removed, was there for a reason?

Yeah, with the exception of speaker-test quitting with an error message when run as a non-privileged user, everything seems to be ok. That's what's so weird about this.

Actually I think the onboard sound system is OK, but I can't bet on it. The other sound card was there, because it just had superior sound quality. Also, shouldn't the system notice, if there is a hardware problem, and respond with an error message? I don't know for sure, if the hardware is really in good condition, but if it is not, the operating system should know and tell me. Am I wrong?

gargamel

gargamel · 03-24-2011, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Totoro-kun

[...]
--Edit
This is a fairly common sound card, so to test that it works for sure, you could bot from ubuntu live cd or something simmilar, and then if you still hear no sound, then it's most likely faulty hardware.

I've tried this with Sabayon live, and in fact, there was no sound, too. So maybe, it's really a hardware failure. I'll try with another Live system --- Knoppix or SLAX, I think. Let's see...

gargamel

Totoro-kun · 03-24-2011, 05:04 PM

In most cases, if there is some sort of hardware fault, you get error messages when loading modules for that hardware, which you can check by running command "dmesg | grep error". But hardware can fail in many interesting ways

Another thought is that maybe your system is still looking for a sound card you have removed? But i am not sure how to verify this or if this is even possible. Just guess that in such case problem should lie somewhere in sound application config or alsa config.

gargamel · 03-24-2011, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Totoro-kun

In most cases, if there is some sort of hardware fault, you get error messages when loading modules for that hardware, which you can check by running command "dmesg | grep error".

I checked this, but will do it once more. BTW, I am writing this from Linux Mint live, and before I tried Knoppix 6.4. No sound with both, but no sound related error messages, either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Totoro-kun

But hardware can fail in many interesting ways

Seems so...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Totoro-kun

Another thought is that maybe your system is still looking for a sound card you have removed? But i am not sure how to verify this or if this is even possible. Just guess that in such case problem should lie somewhere in sound application config or alsa config.

I don't think so. AFAIK this should be indicated in /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf, but in this file only the onboard sound system is listed.

I guess, it's a hardware failure, then...
Thanks again for helping me to track this down!

gargamel

gargamel · 03-25-2011, 02:58 PM

I mark this as SOLVED, because it is definitely a strange hardware problem. I just installed OpenSUSE 11.4 and have no sound, although the sound chip is detected and identified correctly.

gargamel