problem with sound on lenovo N100 0768

majkel · 09-04-2007, 11:50 AM

Hi,

Have some problems with sound on my laptop.
With Slackware 11.0 it was fine but after installing 12.0 sound is gone.

# lspci | grep audio:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)

# aplay -l:
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC861VD Analog [ALC861VD Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 6: Si3054 Modem [Si3054 Modem]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

# lsmod | grep snd:
snd_hda_intel 15896 0
snd_hda_codec 207744 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_pcm 65160 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_timer 17540 1 snd_pcm
snd 41956 4 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 5728 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 7432 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

# cat /proc/asound/oss/sndstat:
Sound Driver:3.8.1a-980706 (ALSA v1.0.14rc3 emulation code)
Kernel: Linux hoth 2.6.21.5 #2 Tue Jun 19 15:22:48 CDT 2007 i686
Config options: 0

Installed drivers:
Type 10: ALSA emulation

Card config:
HDA Intel at 0xd2400000 irq 11

Audio devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Synth devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Midi devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Timers:
7: system timer

Mixers: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

The modem is on in BIOS. I tried all of the tricks from Ubuntu forum -
still no sound. I reinstalled the ALSA drivers and tried add
"options snd-hda-intel model=laptop-eapd" to both /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf and/or /etc/modprobe.d/sound - no effect.
What do I do wrong ???

I would appreciate any help guys !
I may not need blutooth but sound is something really important...
Thanks
majkel

geomatt · 09-04-2007, 03:46 PM

There seem to have been some problems with the hda-intel ALSA drivers in the 2.6.21 kernel series. I have recently had problems getting a different intel sound card working. Luckily the fixes are due to appear in kernel 2.6.23. (I couldn't wait, so I just recently downloaded and installed the testing kernel 2.6.23-rc5.)

I don't know entirely what it means or if it applies to you but the changelog for 2.6.23-rc1 at kernel.org has this entry for your card:

Code:

[ALSA] hda-codec - Fix Toshiba A100 with ALC861
    
    One of the newly added model entries causes a regression on Toshiba A100.
    It works fine with model=auto.  So, let's deselect the entry again.

Maybe you could try "model=auto" or maybe you need to install an updated kernel.

correction -- I noticed that you have a Lenovo laptop, not a Toshiba. This entry may apply:

Code:

[ALSA] hda-codec - Add model for Toshiba A135
    
    Added model=lenovo for Toshiba A135 with ALC861VD codec.

You may need the new kernel after all...

-geo

majkel · 09-05-2007, 05:52 AM

Thanks,
I've never upgraded Kernel before but it's gonna be a good exercise for me

Let see.
But thanks anyway Geo.

majkel

geomatt · 09-05-2007, 06:26 AM

Sure thing...
There's a ton of good discussion on kernel upgrading here on the forum. Good luck!!

-geo

geomatt · 09-05-2007, 01:11 PM

majkel,
I did want to issue a word of caution: kernel 2.6.23-rc5 is a testing kernel and is not entirely stable. I have been experiencing system hangs while using it. Apparently the developers have fixed the problem I have been experiencing and the fix will be in the stable release. So it may be worth it to wait a bit until the stable version is out. I only say this because yesterday my machine crashed when I was in the midst of showing off its brand new eye candy to one of my windoze-using friends. Something on Yahoo crashed it somehow...

-geo

majkel · 09-06-2007, 04:43 AM

Thanks Geo,
I think I will install Slackware 11.0 (sound was working) and wait for another stable version.
Cheers,
majkel

ghostdancer · 09-06-2007, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by majkel

Thanks Geo,
I think I will install Slackware 11.0 (sound was working) and wait for another stable version.
Cheers,
majkel

Slackware 12 is stable. Is just the kernel issue.

You can download the latest release from ALSA and use it (like how it fixed mine).

geomatt · 09-06-2007, 12:06 PM

Quote:

You can download the latest release from ALSA and use it (like how it fixed mine).

ghostdancer,
I'm abit confused about the whole ALSA in the kernel thing. I was having an impossible time with getting ALSA to work on my machine with a stock Slackware 12.0 kernel. Then I came across a bug fix in a newer kernel that addressed exactly my problem, so I installed that kernel and the problem was fixed. Unfortunately that kernel was unstable, and it had a bug that caused my system to crash occasionally. So I am back to an earlier more stable kernel version with no sound.

So my question is this: are the fixes by the kernel developers also simultaneously being built in to the ALSA releases, or is that a separate system? I know that on Slackware the ALSA libraries and utilities are packages while there is no ALSA driver package since the drivers are in the kernel. So how does one go about upgrading ALSA while running a stable kernel??

Another thing that has me confused here is that I did try downloading and installing the ALSA drivers from source and that caused all sorts of other problems in my system.

So how exactly does one go about updating ALSA?

Cheers,
-geo

ghostdancer · 09-07-2007, 07:05 AM

All I did was download the rc for ALSA driver (I did not download anything else), from: http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page

After that, uncompressed it, then do ./configure followed by make install, end with issuing reboot.

I will need to run alsamixer again thought to correctly setup the mixer. That is all I did.

geomatt · 09-07-2007, 08:00 AM

OK. I can try that, and see if it helps. I must have used the latest stable release and not the rc when I did it, which solved nothing. And then I thought I needed to also upgrade the utils and libs packages too and that's probably what messed things up for me.

Thanks,
-geo

majkel · 09-18-2007, 03:52 AM

Hi guys,
Sorry I didn't reply to any recent posts but I was away for a while.
I tried the last Alsa rc5 without result.
Any other suggestions ? : )
Thanks
majkel

geomatt · 09-18-2007, 08:27 AM

Can you post details. It worked for me...
-geomatt

majkel · 09-19-2007, 04:49 AM

Hi geomatt,

Long time ago I uninstalled old Alsa using pkgtool.
Then I installed alsa-driver-1.0.14, alsa-lib-1.0.14a, alsa-utils-1.0.14 manually.
Recently I read gostdancer's post and I simply replaced alsa-driver-1.0.14 with alsa-driver-1.0.15rc2.
No effect. Probably I messed up something but I really don't know what it is.
I already gave up but if there is still any chance to get my sound back I would appreciate your help...

Thanks mate.
majkel

geomatt · 09-19-2007, 08:30 AM

Don't give up yet!! But the more details you add the better chance we have to help you fix things. Here's a few suggestions that you may or may not have tried yet. Did you unmute the sound channels using alsamixer? By default they are muted. Did you run (as root) alsaconf to make sure your soundcard was being detected? Do you see anything about alsa near the end of the bootup messages? Finally, could you post the contents of /etc/modprobe.d/sound? That's the file where you'll find options configuring the sound driver and the place they are passed to the soundcard from. And you have to have the settings right for your laptop. Mine reads:

Code:

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel model=thinkpad

The first two lines were written by alsaconf, and I had to add the third by hand.

-geomatt

majkel · 09-20-2007, 06:15 AM

Hi mate,
I really appreciate you trying to help me.
Ok, lets try last time : )
See this:

Quote:

# lspci | grep audio:
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)

Quote:

# aplay -l:
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC861VD Analog [ALC861VD Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 6: Si3054 Modem [Si3054 Modem]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Quote:

# lsmod | grep snd:
snd_hda_intel 15896 0
snd_hda_codec 207744 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_pcm 65160 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_timer 17540 1 snd_pcm
snd 41956 4 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 5728 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 7432 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

Quote:

# cat /proc/asound/oss/sndstat:
Sound Driver:3.8.1a-980706 (ALSA v1.0.14rc3 emulation code)
Kernel: Linux hoth 2.6.21.5 #2 Tue Jun 19 15:22:48 CDT 2007 i686
Config options: 0

Installed drivers:
Type 10: ALSA emulation

Card config:
HDA Intel at 0xd2400000 irq 10

Audio devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Synth devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Midi devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Timers:
7: system timer

Mixers: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Quote:

... and my /etc/modprobe.d/sound reads:

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel model=lenovo

Tha strange thing is, I installed (I think I did ) alsa-driver-1.0.15rc2 but
# cat /proc/asound/oss/sndstat tells me that I still have old Alsa...
The chanells are unmuted...

Do you have any idea what it is wrong here... ?
Thanks for you time mate.
Cheers
majkel

P.S. As I mentioned earlier the sound was working on Slackware 11.0.