Sound driving me crazy

eatstatic · 10-25-2004, 08:35 PM

I know there are a ton of other posts here dealing with sound in slackware but as far as I can see none of them provide an answer that will work for me.
I am using an AC97 VT8233 integrated sound card.
I have installed alsa, alsa-util, alsa-oss and alsa-lib, ran alsaconf and have had my card detected, but there is no sound playing at all. Then, I tried using the via rpm from viaarena.com with still no success.

My output from lsmod is as follows:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
snd-pcm-oss            36804   0
snd-mixer-oss          11856   1  [snd-pcm-oss]
snd-via82xx            12096  15
gameport                1420   0  [snd-via82xx]
snd-pcm                55720   9  [snd-pcm-oss snd-via82xx]
snd-timer              13412   0  [snd-pcm]
snd-ac97-codec         38040   0  [snd-via82xx]
snd-page-alloc          5940   0  [snd-via82xx snd-pcm]
snd-mpu401-uart         3072   0  [snd-via82xx]
snd-rawmidi            12640   0  [snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq-device          3872   0  [snd-rawmidi]
snd                    30052  10  [snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-via82xx snd-pcm snd-timer snd-ac97-codec snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device]
soundcore               3396   4  [snd]
pcmcia_core            39972   0
ntfs                   51424   4  (autoclean)
ide-scsi                9328   0
via-rhine              12464   1
8139too                14376   0  (unused)
mii                     2272   0  [via-rhine 8139too]
crc32                   2880   0  [via-rhine 8139too]
agpgart                43940   0  (unused)

so it would appear that there are the modules for my card running.
I am using kernel 2.4.26 currently

If anyone can help it would be very very appreciated... I cant live without my music!

Tinkster · 10-25-2004, 09:00 PM

You did run alsamixer and unmute the channel(s)
in question?

Cheers,
Tink

eatstatic · 10-25-2004, 09:09 PM

Yes I have done that as well. Ive also tried amixer, in case my card didnt support alsamixer, not to mention the various mixers in kde and gnome :/

Bruce Hill · 10-25-2004, 09:17 PM

What's the manufacturer and model of your motherboard?
That might not be the correct soundchip. Also, please post
the output of "lspci" run as root.

eatstatic · 10-26-2004, 09:22 AM

Hello, I finally managed to correct this problem by downloading the newest alsa and alsa-oss drivers, then setting kde to use OSS as opposed to alsa. This is only a solution to the problem in a pre-2.6.x kernel though because oss support is removed from the 2.6.x kernels.

Bruce Hill · 10-26-2004, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by eatstatic
Hello, I finally managed to correct this problem by downloading the newest alsa and alsa-oss drivers, then setting kde to use OSS as opposed to alsa. This is only a solution to the problem in a pre-2.6.x kernel though because oss support is removed from the 2.6.x kernels.

Just in case somebody searches and reads your thread, I wouldn't want them to
think this is correct, if they desire to use OSS. It is still in the kernel as of 2.6.9,
though OSS is deprecated. Here is a ls of 2.6.9 untarred, for reference

Code:

~ /linux-2.6.9/sound/oss
~ /linux-2.6.9/Documentation/sound/oss

This is from Dave Jones, one of the kernel maintainers

Quote:

ALSA.
~~~~~
- The advanced linux sound architecture was merged into 2.6.
This offers considerably improved functionality over the older OSS drivers,
but requires new userspace tools.
- Several distros have shipped ALSA for some time, so you may already have the
necessary tools. If not, you can find them at http://www.alsa-project.org/
- ALSA can emulate OSS interface using the snd_pcm_oss/snd_pcm_mixer
modules, if your card produces nothing but silence, you may need to run
alsamixer to unmute channels wich /dev/mixer doesn't see
- Note that the OSS drivers are also still functional, and still present.
Many features/fixes that went into 2.4 are still not applied to these
drivers, and it's still unclear if they will remain when 2.6 ships.
The long term goal is to get everyone moved over to (the superior) ALSA.

The reason I asked about your motherboard is because I have two comps with a
VIA VT8237 chipset which have the VT8233 AC97 audio controller. This one has
sound with Slackware and ALSA.

Code:

mingdao@peter:~$ su -c "lspci"
Password:
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400 AGP] Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 PCI Bridge
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (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. VT82C586/B/686A/B PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)  < - sound chip 
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x] (rev a2)

However, some motherboards have that listing but actually use another sound chip.
For example, the BioStar IDEQ 200V shows this output from "lspci"

Code:

00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)

but actually has a C-Media CMI9739A audio chip which isn't supported by ALSA.

If you actually have the VT82xx soundchip, you might want to read this file ->
/usr/src/linux-2.4.26/Documentation/sound/VIA-chipset

LinuxNoob513 · 11-21-2004, 01:27 PM

Hello, I am very new to linux (It took me 3 days to get my internet configured to get here!)

I am also running the VT8233 intereated sound on an MSI Neo Motherboard.
I don't have any Idea what a module is... So I am quite stuck.
I dont have the first idea in what to do to get the drivers installed, or where to find them, I am running Linux Mandrake 9.1.

Please help me! I dont want to go back to windows!

Bruce Hill · 11-21-2004, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LinuxNoob513
Hello, I am very new to linux (It took me 3 days to get my internet configured to get here!)

I am also running the VT8233 intereated sound on an MSI Neo Motherboard.
I don't have any Idea what a module is... So I am quite stuck.
I dont have the first idea in what to do to get the drivers installed, or where to find them, I am running Linux Mandrake 9.1.

Please help me! I dont want to go back to windows!

Welcome to LQ!

First, this thread is really over, because he now has sound.

Second, you don't want to "hijack" someone else's thread.
That means you interrupt their posts to ask a question about
your problem. Sort of like picking up a phone extension and
interrupting the caller's conversation to ask a question of the
person helping them about your problem. You should start
your own thread about your problem.

Third, since you're running Mandrake, you'll find that they do
things quite differently from other distributions. You would do
better to search LQ's Mandrake forum for answers.

Fourth, most of us use ALSA for sound. Go to ALSA's website and
download the first three files. Then lookup your soundcard and
browse to the directions for it. Follow them, and when you've
finished the instruction to "modprobe <your_card's_modules>"
then you should run, in a terminal as a normal user "alsamixer"
and unmute your channels with the m key, turn up the volume,
and then ESC to exit. Then in a terminal, as root, run "alsactl store"
and that will save your settings.

If you will post the output of "lspci" run from a terminal as root
I'll give you some specific links with instructions for your specific
card.