ALSA can't find my integrated AC97 Sound Card
 

hey guys,

I googled and searched these forums for solutions to my problem, but I only found similar problems that did not solve mine. When I run alsaconf, it tells me no PnP or PCI cards were found. So I tell it to probe legacy chips, it does its thing, says ok, I press enter, and sound still doesn't work.

does anybody have any ideas on what to do?

Post some hardware details like make and model of sound card, desktop or laptop, and the audio part of "lspci -v"

It's a built in Realtek 8-chanel sound card on a destop mobo

0000:00:1b.0 0403: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc.: Unknown device 0c22
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 169
Memory at d0100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [60] Message Signalled Interrupts: 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable-
Capabilities: [70] #10 [0091]

EDIT: My bad, took out all but the audio part of lspci -v

apt-get install alsa-base alsa-oss alsa-utils
if you use a 2.6 kernel. If 2.4 apt-get alsa-drivers from the alsa-modules package as well, and get the version matching your kernel, but 2.6 has better hardware support.
Forgot to ask which distro your using though. Sarge?
Also try to set pnp off in the bios.

all those packages werealready installed
i'm using the 2.6 kernel, and I think Sarge

That chipset seems to be using the snd-azx module for alsa. See if you can load it with: modprobe snd-azx
then run alsaconf again. If it doesn't work, see with lsmod what snd- modules are loaded.

EDIT:
Sarge seems to use 1.0.8 alsa, but 1.0.9 would be better at detecting this chipset.
apt-get install alsa-source/testing
will get you a newer source, read the documentation within on how to compile and install.
Hope you have at least two kernels before experimenting with this one ;)

I don't have ANY snd modules loaded. How do I load one?

modprobe snd-azx
See what's available with: modprobe snd<tab><tab>

# modprobe snd-azx
FATAL: Module snd_azx not found.
FATAL: Error running install command for snd_azx

I try modprobe -l snd, and it returns nothing

You can try different modules:
modprobe snd-intel8x0
modprobe snd-pcm-oss
modprobe snd-mixer-oss
modprobe snd-seq-oss
Then test sound with: play /path/to/some-mp3_or_ogg
or why not with: cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp (ctrl-c quits)

If it won't work try:
rmmod snd-intel8x0
modprobe snd-hda-intel

Still no sound: try compiling alsa http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...05/05/4/317158
and use the "./configure --with-cards=azx" about 2/3 down on the page.

Did you test which modules you have with "modprobe snd<tab><tab>"?

Whenever I try to modprobe any of the cards you listed, I get,

FATAL: Module *something* not found.
FATAL: Error running install command for *something*

# rmmod snd-intel8x0
ERROR: Module snd_intel8x0 does not exist in /proc/modules

tried compiling ALSA, but when i do ./configure --with-cards=azx, it gives me:
checking for which soundcards to compile driver for... configure: error: Unknown soundcard azx

I tried compiling with other cards, but it gives me the same error. I finaly tried compiling with cards=all, but when I modprobed, it still gave me the same error (FATAL: Module *something* not found.
FATAL: Error running install command for *something*)

modprobe snd<tab><tab> gives me:
modprobe modprobe.Lmodutils modprobe.modutils

You shouldn't have to compile alsa. If you have installed the alsa packages listed above with apt, that should be all you need. FYI the switch would be --with-cards=snd_azx.

Maybe you don't have support for alsa in your kernel. Did you compile it yourself or are you using a prebuilt kernel image?

Look in /boot for a file named something like .config

Then post the out put of (change .config to whatever your config file is):

cat /boot/.config | grep alsa

--with-cards=snd_azx still gives configure: error: Unknown soundcard azx

I used the prebuilt kernel image 2.6.8-2-386

cat /boot/config-2.6.8-2-386 | grep alsa, and cat /boot/.config | grep alsa, both return nothing

EDIT: this might help,
whenever I run alsaconf, it outputs this into the terminal:
modinfo: could not find module snd
modinfo: could not find module snd
modinfo: could not find module snd
modinfo: could not find module snd-opl3sa2
modinfo: could not find module snd-cs4236
modinfo: could not find module snd-cs4232
modinfo: could not find module snd-cs4231
modinfo: could not find module snd-es18xx
modinfo: could not find module snd-es1688
modinfo: could not find module snd-sb16
modinfo: could not find module snd-sb8

Try: grep SND /boot/config-2.6.8-2-386

CONFIG_SND=m
CONFIG_SND_TIMER=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM=m
CONFIG_SND_HWDEP=m
CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQ_DUMMY=m
CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y
CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_RTCTIMER=m
# CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PRINTK is not set
# CONFIG_SND_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_SND_MPU401_UART=m
CONFIG_SND_OPL3_LIB=m
CONFIG_SND_OPL4_LIB=m
CONFIG_SND_VX_LIB=m
CONFIG_SND_DUMMY=m
CONFIG_SND_VIRMIDI=m
CONFIG_SND_MTPAV=m
CONFIG_SND_SERIAL_U16550=m
CONFIG_SND_MPU401=m
CONFIG_SND_AD1816A=m
CONFIG_SND_AD1848=m
CONFIG_SND_CS4231=m
CONFIG_SND_CS4232=m
CONFIG_SND_CS4236=m
CONFIG_SND_ES968=m
CONFIG_SND_ES1688=m
CONFIG_SND_ES18XX=m
CONFIG_SND_GUSCLASSIC=m
CONFIG_SND_GUSEXTREME=m
CONFIG_SND_GUSMAX=m
CONFIG_SND_INTERWAVE=m
CONFIG_SND_INTERWAVE_STB=m
CONFIG_SND_OPTI92X_AD1848=m
CONFIG_SND_OPTI92X_CS4231=m
CONFIG_SND_OPTI93X=m
CONFIG_SND_SB8=m
CONFIG_SND_SB16=m
CONFIG_SND_SBAWE=m
CONFIG_SND_SB16_CSP=y
CONFIG_SND_WAVEFRONT=m
CONFIG_SND_ALS100=m
CONFIG_SND_AZT2320=m
CONFIG_SND_CMI8330=m
CONFIG_SND_DT019X=m
CONFIG_SND_OPL3SA2=m
CONFIG_SND_SGALAXY=m
CONFIG_SND_SSCAPE=m
CONFIG_SND_AC97_CODEC=m
CONFIG_SND_ALI5451=m
CONFIG_SND_ATIIXP=m
CONFIG_SND_AU8810=m
CONFIG_SND_AU8820=m
CONFIG_SND_AU8830=m
CONFIG_SND_AZT3328=m
CONFIG_SND_BT87X=m
CONFIG_SND_CS46XX=m
CONFIG_SND_CS46XX_NEW_DSP=y
CONFIG_SND_CS4281=m
CONFIG_SND_EMU10K1=m
CONFIG_SND_KORG1212=m
CONFIG_SND_MIXART=m
CONFIG_SND_NM256=m
CONFIG_SND_RME32=m
CONFIG_SND_RME96=m
CONFIG_SND_RME9652=m
CONFIG_SND_HDSP=m
CONFIG_SND_TRIDENT=m
CONFIG_SND_YMFPCI=m
CONFIG_SND_ALS4000=m
CONFIG_SND_CMIPCI=m
CONFIG_SND_ENS1370=m
CONFIG_SND_ENS1371=m
CONFIG_SND_ES1938=m
CONFIG_SND_ES1968=m
CONFIG_SND_MAESTRO3=m
CONFIG_SND_FM801=m
CONFIG_SND_FM801_TEA575X=m
CONFIG_SND_ICE1712=m
CONFIG_SND_ICE1724=m
CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0=m
CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0M=m
CONFIG_SND_SONICVIBES=m
CONFIG_SND_VIA82XX=m
CONFIG_SND_VX222=m
CONFIG_SND_USB_AUDIO=m
CONFIG_SND_VXPOCKET=m
CONFIG_SND_VXP440=m
CONFIG_SND_PDAUDIOCF=m
# CONFIG_SOUND_MSNDCLAS is not set
# CONFIG_SOUND_MSNDPIN is not set