So I just put a fresh install of lenny onto a used ibook g4 i just picked up. having some problems with the sound, (which I'm pretty sure worked in etch on the same box). I don't know much about sound as its always worked out of the box for me so far. in gnome (which I'm trying to get out of if i get everything working) there is a volume control icon, with a red 'x' on it, i click on it and get the following:

"No volume control GStreamer plugins and/or devices found."


Also, there is a weird issue with the display where it just dims out to half brightness, and I have to manually bring it up again with f2 (as macs do). This will be while I'm working, which I don't understand, its not idle or anything.

I'm also having some trouble getting the airport extreme card to work. Now I've apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter and the card shows up as 'eth1' under ifconfig, and can scan for networks using 'iwlist', but I can't get wireless internet. I've never actually gotten wireless to work by hand in debian box, so maybe there is something i'm missing?

I know its a lot, i'm quite new linux but love it!! any suggestions would be a great help in my search

also, here is the output from "lspci"

0000:00:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 AGP
0000:00:10.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M9+ 5C63 [Radeon Mobility 9200 (AGP)] (rev 01)
0001:10:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 PCI
0001:10:12.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
0001:10:17.0 Class ff00: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid Mac I/O
0001:10:18.0 USB Controller: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid USB
0001:10:19.0 USB Controller: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid USB
0001:10:1a.0 USB Controller: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid USB
0001:10:1b.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 43)
0001:10:1b.1 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 43)
0001:10:1b.2 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 04)
0002:20:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 Internal PCI
0002:20:0d.0 Class ff00: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth/Intrepid ATA/100
0002:20:0e.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 FireWire (rev 81)
0002:20:0f.0 Ethernet controller: Apple Computer Inc. UniNorth 2 GMAC (Sun GEM) (rev 80)
cone@snowPine:~$

shouldn't there be a sound card in there somewhere?

I'm having the same exact problem with sound on an old clamshell-style second-gen iBook(FireWire). I haven't tried the stable release yet and will do so when I get the chance.

You may want to check out similar sites to:

http://www.tgunkel.de/it/hardware/doc/ibook_g4_linux.en

on:

http://www.linux-laptop.net/


However, to get sound working on my iBook G3 I have to add:

snd_powermac

to:

/etc/modules

Then run through 'alsaconf', 'alsamixer', and 'alsactl store' as root. After a reboot sound works perfectly.

For the display issues, do you have something like 'apm_emu' in /etc/modules?

And for wireless, I have to add 'airport' to /etc/modules, but I assume that you would need to add 'bcm43xx' to get it to work. There's more info on the airport extreme setup on the first link I posted.

Cheers,
/Bob

I followed your instructions regarding the sound and have been only partially successful. I'm now hearing system beeps but the Gnome system sounds do not play. Any other suggestions?

Thanks for your help!

Did you follow the suggestions from the website link I sent? Those suggestions are more appropriate for your iBook G4 than my iBook G3. For instance he included the following sound modules in /etc/modules:

snd
snd_mixer_oss
snd_page_alloc
snd_pcm
snd_pcm_oss
snd_powermac
snd_timer
soundcore

Have you? After adding the modules I would run through 'alsaconf', 'alsamixer', and 'alsactl store'. Then don't forget to restart.

If I had an iBook G4 I would just copy what he did.

Cheers,
/Bob

Also, just wanted to say that by default Debian Gnome doesn't play system sounds. You would need to install the gnome-audio package.

Does the gnome volume applet show as muted? Have you tried playing a sound file or video file?

Cheers,
/Bob