Sound Device Not Working, Possible conflict between onboard/pci?

Christopher · 11-14-2004, 06:17 PM

Hi

I recently installed Ubuntu, and everything has gone great. The only thing I havn't got working yet is my sound. Now, I'm playing a CD with CD Player to test this out, and I have the Volume Control open from Gnome. The four tabs are as follows:

RealTek ALC650 rev 3 [OSS Mixer]
CMedia PCI [OSS Mixer]
NVidia nForce2 [Alsa Mixer]
C-Media PCI CMI8738 [Alsa Mixer]

I tried all the obvious things like unmuting and putting the sliders up to full volume etc, but it did nothing. It seems like it must be a driver issue then. I have no problems which sound device I use, as long as I get sound, and interestingly the sound worked fine on the LiveCD.

The lspci of that setup is as follows:

Code:

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (different version?) (rev c1)
0000:00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 1 (rev c1)0000:00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 4 (rev c1)0000:00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 3 (rev c1)0000:00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 2 (rev c1)0000:00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 5 (rev c1)0000:00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 ISA Bridge (rev a4)
0000:00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation nForce2 SMBus (MCP) (rev a2)
0000:00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
0000:00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
0000:00:02.2 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
0000:00:04.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Ethernet Controller (rev a1)
0000:00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce MultiMedia audio [Via VT82C686B] (rev a2)
0000:00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AC97 Audio Controler (MCP) (rev a1)
0000:00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 External PCI Bridge (rev a3)0000:00:09.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation nForce2 IDE (rev a2)
0000:00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 PCI Bridge (rev a3)
0000:00:0d.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): nVidia Corporation nForce2 FireWire (IEEE 1394) Controller (rev a3)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (rev c1)
0000:01:06.0 Communication controller: Intel Corp. 536EP Data Fax Modem
0000:01:07.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10)
0000:01:09.0 Ethernet controller: Linksys NC100 Network Everywhere Fast Ethernet 10/100 (rev 11)
0000:02:01.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3C920B-EMB Integrated Fast Ethernet Controller [Tornado] (rev 40)
0000:03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x] (rev a2)

So you can see that all audio controllers are being detected fine. That brought me onto the thought that the onboard nforce2 ac97 controller and the PCI card might be conflicting. Rather drastically, I disabled the onboard sound from BIOS, which didn't improve the situation, so now the volume control panel has just 2 tabs (as expected):

CMedia PCI [OSS Mixer]
C-Media PCI CMI8738 [Alsa Mixer]

My new lspci looks like:

Code:

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (different version?) (rev c1)
0000:00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 1 (rev c1)0000:00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 4 (rev c1)0000:00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 3 (rev c1)0000:00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 2 (rev c1)0000:00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 5 (rev c1)0000:00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 ISA Bridge (rev a4)
0000:00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation nForce2 SMBus (MCP) (rev a2)
0000:00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
0000:00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
0000:00:02.2 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
0000:00:04.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Ethernet Controller (rev a1)
0000:00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 External PCI Bridge (rev a3)0000:00:09.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation nForce2 IDE (rev a2)
0000:00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 PCI Bridge (rev a3)
0000:00:0d.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): nVidia Corporation nForce2 FireWire (IEEE 1394) Controller (rev a3)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (rev c1)
0000:01:06.0 Communication controller: Intel Corp. 536EP Data Fax Modem
0000:01:07.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10)
0000:01:09.0 Ethernet controller: Linksys NC100 Network Everywhere Fast Ethernet 10/100 (rev 11)
0000:02:01.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3C920B-EMB Integrated Fast Ethernet Controller [Tornado] (rev 40)
0000:03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x] (rev a2)

If there is any other information you need that I havn't posted, then please ask and I'll get it to you. It might be worth noting that under Windows I had to disable the onboard sound device in order to get sound, but I am a bit of a Linux newbie and I don't know much about how to do that under Linux.

Thanks in advance

-Crisp

Christopher · 11-15-2004, 09:12 AM

Anyone?

J.W. · 11-15-2004, 01:10 PM

If you've got both onboard sound and a soundcard, disabling the onboard is a good idea. Have you tried running alsaconf? If not, I'd suggest running that first.

Other things to check
* verify that the small cable running from the CD drive to the soundcard is installed
* verify that your speakers are turned on and the volume knob is turned up
* verify that your speakers are plugged into the right jack on the soundcard
* when running alsamixer, be sure that your CD volume setting is turned up
* verify that your CD app's volume control is turned up (sound apps have their own volume controls)

I realize that all of those things are really obvious, but they are all easily overlooked. Good luck with it -- J.W.

Christopher · 11-15-2004, 01:41 PM

All of those things you mentioned are fine, they must be since I can get sound on the LiveCD. It's only once I did a hdd installation that sound became an issue. I can't run alsaconf because it says command not found, but if it's the same as alsamixer then yes I have run it. Otherwise, how do I get to it (gnome btw). It works with the LiveCD with onboard sound enabled too. I really want to sort this out, it's the only thing wrong with my box now.

-Crisp

J.W. · 11-15-2004, 03:10 PM

You need to be root to run alsaconf. Alsaconf and alsamixer are totally different commands (although they are both related to ALSA (obviously).

What you need to do in order to run it is simply open a terminal session, su to root, then run "alsaconf" (no quotes)

Code:

su
<enter your root password>
alsaconf

If it works, you'll hear a trumpet fanfare. -- J.W.

Avatar33 · 01-07-2005, 03:57 PM

Thanks for this post.
Got my sound working now.
Cool!
Cheers