sound problems with QuadExtreme (ForteMedia, fm801)

Andruha · 09-24-2004, 04:57 PM

I've installed slackware 10.
After installation the sound seemed to be muted, because being in KDE I could see my sound hardware title shown, but no sound from mp3 or video could be heard. I used alsaconf then - it has detected my soundcard all right. lsmod shows that fm801 modules are loaded. I've alsamixer'ed sound settings and everything seemed to be ok, except that there was no real sound yet! sound player didn't start playing, video player worked in silence. In howto's I found that smth might have been wrong with soundcard settings. IRQ of my soundcard had been shared with my network interface. I've put it into different slot and /proc/interrupt told me it's ok, but still I had no sound. dmesg on my system shows some devices were found at IRQ of my soundcard, but there's no readable info about it (so it looks like an unknown device).

lsmod shows much more info than I can understand

there are lots of modules, that seem (as for me) to be connected with sound, including fm801.

Do you have a drug for me?
Thanks in advance.

Peacedog · 09-24-2004, 06:21 PM

Hi Andruha, welcome to lq. You may find something of use here.

http://xlife.zuavra.net/columns/20040418/

good luck.

chutsu · 09-24-2004, 06:22 PM

thats easy
I got into that situation as well, it real easy you were nearly there but... Anyways type :
alsamixer in the console and you would see this graphical menu thing, use the cursor keys to move and increase the volume, press escape to quit.

and to save your changes type : alsaconf store (I think it is not too sure, you try it out!!!)

I hope it helped!!!
Chris

Peacedog · 09-24-2004, 06:39 PM

Quote:

and to save your changes type : alsaconf store (I think it is not too sure, you try it out!!!)

Just for clarity, if this works the command in question is alsactl store. Just thought I'd help out Chris.

Andruha · 10-01-2004, 05:42 PM

well, thanks for your help, but...
it's all very strange.. My system behaves just as it should with only one but... whatever I do it is silent. When I start playing mp3 (with kaboodie, or noatun) - there is a progress indication with no sound. lsmod shows a great many modules loaded, including those used for sound. ALSA was installed by default. I've used alsaconf - it identifed my soundcard, configured it and created /etc/modules.conf. Then I used alsamixer to check sound settings - sound was muted indeed, so I turned everything on. Finally, I've used alsactl store. I even rebooted! :-)
Still there was no sound, so I've drowned in the ocean of FAQ's and HOWTO's... I've learned that sound output may be influenced by IRQ sharing, booting from DOS by loadlin (it's my usual boot type, no LILO, etc) and the creation of black holes in distant galaxies ;-)
and so I came here and started this thread

As PEACEDOG offered - I've read the article, created /etc/asound.conf. It didn't help.
Funny thing that alsamixer, kmix and *mix show that no sound is muted! I even have a tray icon saying my sound level is 48!
I am mostly a windows user and my soundcard works ok in Bill Gates' creation.
I really hope that the problem lies not in the lack of my linux experience, but somewhere else :-)
I had Red Hat 9 before, and sound worked fine without extra configuration.
My case seems to be quite unusual?

interrupts info

Code:

root@deffx:~# cat /proc/interrupts
           CPU0
  0:     110468          XT-PIC  timer
  1:       3866          XT-PIC  keyboard
  2:          0          XT-PIC  cascade
  4:      63904          XT-PIC  serial
  5:       7799          XT-PIC  FM801, usb-uhci
  ...

and now my lsmod

Code:

root@deffx:~# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
snd-seq-oss            26048   0  (autoclean) (unused)
snd-seq-midi            3488   0  (autoclean) (unused)
snd-seq-midi-event      3264   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi]
snd-opl3-synth          9352   0  (autoclean) (unused)
snd-seq-instr           4864   0  (autoclean) [snd-opl3-synth]
snd-seq-midi-emul       4720   0  (autoclean) [snd-opl3-synth]
snd-ainstr-fm           1812   0  (autoclean) [snd-opl3-synth]
snd-seq                33424   2  (autoclean) [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-opl3-synth snd-seq-instr snd-seq-midi-emul]
ppp_deflate             3256   0  (autoclean)
zlib_deflate           18328   0  (autoclean) [ppp_deflate]
bsd_comp                4344   0  (autoclean)
ppp_async               7392   1  (autoclean)
ppp_generic            19492   3  (autoclean) [ppp_deflate bsd_comp ppp_async]
slhc                    4976   0  (autoclean) [ppp_generic]
snd-pcm-oss            37736   0  (unused)
snd-mixer-oss          12504   0  [snd-pcm-oss]
uhci                   24444   0  (unused)
usbcore                59308   1  [uhci]
snd-fm801               8872   1
snd-pcm                56072   0  [snd-pcm-oss snd-fm801]
snd-page-alloc          6328   0  [snd-pcm]
snd-opl3-lib            5892   0  [snd-opl3-synth snd-fm801]
snd-hwdep               4804   0  [snd-opl3-lib]
snd-timer              13604   0  [snd-seq snd-pcm snd-opl3-lib]
snd-mpu401-uart         3200   0  [snd-fm801]
snd-rawmidi            12740   0  [snd-seq-midi snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq-device          3888   0  [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi snd-opl3-synth snd-seq snd-opl3-lib snd-rawmidi]
snd-tea575x-tuner       2432   0  [snd-fm801]
videodev                5952   0  [snd-tea575x-tuner]
snd-ac97-codec         49500   0  [snd-fm801]
snd                    30852   1  [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-opl3-synth snd-seq-instr snd-seq snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-fm801 snd-pcm snd-opl3-lib snd-hwdep snd-timer snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd-tea575x-tuner snd-ac97-codec]
soundcore               3396   8  [snd]
ne2k-pci                4576   1
8390                    6000   0  [ne2k-pci]
crc32                   2880   0  [8390]
pcmcia_core            39972   0
ide-scsi                9328   0
agpgart                43940   0  (unused)

sorry for flooding...

J.W. · 10-01-2004, 07:23 PM

Well, have you also checked to check out the speakers themselves? Are they powered on? Are the volume knobs turned up? Is the cable plugged into the "speaker" jack of the sound card rather than the "microphone" jack (for instance)? Is the volume slider on the application you're using (Kaboodle) turned up? (Keep in mind that the sound-related programs have their own volume controls). If you're trying to listen to a CD, is the small audio cable connected properly between the CD drive and the sound card?

I don't know if any of those things apply but based on your descriptions it sounds like you are making the right moves here. Good luck with it -- J.W.

Peacedog · 10-02-2004, 12:25 PM

Just to add, if you've rebooted, you might try an alsactl restore. If that works, you could try putting it in /etc/rc.d/rc.local, to run at boot.
good luck.

Tizi · 10-07-2004, 10:21 AM

I have the same problem with a ForteMedia soundcard and Slackware 10.
Same chipset, same modules loaded, same muting.
I can add this info: i have Slack 91 installed on another partition, on the same machine, so it uses the same suondcard
and the same speakers...
In Slackware 91 after unmuting the mixer, sound starts working immediately.
I had no problems.
In Slackware 10, on the same machine, i found no way to get it working. It is not the mixer, or the speaker or a broken
hardware.
So I think the problem is related to something added in Slack 10. That is strange, I expected to have less problem in a
new release of Slack.
The only difference between modules loaded in Slack 9.1 e those in Slack 10 is that Slack 10 has some more modules...

This is Slackware 9.1 lsmod
---------------------------

snd-pcm-oss 37252 0
snd-mixer-oss
snd-fm801 7724 1
snd-pcm 55904 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-fm801]
snd-page-alloc 6004 0 [snd-pcm]
snd-opl3-lib 5764 0 [snd-fm801]
snd-hwdep 4672 0 [snd-opl3-lib]
snd-timer 13252 0 [snd-pcm snd-opl3-lib]
snd-mpu401-uart 3136 0 [snd-fm801]
snd-rawmidi 12512 0 [snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq-device 3920 0 [snd-opl3-lib snd-rawmidi]
snd-ac97-codec 37240 0 [snd-fm801]
snd 27460 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-fm801 snd-pcm snd-opl3-lib snd-hwdep snd-timer snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd-ac97-codec]
soundcore 3332 6 [snd]

this is Slackware 10
--------------------------

snd-pcm-oss 37736 0 (unused)
snd-mixer-oss 12504 0 [snd-pcm-oss]
snd-fm801 8872 0
snd-pcm 56072 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-fm801]
snd-page-alloc 6328 0 [snd-pcm]
snd-opl3-lib 5892 0 [snd-fm801]
snd-hwdep 4804 0 [snd-opl3-lib]
snd-timer 13604 0 [snd-pcm snd-opl3-lib]
snd-mpu401-uart 3200 0 [snd-fm801]
snd-rawmidi 12740 0 [snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq-device 3888 0 [snd-opl3-lib snd-rawmidi]
snd-tea575x-tuner 2432 0 [snd-fm801]
videodev 5952 0 [snd-tea575x-tuner]
snd-ac97-codec 49500 0 [snd-fm801]
snd 30852 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-fm801 snd-pcm snd-opl3-lib snd-hwdep snd-timer snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd-tea575x-tuner snd-ac97-codec]
soundcore 3396 6 [snd]

Bye, I hope this infos can help to find a solution! So I can migrate to Slackware 10 without giving up sound...

Sorry for my english....

Ciao Ciao!

Andruha · 06-21-2006, 05:16 PM

in my case (as it occasionally turned out) the problem lied in the way in which linux starts from DOS. In my setup, DOS automatically loads fm801 drivers that, I suppose, interfere with linux when it gets loaded by loadlin. How could I miss that thing before? ;-)

Thanks a lot for your assistance.