[SOLVED] Toshiba Satellite L70 mic not working, Slackware

Drone91 · 02-19-2014, 04:39 PM

Hello.
I have a Toshiba Satellite L70-A-13N lappy with Slackware 14.1 (if I recall right - it's been updated regardless) and 3.9.11 kernel. It's been mostly working well (downgraded kernel because of bumblebee - Optimus support) asides from the audio.
After some work (there's two cards alsa finds - Conexant CX20756 ("working") and Intel Haswell HDMI, I had to force the Conexant one to be default to get internal reproductors to work. Then, I found out mixer wasn't working at all and had to force software mixing with dmix to be able to play multiple streams) I got the sound to work satisfactorily, however, any attempts to use internal or external microphone do precisely nothing. It's telling that there's no slider for mic volume (just boost) in alsamixer, and that it quits upon pressing F4.

Anyone knows how to get it to work?

lspci -v output here

Code:

00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Haswell HD Audio Controller (rev 06)
        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device fa89
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 45
        Memory at d3600000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
        Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel


00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Lynx Point High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device fa89
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 46
        Memory at d3604000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
        Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

aplay -l

Code:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: CX20756 Analog [CX20756 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Thanks for help!

aus9 · 02-21-2014, 01:12 AM

Hi

most people want to use their hdmi but your card order is not the same as most people so make internal (analog) grab index=0 by a simple (dot) .asoundrc file in home folder like this

pcm.!default {
type hw
card 1
device 0
}

full reboot

then as a local user run

Code:

alsamixer

adjust mixer levels see my signature if you don't know how

then save that level setting with

Code:

sudo alsactl store

or su (to root) if you are not a member of sudoers

good luck

Drone91 · 02-21-2014, 03:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aus9

Hi

most people want to use their hdmi but your card order is not the same as most people so make internal (analog) grab index=0 by a simple (dot) .asoundrc file in home folder like this

pcm.!default {
type hw
card 1
device 0
}

full reboot

then as a local user run

Code:

alsamixer

adjust mixer levels see my signature if you don't know how

then save that level setting with

Code:

sudo alsactl store

or su (to root) if you are not a member of sudoers

good luck

Uhh.
I already did that loong ago to make the sound work at all, plus set up dmix.

This is what my /etc/asound.conf looks like, for reference.

Code:

pcm.!default {
	type plug
	slave.pcm "dmixer"
}

pcm.dmixer  {
 	type dmix
 	ipc_key 1024
 	slave {
		pcm "hw:1,0"
		period_time 0
		period_size 1024
		buffer_size 4096
		rate 44100
	}
	bindings {
		0 0
		1 1
	}
}

ctl.dmixer {
	type hw
	card 1
}
ctl.!default {
	type hw
	card 1
}

The issue is the microphone not working, not even having a slider in alsamixer; I suspect this is something to do with the driver being bad for the card, given that PCM didn't work either - hence the need to set up dmix.

Drone91 · 03-06-2014, 05:06 PM

Upon a bit of further googling, I read somewhere that supposedly Conexant sound cards + microphones work better (or rather, work) in OSS. Anyone has any clue how to replace alsa with OSS in slackware?

aus9 · 03-11-2014, 07:20 PM

can't help with oss maybe you search for it?

no slider?

can you upload an image of alsamixer commmand as per below and link to it pls?

Code:

alsamixer -c1 -V capture

if c1 shows nothing say so in reply and show c0

if it does show ok, press the space bar to activate mic

leaping ahead its possible you may need a model=string but I notice you have the same kernel module for the hdmi card as well.

If this is a laptop don't forget to enable mic in your bios

Drone91 · 03-12-2014, 07:15 PM

This is... unexpected.
Now it actually works - for some reason when in regular alsamixer, I pressed F4, it quit alsamixer instead of showing the menu, and the "Capture" bar didn't show in the F5:All (The F4 issue.. I suspect fucked-up key signal definitions in xterm or something) setting bar at all.

Now that I altered this setting, the microphone appears to work.

Thank you very, very much.