Toshiba A215-S7422. Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10. Sound issues. Help!
 

I have a brand new Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422 laptop computer running Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10. I cannot get the sound to work for the life of me. I've tried Alsa as well as OSSv4.

What else can I do? It's really making me doubt running linux on a laptop... I need sound and wireless, badly. I've gotten around the wireless by using a USB Wireless G adapter that's fully compatible. Fine. Done. Now for sound... there's no workaround for this like there is with USB Wireless adapters.

What else can I do? I also cannot find the EXACT sound card that's in my laptop. In Ubuntu I can't find it, the PDF documentation for the laptop doesn't have it listed, and device manager in Vista doesn't list it either. All of this says it's "Realtek High Definition Audio." That's it.

Sound can be a little fishy; sometimes you have to pass a model flag that's not entirely straightforward.

The best things to try are running "alsaconfig" (might have to do it as sudo) on a terminal, and post what it lists the sound card as, and also post the output of running "lspci". You're most likely to get help after you've posted that information.

alsaconfig as well as sudo alsaconfig yielded no command found.

lspci output:




jason@jason:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (Internal gfx)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 7914
00:05.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 7915
00:06.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 2)
00:12.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2)
00:13.3 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3)
00:13.4 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4)
00:13.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI)
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 14)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon X1200 Series
08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 01)
14:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
14:06.1 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
14:06.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 12)
14:06.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
14:06.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 12)
jason@jason:~$

I was able to get sound working on this exact Toshiba laptop model about a month ago. I installed Linux Mint, which is based on Gutsy Gibbon, so hopefully this will work for you. This is what I remember doing: First you need a different module, which you can get as follows:

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-generic

Then add the following to the end of your /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base file:

options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=acer

(I know the laptop is a Toshiba but the acer designation in that line worked for me.)

Then reboot.

I hope I'm not forgetting anything and that this works for you. Good luck.

Gerry

Wow. This worked! I'm truly amazed that the Acer thing worked. What prompted you to try this out? Why Acer?

The only problem I have now is when I plug in headphones my main speakers don't cut off. However, I hear the music through the headphones at least. It just defies the purpose of headphones when the main speakers don't shut off! But hey, at least I have something to listen to when relaxing in the evening at home! Thanks!

Apparently for this module there are three or four model options, something like acer, auto, toshiba, and stack3. I just tried them in order until one of them worked. I read about these options in a post in one of the Ubuntu forums, I think.

Unfortunately, I also have not been able to get the speakers to shut off when I use headphones. I'm glad that you have sound now, though.

A question for you: I have not been able to get the installed wireless card to work; could you tell me the USB wireless g adapter that you're using? Thanks.

I am using the 3Com CRUSB10075 USB Wireless G Adapter. I got it on newegg.com for around 50-55 dollars or so.

If I remember correctly, when I originally plugged it in it didn't work. So I plugged in my hardwire ethernet to install an additional package... I think Network Manager comes by default, but there was some kind of other thing... like a program gui or something... And once I got that up and running, it fired up right away.

The only thing is, I can't get any encryption whatsoever to work on it. I've tried WEP, WPA, WPA2. Nothing seemed to work. However, I only tried each one once in a really quick fashion before just saying the hell with it. What I did instead was I got the MAC Address from that 3Com USB Adapter and went into my Linksys router settings. I went to Wireless MAC Filtering and selected "Permit Only What MAC's I List." I listed the MAC address to the USB adapter and even tested it with other wireless devices. Now nobody can wirelessly get into my network unless they spoof my wireless MAC address. Which, considering I live in a residential area with a lot of older folks, I'm doubting that I have anything to worry about. ;)


One more question about the sound - I may be imagining this, however, it seemed like Vista's sound was a hair louder than in Ubuntu. I don't know if Windows has additional volume controls, but I compared it using Media Player vs Audacious. I set Media Player/Audacious to 75% and set my onboard volume to 100% in both applications. I THINK Windows was a tad bit louder. Not that it's a huge issue, but I figured I'd ask. Be kind of neat to even them up. Thanks again!

And about you trying them in order, did you try any of the others? Or did you try Acer first and it just worked? By the way, just to reiterate... I was to ADD That entire line, right? I wasn't supposed to change it from auto, toshiba, or stack3 to Acer, was I? Just making sure...

Right, you were to add the entire line. I had tried all of the options with a previous module (before I did the apt-get install); none of them worked, the acer being the last one I tried. After doing the apt-get install, sound worked, with the acer option still in the alsa-base file, so I never tried the other ones again, just relieved to have sound.

As far as the volume goes, my recollection matches your experience that Vista sound was a little louder, but I haven't booted Vista in quite some time, so I don't know for sure. In fact, once I get wireless working, I will get rid of Vista altogether. Thanks for the info on the 3com adapter. I'm about to give up on getting the onboard wireless working.

You could always try this.

http://www.datanorth.net/~cuervo/blo...no-more-vista/

It's supposedly a way to get the onboard wireless NIC in the Toshiba A215 series laptop working. I haven't tried it yet... I'm not too sure the instructions are detailed enough for me to attempt it. However, I'm awaiting a response on Ubuntuforums.com which may better direct me in what to do. Until then, my 3Com works great!!

EASTG,

thanks for the tip! This also got the sound going on my Dell Latitude D531 with Integrated Audio:
(00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia).

Boomer Sooner!

cavedude,

You're welcome; glad it worked for you. On your Dell, does using the headphones disable the speakers?

Thanks for the Sooner cheer!

That also worked for a friend of mine, but as mentioned by someone else in this thread the speakers don't shut off, I know you haven't fixed it yet as you mentioned this but when you do could you post the soloution for us please?

me too. with A215-S7428
 

I have the A215-S7428 model and I've tried several live cds laying around like Knoppix 5.1, Mepis-Antix,Zenwalk Slackware, and Ubuntu 6.1 and none of them would make a peep out of the speakers. I will be running the Ubuntu Gusty as I am downloading it now. I will be looking at this post and putting much thought and effort into this. I found NDISwrapper to be good with wireless USB if the system can't be configured for the built in wireless, however, this wireless card is an Atheros chipset which can be fixed with:
apt-get install madwifi (TONS OF DRIVERS)
apt-get install wifiradar (A GREAT WIFI MANAGER)
That's all I did with an atheros chipset card before. It's one of the few that seem to work right away with those programs.

I did wind up getting my sound card to work (Gusty 7.10). I found the option discussed earlier not to work so I added:
options snd-hda-intel index=1 model=toshiba" to the file. It is a Toshiba after all. It worked with OSS and ALSA.
On another note, I found a usb wireless card that worked right out of the box. I thought you folks should know.
Belkin F5d7050
It just worked. I don't know how, but like I said before some chipsets just work.8)

Success!!!
 

I just wanted to say thanks for this!

I tried model=toshiba first but no dice, changed it to acer, reboot again and just like that... sound! I have no headphones at work to test that issue but I have sound :cool:

It worked on this Toshiba Satellite A215-S5815 under Ubuntu Gusty 7.10 fresh install (upgraded from 7.04 install as that's the only copy I have here).

FYI, when I first had 7.04 installed no sound but volume control was in my panel. Upon upgrade to 7.10 the audio control in panel had a muted circle on it and when I clicked Gusty gave message 'No Audio Device Found'. Not sure what happened there but it seems like it changed once I agreed to dump obsolete packages during upgrade 'clean up' step. Hopefully this adds some insight to someone with greater experience than me trying to resolve this issue.

lspci | grep -i audio
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia

Now if I can get the WiFi going...