ALSA: No sound [Debian Sarge, stock 2.4.25, ICH5]

sulfa · 12-03-2004, 02:51 PM

I just installed Debian Sarge on my Dell Inspiron XPS (so far I'm just using the stock kernel, 2.4.25-1-386). Everything works nicely except for sound. The machine has an Intel 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 sound card, which I understand corresponds to the i810 chipset and the snd-intel8x0 ALSA driver.

To install ALSA, I read the Sound HowTo and followed instructions on how to install ALSA using a stock kernel and Sarge at the Linux Mafia web site: I installed the alsa-{base,headers,utils,oss} packages, the ALSA modules package for my kernel, and the ALSA mixer using apt. I edited the /etc/modutils/alsa file to include the appropriate lines (as per the information on the ALSA-Project details page for intel8x0), then rebooted. I ran ALSAmixer (it works) and unmuted/turned up the volume on the appropriate channels, then tried playing a CD. The CD loads in xine and ascd, but no sound escapes. I tried to cat a .WAV file into /dev/dsp - again, nada.

Anybody know what I should do next?

Thanks for your help,
Greg

foo_bar_foo · 12-03-2004, 04:22 PM

it is possible OSS module is loading i guess.
look at lsmod output ( possibly post )
if a sound module is there that does not start with snd
try in /etc/discover.conf
skip i810_audio
in case hotplug thinks your soundcard is a modem ;(
i think look at boot logs and see what is hapening with the soundcard at boot
you might need in /etc/hotplug/blacklist
"snd-intel8x0m"

however seems like since alsamixer works alsa must be loading ?

look in /dev
and see if you got a /dev/dsp
should be a link to /dev/dsp0 i think

also possibly give output of "amixer" command
alsamixer is very complicated

darkleaf · 12-03-2004, 04:40 PM

Did you change permissions to the right ones? Try if you have sound as root. If you don't have as normal user only as root you have to add your user account to the audio group

sulfa · 12-03-2004, 11:20 PM

As far as I can tell from doing modinfo on each of the listed modules, there are no sound modules loaded except for soundcore and the snd- modules I installed. The output of lsmod is:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
ds                      6472   1 
hci_usb                 8092   0  (unused)
bluez                  28836   1  [hci_usb]
keybdev                 1792   0  (unused)
mousedev                3736   1 
hid                    21412   0  (unused)
input                   3328   0  [keybdev mousedev hid]
af_packet              12168   1  (autoclean)
uhci                   23216   0  (unused)
ehci-hcd               16168   0  (unused)
usbcore                56288   1  [hci_usb hid uhci ehci-hcd]
i810_rng                2596   0  (unused)
snd-intel8x0           17320   0 
gameport                1452   0  [snd-intel8x0]
snd-mpu401-uart         2880   0  [snd-intel8x0]
snd-rawmidi            11904   0  [snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq-device          3620   0  [snd-rawmidi]
snd-intel8x0m           8972   0 
snd-pcm-oss            36420   0  (unused)
snd-mixer-oss          11384   0  [snd-pcm-oss]
snd-pcm                54656   0  [snd-intel8x0 snd-intel8x0m snd-pcm-oss]
snd-timer              13860   0  [snd-pcm]
snd-page-alloc          5488   0  [snd-intel8x0 snd-intel8x0m snd-pcm]
snd-ac97-codec         39804   0  [snd-intel8x0 snd-intel8x0m]
snd                    28804   0  [snd-intel8x0 snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd-intel8x0m snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm snd-timer snd-ac97-codec]
soundcore               3492   7  [snd]
tg3                    44040   1 
yenta_socket            9280   1 
pcmcia_core            40576   0  [ds yenta_socket]
ohci1394               22344   0  (unused)
ieee1394              183172   0  [ohci1394]
ide-cd                 28736   0 
cdrom                  29408   0  [ide-cd]
rtc                     6300   0  (autoclean)
ext3                   71880   5  (autoclean)
jbd                    36584   5  (autoclean) [ext3]
ide-detect               288   0  (autoclean) (unused)
piix                    7904   1  (autoclean)
ide-disk               13280   6  (autoclean)
ide-core               98672   6  (autoclean) [ide-cd ide-detect piix ide-disk]
unix                   14248  22  (autoclean)

I attempted the "skip i810_audio" line in /etc/discover.conf, to no avail. I'm about to check out the hotplug lead. Also, I do have /dev/{dsp,mixer,sequencer,audio,etc} and they are all set to the appropriate permissions (for now, 777), along with all the devices they point to. This ties in to darkleaf's suggestion, too: getting sound as root was one of the first things I tried, and I'm afraid it doesn't work.

Here is the output of amixer:

Code:

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Front Left: Playback 16 [52%] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 16 [52%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Master Mono',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 16 [52%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Front Left: Playback 16 [52%] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 16 [52%] [on]
Simple mixer control '3D Control - Center',0
  Capabilities: volume volume-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: 0 - 15
  Mono: 8 [53%]
Simple mixer control '3D Control - Depth',0
  Capabilities: volume volume-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: 0 - 15
  Mono: 8 [53%]
Simple mixer control '3D Control - Switch',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Front Left: Playback 21 [68%] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 21 [68%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM Out Path & Mute',0
  Capabilities:
  Mono:
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Front Left: Playback 16 [52%] [on] Capture [off]
  Front Right: Playback 16 [52%] [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'CD',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Front Left: Playback 16 [52%] [on] Capture [off]
  Front Right: Playback 16 [52%] [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Playback channels: Mono
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 16 [52%] [on]
  Front Left: Capture [off]
  Front Right: Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost (+20dB)',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Select',0
  Capabilities:
  Mono:
Simple mixer control 'Video',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Front Left: Playback 16 [52%] [on] Capture [off]
  Front Right: Playback 16 [52%] [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Phone',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Playback channels: Mono
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 16 [52%] [on]
  Front Left: Capture [off]
  Front Right: Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Playback AC97-SPSA',0
  Capabilities: volume volume-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Mono: 2 [67%]
Simple mixer control 'PC Speaker',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 15
  Mono: Playback 8 [53%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Aux',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Front Left: Playback 16 [52%] [on] Capture [off]
  Front Right: Playback 16 [52%] [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mono Output Select',0
  Capabilities:
  Mono:
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 15
  Front Left: Capture 8 [53%] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 8 [53%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mix',0
  Capabilities: cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Front Left: Capture [on]
  Front Right: Capture [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mix Mono',0
  Capabilities: cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Front Left: Capture [off]
  Front Right: Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'External Amplifier Power Down',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]

I'm pretty sure the problem doesn't lay here...everything is unmuted and everything that I could turn the volume up on, I did to about 50%.

I will let you know what comes of the hotplug idea.

sulfa · 12-05-2004, 12:17 AM

The hotplug idea didn't work. Any more ideas?

I really don't want to have to install the commercial OSS drivers. They worked on this hardware in a previous installation, but they're buggy (MIDI turns on and off, sound keeps switching channels).

sulfa · 12-06-2004, 06:30 AM

Turned out the obvious answer was the right one...all I had to do was run alsaconf, identify the correct module and now sound works beautifully.