Hi there,

I recently i
nstalled CentOs 5 server on my laptop, and there is no sound!
a friend told me it has something to do with ALSA or so.

My Laptop is an Acer Aspire... i tried downloading the recent updates , services packs but still no sound!!! its fustrating to have a machine without sound!

And i also wanna know where can i get some linux softwares , and how to properly install it !!

Cheers

For the sound problem, open a console and run the command '/sbin/lspci' and post the results. This will tell us what sound card you have. Also run the command '/sbin/lsmod | grep snd' and post the output. That will tell us what driver, if any you have loaded. All commands without the quotes.

Also bring up a mixer, make sure you are not muted, and the volume is turned up.

CentOS is rpm based. I have never used it, so possibly someone who has can tell you how to set up the online repos. If not, I can probably figure it out.

Hi mate,

This my LSPCI RESULTS!!!

er #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5787M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)
07:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
07:00.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
07:00.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 12)
07:00.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
07:00.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 12)

AS YOU CAN SEE ITS A :
a 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03) .

I tried the second command you told me /SBIN/LSMOD |GREP SND , and nothing came up!!!!

may be is the sound driver...i dont know... and when i try to play any mp3 ou audio file, with tottem audio player it says that its not able to play , due to invalid codec or driver ...

iam getting fustrated ...please help me out!

This means you don't have a driver loaded.

Next we have to know what driver to load. I'll see what I can find....

Looks like it should be supported by snd_hda_intel module.

This link tells you how to compile and install the module.

http://www.alsa-project.org/main/ind...ntel_soundcard

Centos as far as I know is an rpm based system. The module may be present on your system. As root, run these commands.

1. 'updatedb' This will update the slocate DB on your system. If you have never used it, this command will take a few minutes to complete. Let it complete.

2. 'locate snd_hda_intel' Run this to see if you have the module.

snd-hda-intel is common enough these days. Present in my nVidia MCP61, my graphics card ATI 4550, and other devices.

$ find /lib/modules/ -iname '*snd*hda*intel*'

You should have alsa installed (and configured) if you want to use it. May not be the default for your system. That module should be present on most current distros. It was and probably still is being developed, so you'll probably have better luck running the most recent version of alsa. Via the kernel, or alsa packages from source. Although it should be present in anything less than two years old. Alsa 1.0.13+, noting some pretty major fixes / feature updates for my MCP61 in 1.0.15. 1.0.18 being the current branch.

It might be as simple as installing alsa + alsa-base + alsa-tools + ??? Or it could be much harder / uglier than that to get it working.

HTH

hi Mate ,

I tried the command as you adviced me to.
$ find /lib/modules/ -iname '*snd*hda*intel*'

and got the following output:
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.1.22.el5/kernel/sound/pci/hda/snd-hda-intel.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.1.10.el5/kernel/sound/pci/hda/snd-hda-intel.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.1.13.el5/kernel/sound/pci/hda/snd-hda-intel.ko

But , i dont know how to install these modules,iam not very proficient linux user yet!

And yes , i think i have Alsa installed already!!

please tell me exactly the steps i have to do, with command details on how should i install these lib modueles please

Cheers,

Ps: Really appreciate your help!

You want to use the snd-hda-intel.ko file that matches your kernel. To know what kernel is now running, open a konsole, and run the command 'uname -a' ( without quotes ) the output will show what kernel is now running.

I would guess it will be 2.6.18-92.1.22, the latest. Just confirm before you try to load the modules.

On my system, as root, the above command returns:

If you get a response like this, then load the modules with this command.

as root, the command will not work as a regular user.

Bring up a mixer, turn up the volume, and make sure you are not muted.

Try playing something simple, like a .wav file. As a test, 'aplay whatever.wav' Most distros have a sound directory with various sound files. The reason to avoid, say .mp3's is you may not have the codecs installed yet. If a .wav file makes noise, then try a .mp3.

You can verify the modules loaded properly, if, there are no error messages when you do the modprobe command. Also, a '/sbin/lsmod |grep snd' should list the loaded sound modules.

Post back your results. BTW, most of this info is in the link I posted at Alsa listing your sound driver.

2.6.18 is fairly old. You might not have a recent enough version of alsa to cope with new-ish snd-hda-intel.

# modprobe snd-hda-intel

(in theory that's all you need to do to use alsa.)

(must be root)

(might not work if other alsa parts are not in place. Namely /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-* for module auto loading. There are dependencies that will need to be inserted in a specific order without auto loading configured. Hopefully you wont have to worry about that. But if you get some unknown symbol type errors from the above modprobe, that's likely your problem. With module auto loading, your modules load automajically when your distro tries to restore the mixer settings at boot)

I'd recommend at least a 2.6.22 or later kernel. We're up to 2.6.28 and if you figure an average of six weeks between new versions, then 2.6.18 was quite a while ago.