Audio Recording Fails

Jorek · 12-29-2006, 12:48 PM

Hi there!
I'm having some problmes getting audio recording on my slackware 11.0 box working(it worked using 10.2 but now I can't figure whats wrong).

On my box I have two soundcards;
Creative SB! Audigy LS and an on-board AMD card. I only use the Creative card.

From lspci:
00:07.5 Multimedia audio controller: Advanced Micro Devices
[AMD] AMD-768 [Opus] Audio (rev 03)
02:05.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy LS

I have my mic plugged in the mic input on the creative card, but i can't record anything with either krec and ecasound.
This is my amixer output:

Code:

Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 11 [35%] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 11 [35%] [off]
Simple mixer control '3D Control - Center',0
  Capabilities: volume volume-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Capture channels: Mono
  Limits: 0 - 15
  Mono: 6 [40%]
Simple mixer control '3D Control - Depth',0
  Capabilities: volume volume-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Capture channels: Mono
  Limits: 0 - 15
  Mono: 6 [40%]
Simple mixer control 'PCM Out Path & Mute',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'pre 3D' 'post 3D'
  Item0: 'pre 3D'
Simple mixer control 'Line in',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 255
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [off]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 255
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [off]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [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: enum
  Items: 'Mic1' 'Mic2'
  Item0: 'Mic1'
Simple mixer control 'Phone',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 255
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [off]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Center/LFE',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 75 [29%]
  Front Right: Playback 75 [29%]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Front',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 96 [38%]
  Front Right: Playback 96 [38%]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Rear',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 60 [24%]
  Front Right: Playback 60 [24%]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Unknown',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 74 [29%]
  Front Right: Playback 74 [29%]
Simple mixer control 'Aux',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 255
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'AC97 Aux',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'AC97 Line',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [off]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'AC97 Mic',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
  Capture channels: Mono
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Mono: Capture 0 [0%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Analog Center/LFE',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 92 [36%]
  Front Right: Playback 92 [36%]
Simple mixer control 'Analog Front',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 120 [47%]
  Front Right: Playback 120 [47%]
Simple mixer control 'Analog Rear',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 109 [43%]
  Front Right: Playback 109 [43%]
Simple mixer control 'Analog Side',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 71 [28%]
  Front Right: Playback 71 [28%]
Simple mixer control 'CAPTURE feedback',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 71 [28%]
  Front Right: Playback 71 [28%]
Simple mixer control 'Digital Capture Source',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'IEC958 out' 'i2s mixer out' 'IEC958 in' 'i2s in' 'AC97 in' 'SRC out'
  Item0: 'i2s in'

Hmm, I really don't know what to do...

Thanks in advance

GrueMaster · 12-29-2006, 01:03 PM

You may need to either disable onboard audio, or try switching the order of the cards with "index=" in your modprobe.conf (or modules.conf).

More information on this is in the ALSA-Configuration.txt file in either the kernel docs, or the alsa-driver.

Jorek · 12-29-2006, 05:58 PM

Hi! Thanks for reply!
I have tried to disable the onboard sound card in BIOS, but it still comes up i both alsaconf and lspci(I really don't dislike good hardware support, but detecting a disabled card... The best harware support you get or what!:P)

If anyone have the time to take a look at my amixer output I would appriciate it!

Maybe there is some bad setting there?

Cheers,
Jorek

m_sabal · 01-07-2007, 04:38 PM

I am assuming you are using the 2.6.17.13 kernel. It is compiled with a version of ALSA that contains a known bug in recording. I was hoping someone had released a recompiled kernel with the patched version of ALSA, but it doesn't look like it.

slackware-elf · 02-07-2007, 01:12 PM

Hi! I have the exact same problem - Slack 11 + Alsa = output but no input. I can't record with audacity, arecord, skype, nothing. With acrecord, it either records a .wav file that turns out to be empty, or else gives me this error:

arecord: pcm_read:1345: read error: Input/output error

Audacity records garbage or nothing.

The last post mentioned something about a bug in 2.6? If anyone has a solution on how to record under Slack 11 with ALSA, I'd love to hear it. I can also post output from lspci, amixer, whatever, if anyone thinks that'd be helpful. Again, I can play files just fine, on Skype, the British lady talks to me in the test call. I just can't talk back.

Thanks!
Bill

m_sabal · 02-08-2007, 07:30 AM

The solution requires recompiling the 2.6 kernel using the patched version of ALSA. I haven't done this yet because I don't record often enough for this to be more than an inconvenience. I figure the next release of Slackware will have it taken care of, and I can wait till then.

slackware-elf · 02-08-2007, 11:06 AM

Thanks very much. Would you mind posting the URL where you found out about this? I haven't recompiled the kernel before, to say nothing of adding in a patch, so if there's a site where you found this fix I'd be most grateful.

Bill

GrueMaster · 02-08-2007, 11:19 AM

Instead of patching the kernel and rebuilding, just download the latest alsa-driver from alsa-project.org. It has a self-contained build environment and is usually more up-to-date than the kernel.