[SOLVED] HDA-Intel, No Audio in Slackware 14, current
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Hey, new linux user here, coming over from dos-windows. Trying to work with an
onboard sound device, ALC887 chip, on my ASUS M5A97 mainboard. The device is variously called Azalia, and ATI SB. I've wrangled with this ALSA business before, but now with a new installation of slackware I'm lost. Everything appears well within the KDE tools, I even get supposed "playback streams" appearing when I open music applications and load a file. But no actual sound has been heard. I'm at my wit's end now, pretty much. Hoping someone can swing in and bail me out.
I had the problem already w/o these config files, but as I knew about these files, I've created an /etc/asound.conf and /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf, shown:
Code:
bash-4.3$ cat /etc/asound.conf
pcm.!default {
type hw
card 0
}
ctl.!default {
type hw
card 0
}
bash-4.3$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=auto
bash-4.3$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [SB ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
HDA ATI SB at 0xfe300000 irq 16
1 [NVidia ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
HDA NVidia at 0xfe080000 irq 25
Using aplay with various test files creates the impression that it plays. I'm just not getting the sound. I do occasionally get a KDE message saying ATI SB Analog device and a digital one "has been removed", and would I like to "forget about those permanently" But in any case from Phonon, I see a series of listings that include 4 for my sound device (for some reason the digital and the analog each appear 2 times, and so does the NVidia HDMI, incidentally). I've already peroused lots of forum threads including the ones on this very forum.
Which device do you want sound from ? The analog device or from the HDMI port? Also at the cli: use alsamixer to see which is set as the default and make sure nothing is muted that you need.
your alsa-base.conf should look like this if your SB is your default audio card
Code:
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd_hda_intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd_hda_intel
# module options should go here
options snd_hda_intel id=SB,NVidia index=0,1 enable=1,1 model=6stack,auto position_fix=3,3
thanks number22, I've set the file up as you suggested and it eliminated the message "The hardware was initialized in a generic manner" I'd used to get during boot-up and ALSA initializings. So that's 1 thing covered.
linuxtinker, I mean to use my analog sound thing, the SB which always appeared default, and set up, and ready. The alsamixer is just a mirror of the KMix display in my DE, as I learned. In any case the weird thing is I still have no sound output. I'm suspecting a hardware problem at this point, something in the mode of will-show-OK-status, but still won't play the music. and I'm seriously bitter over it! :-(
At present, I've determined that hw:0,0 is certainly some type of reference to the hw I'm interested in. Doing aplay -D plughw:0,0 wavfile.wav gives
Code:
aplay: main:722: audio open error: Device or resource busy
, as does aplay -D plughw:SB,0 wavfile.wav
Also I tried the program recordmydesktop, specifying the options --device hw:0,0 and gotten the message
Code:
An error occured while reading sound data:
Input/output error
pcm.SB { type hw; card SB; }
ctl.SB { type hw; card SB; }
pcm.!default pcm.SB
ctl.!default ctl.SB
you might need to find a good software mixer for asound.conf from alsa site/google.
Depend on how many speakers/channel you are using, you may need to change model from 6stack(7/5channels) to 3stack(stereo/headphone) or generic(testing) .
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd_hda_intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd_hda_intel
# module options should go here
options snd_hda_intel id=SB,NVidia index=0,1 enable=1,1 model=6stack,auto position_fix=3,3
I have some quibbles with the above.
Quote:
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd_hda_intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd_hda_intel
Those lines duplicate what is probably already present in the /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf autogenerated by ALSA.
I'd suggest try alsa autodetection capabilities first (ie. without the system-wide settings /etc/asound.conf and $HOME/.asoundrc).
Also I do suspect the configuration format has changed in latest versions. My longtime-proven config to switch between speakers/headphones and HDMI just stopped working and needed to rewrite in defaults.pcm.card c1, defaults.pcm.device d3, defaults.ctl.card c1 and the like.
allend, MY alsa did not give me a /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf - just furthers my suspicion that the machine's out to get me, heh
Well gentlemen, I've tried again with an older live cd I got my hands on of a different linux (mandriva 2011), and the result was it showed my device as I figured it would, but weirdly preferred my soundcard's hdmi's as the main playback. I played with the configuration some and gotten it (ie the kde mixer widget) to then show PulseAudio standard, or something like that... with elsewhere an equalizer bar that suggested again, that my SB device should be playing sound. Only it didn't then, either. Wish I could pop in a windows 7 disk, the way that I would have popped in an install of win98 back in the day, to have another test with -that- OS to compare.
Anyway after a rather long 1/2 day trying to resolve this matter, I feel that the world's biggest donut break is called for. I thank everyone who tried to help, was a hell of a lot more interest than in the Asus forum. Anyway it appears they've got the better of me, that I might have a lemon.
Ironically I priced soundcards recently and it didn't seem like there was hardly anything worth the money out there being sold. I mean $50 gets you onboard sound, minus the board, basically... then *huge gap* before you can get better quality payback for $100-150. Man that is tough. I may need to probably keep my wallet closed & just use my emachine to watch those webisodes.
SlackerDwight, don't give up hope yet! We haven't exhausted all the options. It sounds like it's still defaulting to a different sound output than you want. If that's the case, it should be pretty straightforward to get it resolved. As allend asked earlier, what's the output of the following command:
Code:
aplay -l
This should list every audio device that alsa sees. From there, it's a matter of picking out the right card and device and setting those as default. We can help you with that
bassmadrigal, haha, that's quite a winning spirit. though today when I uninstalled and reinstalled alsa and alsa-utils, my KDE came at me with the following on startup "The audio playback device HDA ATI SB (ALC887-VD Analog) does not work. Falling back to default." It doesn't get any more blunt than that. But just to satisfy you, here it is.
The part about card 2 is only now when I unearthed a venerable old add in board and plugged it in. That bad boy still works, and alsa detected it all on its own! I only had to do sound configuration, to get it to play everything. Now I'm in business, maybe down the line I will try to tweak my board's hardware though I don't expect much to come out of it. Thx everyone for reading. :]
p.s. dunric, how did you mean defaults.pcm.card c1? as in /etc/asound.conf commands or...? I'm pretty uninformed at this, I've yet to knock out a conf of my own without heavily relying on c/p.
So, with card 2, do you get sound as you would expect it? That is certainly odd that you couldn't get it through the motherboard. From reading a few different sites online, it seems that the ALC887 audo device might be problematic on certain kernels. It could require a kernel upgrade to get it working properly. According to the link below, kernel 3.12.1 worked fine for him. It might be worth trying to update to a newer kernel. -current is running 3.14.24, so that could be an easy place to start.
indeed and thx all once again. I'm up to date w the kernel version (the 3.14-24), but not knowing anything more concrete about the hw I can only offer surmise; I could also add that I've had LILO errors when I first installed this motherboard, so all in all a pretty sketchy bit of tech.
my final configs are
Code:
pcm.!default {
type hw
card 2
device 3
}
ctl.!default {
type hw
card 2
device 3
}
Code:
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd_hda_intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd_hda_intel
# module options should go here
options snd_emu10k1 id=Live index=2 enable=1 model=auto
options snd_hda_intel id=SB,NVidia index=0,1 enable=1,1 model=6stack,auto position_fix=3,3
and to my chagrin I seem to still need to do something further to cause the flash plugin in my browser to switch over to my Live card, but that's a problem I'll tackle in some vague distant future, but as far as the ALSA goes I'm satisfied
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HDA-Intel, No Audio in Slackware 14, current
