problem with sound on lenovo N100 0768
 

Hi,

Have some problems with sound on my laptop.
With Slackware 11.0 it was fine but after installing 12.0 sound is gone.

# lspci | grep audio:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)

# aplay -l:
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC861VD Analog [ALC861VD Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 6: Si3054 Modem [Si3054 Modem]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

# lsmod | grep snd:
snd_hda_intel 15896 0
snd_hda_codec 207744 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_pcm 65160 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_timer 17540 1 snd_pcm
snd 41956 4 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 5728 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 7432 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

# cat /proc/asound/oss/sndstat:
Sound Driver:3.8.1a-980706 (ALSA v1.0.14rc3 emulation code)
Kernel: Linux hoth 2.6.21.5 #2 Tue Jun 19 15:22:48 CDT 2007 i686
Config options: 0

Installed drivers:
Type 10: ALSA emulation

Card config:
HDA Intel at 0xd2400000 irq 11

Audio devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Synth devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Midi devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Timers:
7: system timer

Mixers: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

The modem is on in BIOS. I tried all of the tricks from Ubuntu forum -
still no sound. I reinstalled the ALSA drivers and tried add
"options snd-hda-intel model=laptop-eapd" to both /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf and/or /etc/modprobe.d/sound - no effect.
What do I do wrong ???

I would appreciate any help guys !
I may not need blutooth but sound is something really important...
Thanks
majkel

There seem to have been some problems with the hda-intel ALSA drivers in the 2.6.21 kernel series. I have recently had problems getting a different intel sound card working. Luckily the fixes are due to appear in kernel 2.6.23. (I couldn't wait, so I just recently downloaded and installed the testing kernel 2.6.23-rc5.)

I don't know entirely what it means or if it applies to you but the changelog for 2.6.23-rc1 at kernel.org has this entry for your card:
Maybe you could try "model=auto" or maybe you need to install an updated kernel.


correction -- I noticed that you have a Lenovo laptop, not a Toshiba. This entry may apply: You may need the new kernel after all...

-geo

Thanks,
I've never upgraded Kernel before but it's gonna be a good exercise for me :)
Let see.
But thanks anyway Geo.

majkel

Sure thing...
There's a ton of good discussion on kernel upgrading here on the forum. Good luck!!

-geo

majkel,
I did want to issue a word of caution: kernel 2.6.23-rc5 is a testing kernel and is not entirely stable. I have been experiencing system hangs while using it. Apparently the developers have fixed the problem I have been experiencing and the fix will be in the stable release. So it may be worth it to wait a bit until the stable version is out. I only say this because yesterday my machine crashed when I was in the midst of showing off its brand new eye candy to one of my windoze-using friends. Something on Yahoo crashed it somehow... :(

-geo

Thanks Geo,
I think I will install Slackware 11.0 (sound was working) and wait for another stable version.
Cheers,
majkel

Slackware 12 is stable. Is just the kernel issue.

You can download the latest release from ALSA and use it (like how it fixed mine).

ghostdancer,
I'm abit confused about the whole ALSA in the kernel thing. I was having an impossible time with getting ALSA to work on my machine with a stock Slackware 12.0 kernel. Then I came across a bug fix in a newer kernel that addressed exactly my problem, so I installed that kernel and the problem was fixed. Unfortunately that kernel was unstable, and it had a bug that caused my system to crash occasionally. So I am back to an earlier more stable kernel version with no sound.

So my question is this: are the fixes by the kernel developers also simultaneously being built in to the ALSA releases, or is that a separate system? I know that on Slackware the ALSA libraries and utilities are packages while there is no ALSA driver package since the drivers are in the kernel. So how does one go about upgrading ALSA while running a stable kernel??

Another thing that has me confused here is that I did try downloading and installing the ALSA drivers from source and that caused all sorts of other problems in my system.

So how exactly does one go about updating ALSA?

Cheers,
-geo

All I did was download the rc for ALSA driver (I did not download anything else), from: http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page

After that, uncompressed it, then do ./configure followed by make install, end with issuing reboot.

I will need to run alsamixer again thought to correctly setup the mixer. That is all I did.

OK. I can try that, and see if it helps. I must have used the latest stable release and not the rc when I did it, which solved nothing. And then I thought I needed to also upgrade the utils and libs packages too and that's probably what messed things up for me.

Thanks,
-geo

Hi guys,
Sorry I didn't reply to any recent posts but I was away for a while.
I tried the last Alsa rc5 without result.
Any other suggestions ? : )
Thanks
majkel

Can you post details. It worked for me...
-geomatt

Hi geomatt,

Long time ago I uninstalled old Alsa using pkgtool.
Then I installed alsa-driver-1.0.14, alsa-lib-1.0.14a, alsa-utils-1.0.14 manually.
Recently I read gostdancer's post and I simply replaced alsa-driver-1.0.14 with alsa-driver-1.0.15rc2.
No effect. Probably I messed up something but I really don't know what it is.
I already gave up but if there is still any chance to get my sound back I would appreciate your help...

Thanks mate.
majkel

Don't give up yet!! But the more details you add the better chance we have to help you fix things. Here's a few suggestions that you may or may not have tried yet. Did you unmute the sound channels using alsamixer? By default they are muted. Did you run (as root) alsaconf to make sure your soundcard was being detected? Do you see anything about alsa near the end of the bootup messages? Finally, could you post the contents of /etc/modprobe.d/sound? That's the file where you'll find options configuring the sound driver and the place they are passed to the soundcard from. And you have to have the settings right for your laptop. Mine reads:
The first two lines were written by alsaconf, and I had to add the third by hand.

-geomatt

Hi mate,
I really appreciate you trying to help me.
Ok, lets try last time : )
See this:

Tha strange thing is, I installed (I think I did ) alsa-driver-1.0.15rc2 but
# cat /proc/asound/oss/sndstat tells me that I still have old Alsa...
The chanells are unmuted...

Do you have any idea what it is wrong here... ?
Thanks for you time mate.
Cheers
majkel

P.S. As I mentioned earlier the sound was working on Slackware 11.0.

From ALSA-Configuration.txt

model=lenovo is for Lenovo 3000 C200, so it may not be the model you are looking for.

Have you try other model options as indicated in the list?

No problem... There's not enough left to fix on my machine. Or break and then fix I should say. ;)

What seems strange is what you mention, the old alsa driver in /proc/asound/oss/sndstat. All I can say is just try reinstalling the new driver, or better yet, try installing 1.0.15.rc1. That is the version I had success upgrading with. Maybe they broke what they fixed in rc1 by the time they got to rc2. And don't forget to rerun alsaconf. Maybe, assuming you haven't already done so, that would fix the "Audio devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG."

Yeah and the Slackware 11.0 angle is also strange. Perhaps the new HAL stuff in Slack 12.0 is the issue. I don't know much about it except that it is some new model for detecting and communicating with hardware. I wonder if turning off HAL by doing "chmod -x /etc/rc.d/rc.hald" would have any effect on your problem.

Sorry I'm not being more helpful here. Maybe someone who really knows Slackware or Alsa will post something that pinpoints the problem and the fix.

-geo

Sorry, I missed the part of the sndstat.

Did you really do a "make install" after finished compiling alsa-1.0.15rc1? For my system, it shows:

Hi Majkel,
I have lenovo 3000 n100 too.
I had same problem, but now it's solved.
I changed grub.conf like this:

...
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet acpi=ht
...

(just added "acpi=ht")
(I use Fedora Core 6.)

Now, my sound card works and I hope yours will ...

Hi there,

You're guys right about '/proc/asound/oss/sndstat'. I did ./configure, make, make install on Alsa 1.0.15.rc1.
It seems like I didn't uninstall 1.0.14.rc3 properly. Is there any way I can do it now ? I don't have the old Alsa directory any more...

I decided not to reinstall system because of this problem - that's simply the best way to learn linux... : )

Thanks Netkayit - I tried this trick but it didn't work in my case : )

Cheers
majkel

Hi again,
When the system loads I don't see even single line about ALSA.
I think I messed up with drivers.
What I did was:
mkdir /usr/src/alsa
here I copied (unpacked before)

- alsa-driver-1.0.15rc2
- alsa-lib-1.0.15rc2
- alsa-utils-1.0.15rc1

in each of the directories I typed:
./configure
make
make install (root)

then # alsaconf
then added
options snd-hda-intel model=3stack to /etc/modprobe.d/sound
(or: options snd-hda-intel probe_mask=1 or options snd-hda-intel probe_mask=8)
everytime rebooted
and alsamixer

Still no sound !
WHAT ELSE ? :)

Thanks
majkel

As far as I know you shouldn't have to upgrade the utils and lib packages in order for the new drivers to work. In fact when I tried that it broke my system. So I would try doing a "make uninstall" from the place where you installed alsa-lib and alsa-utils, and then reinstall the slackware packages, for those two. Then see what happens on reboot.

-geo