LinuxQuestions.org - Slackware 12.2: No sound on old laptop with Yamaha audio chip

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gargamel

12-22-2008 05:26 PM

Slackware 12.2: No sound on old laptop with Yamaha audio chip

Dear all,

almost everything is now working again on my Slackware boxes, now running the latest 12.2 release. With only one exception.

On my old laptop (Toshiba SatellitePro 4300) I hava a Yamaha chipset. This is detected and, as far as I can tell, the correct modules are loaded. Also, alsaconf shows no errors.

Code:

# alsaconf

===========================

Now ALSA is ready to use.

For adjustment of volumes, use your favourite mixer.



Have a lot of fun!

In /etc/modprobe.d/sound I find:

Code:

alias snd-card-0 snd-ymfpci

alias sound-slot-0 snd-ymfpci

But:

Code:

# alsamixer

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such file or directory

And lsmod | grep -i snd gives (among many others):

Code:

snd_seq_dummy

snd_seq_oss

snd_seq_midi_event

snd_seq

snd_pcm_oss

snd_mixer_oss

snd_ymfpci

gameport

snd_ac97_codec

ac97_bus

snd_pcm

snd_opl3_lib

snd_timer

snd_hwdep

snd_page_alloc

snd_mpu401_uart

snd_rawmidi

snd_seq_device

snd

soundcore

Most of these modules are loaded because snd_ymfpci depends on them.

root and my non-privileged user are members of the audio group.

I don't see udev rules for alsa, but I guess this is no problem, because on my other box there are no alsa udev rules, either, and sound works perfectly well there.

Possibly not so good: There is no /dev/dsp on my laptop. Starting KDE I get an error message moaning about this. However, I do have two devices /dev/sequencer and /dev/sequencer2.

I appreciate any hints what to check for. Thanks in advance!

gargamel

gargamel

12-22-2008 08:58 PM

Just discovered that the modules loaded for sound seem to be OSS modules instead of ALSA modules. At least, the names are identical with the blacklisted modules for OSS in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.

Now I wonder:
Are the modules for ALSA or for OSS?
Why are they loaded, although they are blacklisted?
Why wasn't this a problem in Slackware 12.1, but is a problem in 12.2?

But most of all:
What should/could I do next to get sound?

All ideas welcome!

gargamel

allend

12-22-2008 11:04 PM

Perhaps this link will offer some clues.
http://web1.toshiba.ca/support/techs...t_pro/4300.htm
I note that the contents of your /etc/modprobe.d/sound do not match what is stated in the link (although this is old and RedHat specific).

gargamel

12-23-2008 01:56 AM

Thanks, I tried:

Code:

/etc/modprobe.d/sound

alias char-major-14 soundcore

alias char-major-116 snd

alias snd-card-0 snd-card-ymfpci

snd-slot-0 snd-card-0

as stated in this Red-Hat-related article. But no success...

alsaconf still scans the card database and detects a Yamaha YMF-744B [DS-1S Audio Controller] (rev 02). According to this, it should have complete support (and, in fact, it did work in Slackware 12.1):
hardware4linux Yamaha_DS-1_PCI

Any other ideas what I might look for?

gargamel

gargamel

12-23-2008 04:01 AM

On and on and on...

I found that I had modules for 2.6.24.x kernel on my system, so
- I removed these
- removed all alsa packages
- installed alsa packages again

and tried it again. No success.

I re-checked file ownership, access rights and user groups, and everything seems to be ok.

What puzzles me the most, however, is that the system appears to be able to load the correct modules, and alsaconf finishes without an error message, though without any sound, and writes something useful (at least, as far as I can tell) into /etc/modprobe.d/sound, but alsamixer fails.

I am pretty sure that only some little detail is wrong... But what is it?

BTW, it is a system upgraded from 12.1 using the "Mount install CD from within a running 12.1 system, then upgradepkg everything following the instructions in UPGRADE.TXT" method (as opposed to the "insert CD and boot with it" method).

What else could I try? I am grateful for all your ideas!

gargamel

allend

12-23-2008 05:02 AM

When you did your upgrade, did you also check and install the *.new files in /etc?
A big change from 12.1 to 12.2 was the relocation of the udev rules which set up device nodes for your devices.
If you cd to /etc and run 'find . -name "*.new" -print' and see output then you still have some work to do.

gargamel

12-23-2008 06:40 AM

Good guess, but this is also not the problem. I have no .new files left in my system, and in particular I was aware of the udev changes.

Other ideas most welcome!

gargamel

allend

12-23-2008 05:49 PM

Are you using any additional kernel modules that may be conflicting, such as modules for an internal modem?
I have a Toshiba Satellite 1410 laptop that uses an Intel chipset for sound. I have found that the kernel modules for the internal modem can interfere with sound.

gargamel

12-24-2008 12:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allend (Post 3385515)

No, currently I don't use any additional modules.

Looking at the output of lsmod I only wonder, what the modules intel_agp and agpart are loaded for. The computer is too old to support AGP.

And: It is a pure upgrade, with no additional software installed that wasn't there before. In fact, sound worked for a very short time with 12.2, too. It broke after I had fixed my mkinitrd problem (I use LVM and LUKS, mkinitrd 1.3.2 had a problem with this, mkinitrd 1.3.3 fixed it) and run

Code:

# slackpkg clean-system

So, I am pretty sure that it is more likely that I *lost* a module I need than two conflicting ones.

However, one thing I haven't tried yet, is switching off ACPI support. Searching the web, this seems to be a frequent sound stopper. But again, why did it work before, then?

gargamel

Ilgar

12-24-2008 05:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gargamel (Post 3385783)

In fact, sound worked for a very short time with 12.2, too. It broke after I had fixed my mkinitrd problem (I use LVM and LUKS, mkinitrd 1.3.2 had a problem with this, mkinitrd 1.3.3 fixed it) and run

Code:

# slackpkg clean-system

I'm confused here: If you have LVM+LUKS, after the upgrade you can't have booted with the 12.2 kernel unless you've used mkinitrd. Then how come it worked on 12.2 "for a short time?", before the mkinitrd update? It must have been before booting into the new kernel I think. I'm asking this because I don't think that a working 2.6.27.7 got broken by mkinitrd or slackpkg, it must have been 2.6.24.5 (or whatever you used before) that worked.

gargamel

12-24-2008 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ilgar (Post 3385937)

Yep, you are completely right. I had sound after the mkinitrd update, I recall now, but it was broken after I ran

Code:

# slackpkg clean-system

, which I did after I discovered that some outdated packages and modules were still there, such as /lib/modules-2.6.24.5, which I wouldn't use anymore --- so I thought.

So I guess that my problem is not caused by the mkinitrd update, but by cleaning the system with slackpkg.

Assuming this is the cause: Where to go from here?
Reinstalling the 2.6.24 modules is not really an option, I think...

gargamel

Ilgar

12-24-2008 07:59 AM

Gargamel what I mean is this: You said the sound worked under 12.2 for a short while, until you did the mkinitrd/slackpkg updates. I'm saying that you can't have run the 12.2 kernel before doing mkinitrd, because you need to reboot the machine. So my guess is the following, please tell me if I'm wrong:

1) While running 12.1 with 2.6.24 kernel, you upgraded the packages from a mounted DVD.
2) (Still under 2.6.24) you upgraded your mkinitrd and created an initrd for the new kernel. During this time sound was working.
3) You rebooted your system to use the new kernel.
4) At some point under the new kernel, you ran 'slackpkg clean-system'.

If this is correct, the question is: Did the sound get broken after step 4, or somewhere between step 3 and 4? If the first case is true then slackpkg is under suspicion but since 2.6.24 modules are irrelevant for the new kernel, I can't imagine what could have gone wrong. My guess is that your sound card never worked under 2.6.27 in which case we may have to look what has changed and caused this breakage from .24 to .27 (or 12.1 to 12.2).

gargamel

12-24-2008 03:59 PM

Ilgar, thanks, this is exactly what I was going to say. Sorry for being too concise and/or misleading.

Currently I assume, that for whatever reason the old kernel, or at least the old kernel module, was used for the new system. After cleaning the system both were gone, along with their support for my sound hardware. Perhaps I had forgotten to redefine one symlink or so.

So I agree with you completely, that I must have been using the old kernel for the first 12.2 boot.

Even so, the situation is a bit strange. I am still wondering, why the sound chip is detected correctly, and the right modules are loaded, but then alsamixer fails. All the above is doubtlessly correct. But something is still missing...

gargamel

P.S.: This is all very interesting and fascinating, and it is really great to find some people providing helping hands, even today, on 24th December, 2008. What I want to say, is just:

Merry Christmas to you and all Slackers and LQ.org members wherever you are!

Ilgar

12-24-2008 04:08 PM

Ok since it's the new kernel that fails, I must ask what allend did: Is it possible that the new kernel names another device as the default sound device? For example, does

alsamixer -c 1

work (card #0 is the default one)? And which kernel are you runnnig, the huge one or the generic one?

gargamel

12-24-2008 04:31 PM

I'm running 2.6.27.7-smp generic (not huge). alsaconf finds two card(s) on my system:

Code:

1. ymfpci  Yamaha Corporation YMF-744B [DS-1S Audio Controller] (rev 02)

2. legacy  Probe legacy ISA (non-PnP) chips

Option 1. is what I choose, because as far as I could research my
sound chip is completely compatible with the DS-1S.

Then alsaconf asks me, if I want /etc/modprobe.d/sound to be modified, which I confirm. The screen turns black and after some 5
seconds alsaconf reappears:

Code:

OK, sound driver is configured. 



    ALSA CONFIGURATOR 



will prepare the card for playing now. Now I'll run alsasound init

script, then I'll use amixer to raise the default volumes. You can

change the volume later via a mixer program such as alsamixer or

gamix.

And with the following messages I am thrown back to the console
prompt:

Code:

Now ALSA is ready to use.

For adjustment of volumes, use your favorite mixer.



Have a lot of fun!

Again, alsamixer fails:

Code:

# alsamixer -c 1

wrong -c argument '1'



# alsamixer -c 0

wrong -c argument '0'

Finally, when I start KDE, I am always "informed" that there is no
sound available, because /dev/dsp is not available, but that the
sound server continues to run in the background using /dev/null.

What does this all tell us, now? Do you have any ideas, how to
further track this down?

(BTW, I wouldn't hesitate to reinstall from CD, but my CD burner is
malfunctioned; I did the upgrade by mounting the ISO image from an
external USB device; for a complete reinstall this won't work, I
am afraid).

gargamel

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