Slackware 13

wardge · 09-12-2009, 10:41 AM

Hey everyone, I'm hoping someone can help me out.... I installed Slackware 13 on my Dell Inspiron laptop (dual boot with Vista), and I've managed to get everything up and running with the exception of my sound card. The device is recognized, and shows as being installed, but for the life of me, I can't figure this out....

I ran alsaconf when i set up the system, unmuted channels, set volume levels and ran alsactl store to save the settings. I've tried seemingly everything to get it going and I'm about to pull what hair I have left out of my head...LOL

lspci identifies my audio device as:
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)

Can anyone help?

Thanks

bassmadrigal · 09-12-2009, 11:10 AM

Can you play files within the console, with something like aplay? Are you a part of the sound group?

mobinskariya · 09-12-2009, 11:13 AM

also please ensure that your user is added to the group audio..

Woodsman · 09-12-2009, 12:26 PM

As bassmadrigal suggested, try using the aplay command and a wave file to test from the console. If that does not work, try the same as root.

If you get sound from a console and you use KDE, check the KMix applet to ensure channels are not muted. Just yesterday I had that happen to me with my new HTPC. The KMix applet had the HDMI channels muted. I have no idea why developers package such irritating defaults.

kukibl · 09-12-2009, 01:45 PM

Well I had same sound card (Intel HDA, snd-intel-hda module) on two previous laptops and have it on current one too. Run into many problems with it, specially after significant changes in kernel. Right now it is working quite fine, but I remember in past I had to pass additional module options to modprobe.

Maybe this link will be helpful:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto

You should edit /etc/modprobe.d/sound.

GrapefruiTgirl · 09-12-2009, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kukibl

Well I had same sound card (Intel HDA, snd-intel-hda module) on two previous laptops and have it on current one too. Run into many problems with it, specially after significant changes in kernel. Right now it is working quite fine, but I remember in past I had to pass additional module options to modprobe.

Maybe this link will be helpful:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto

You should edit /etc/modprobe.d/sound.

FWIW, I believe that unless the laptop is "Fresh off the assembly line brand new", kukibl is on the right track. You most likely need to give some options to the snd_hda_intel module so that it correctly identifies the configuration of the sound chip.

You *might* have luck just passing the "model=laptop" option (and rebooting to test), but if that doesn't work, you'll need to search around for other options that may work.

Google can be good for searching for the ALSA mailing lists for threads containing mention of your laptop, and what model= parameter may work for that laptop.

If you want, have a look into the kernel source-code, in the /Sound/PCI/HDA/ folder, for the file called "patches_realtek.c" in which you can find ALL of the options, and models, that are currently identified by the current ALSA subsystem.

Sasha

em21701 · 09-12-2009, 04:36 PM

I too have that intel sound card and had the same problem. There was a bug in the driver that required a workaround. This appears to have been fixed in kernel 2.6.31 (I'm running it now).

kingbeowulf · 09-12-2009, 07:17 PM

The 1st thing I do when I upgrade and have odd alsa glitches is look at the output of "aplay -L" to make sure alsa sees the card and what kind of capabilities are loaded. I have several systems with sounds chipsets that also have autosensing jacks which drives me nuts since with every alsa update all the jacks reset to something else. For example,

Code:

beowulf@gandalf:...~ $ aplay -L
default:CARD=CK8S
    NVidia CK8S, NVidia CK8S
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=CK8S,DEV=0
    NVidia CK8S, NVidia CK8S
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=CK8S,DEV=0
    NVidia CK8S, NVidia CK8S
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=CK8S,DEV=0
    NVidia CK8S, NVidia CK8S
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=CK8S,DEV=0
    NVidia CK8S, NVidia CK8S
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=CK8S,DEV=0
    NVidia CK8S, NVidia CK8S
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=CK8S,DEV=0
    NVidia CK8S, NVidia CK8S
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)

then use speaker-test to see (...er...hear..) which channels are where. I only use 2 stereo channels so it is surprising where they end up. On Slackware12.2 and Slamd64 12.0 the speaker jack I use is "front" but on Slackware64 13.0 is was "rear." Slackware 12.0 and Slamd64 12.0 was also "rear."

Code:

beowulf@gandalf:...~ $ speaker-test -Dplug:surround41 -c4 -twav

speaker-test 1.0.17

Playback device is plug:surround41
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 4 channels
WAV file(s)
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 3 to 5461
Period size range from 3 to 5461
Using max buffer size 5460
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 1365
was set buffer_size = 5460
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
 3 - Rear Right
 2 - Rear Left
Time per period = 5.744916

(-twav uses a pleasing voice instead of pink noise, -cx for x channels, -Dplug:nnnnn for the card channel capability - try front and surround41 to start as the other surround choices, if any, mixes the output to all channels.)

Once you know what's what, use the KDE mixer, for example, to turn on the correct channels, and it any surroundxx is present also unmute the surround channel - even if you don't use surround. I also have to set, "duplicate front"

Enjoy.