slackware newbie... sylvania g netbook no audio output from headphone jack
 

hi all,

this is my first post to these forums.... i am a brand new slack user! i'm running 12.2 on a Sylvania G Netbook (NOT the Meso). i'm not a complete linux newb, as i've been running various debian-based distros for the past year (mostly ubuntu), but i've found slack to be very different (but also a lot more fun!).

i'm having a very specific problem (and it's the same no matter what distro i've put on this little netbook): the audio works fine out of the internal speakers, but the headphone jack is inoperable... some information about this netbook:

Sylvania G Netbook
CPU: VIA C7-M, 1.2 GHz
Video: CX700/VX700 UniChrome Pro
Ethernet/WiFi: Realtek RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (Wirless: RTL-8187 WiFi adapter)
Audio: Card (HD VIA VT82XX), Chip (VIA VT1708); as reported from alsamixer

this is a problem that's been posted all over the net, but to date i haven't found a solution that works for me... it is NOT specific to the G Netbook, but it seems to stem from ALSA's support for the VIA VT1708 chipset... the best option that i've seen to fix this issue is to recompile ALSA from source, but i've had nothing but problems with that; also, since i've switched from Debian it's harder to uninstall/re-install (i'm not yet completely "weaned" off of apt :) ).

from what i've seen, you Slack guys have "got it down" when it comes to hands-on customization of whatever hardware you have, so i've come to you for help... if anyone has any ideas, i'd be more than happy to test them out.

thanks in advance for any help!

jmd9qs

Hi,

Welcome to LQ and Slackware®!

It looks like your device was recognized. You could run as root the 'alsaconf' again. Then run 'alsamixer' again to setup your configuration. Be sure to do a 'alsactl store' to save the setup.

Do you get any error messages?

I think your Sylvania G Netbook is using the dreaded snd-hda-intel audio driver module. This particular module often requires you to manually specify a "model=xxxx" parameter option. The model option you need depends on the hardware codec chip on your motherboard.

Get into console mode and do

ls /proc/asound/card0/

Look at those files (and the files in the subdirectories) to get some clue about which codec is being used in your computer. If you're not sure about what this means, look for anything that contains the character string "codec" (or "Codec").

Please post the result, then we can try to figure out which model parameter might work for your system.

here is the result for the codec check:

lsmod brings up that yes, i am using snd-hda-intel... i have a snd-vt82xx module, but if i use it the sound won't work at all

What you're supposed to do is look at the following alsa documentation file, which should be on your Slackware 12.2 system if you installed everything (as recommended):

You're supposed to go down to the section for snd-hda-intel module, look up your codec in the tables, and note the recommended model option. Then, as root, use a text editor to make the file /etc/modprobe.d/sound look like the following:

where you substitute xxx above with the recommended model option. (Some modification to the above will be required if you have more than one sound card.) Then restart your system.

The problem is that your VT1708 codec isn't listed in the alsa documentation file. What you do in that situation is to Google for alsa VT1708 "snd-hda-intel" and find whether anyone has reported success with any of the available model options.

I did a casual search and did not find any clear cut successes reported. However, on the basis of what I did see, I think it would be worth trying the following model options:

3stack
3stack-dig

Sometimes people resort to trial and error, spending a weekend trying all the possible model options. Hopefully, you'll avoid that by finding someone who has already done that and reported a success.

sorry i haven't posted in awhile...

for some reason, i don't have that documentation on my system (or it resides in some other directory)... I've google'd for hours with different combinations of "snd-hda-intel vt82xxx vt1708 VIA sylvania g netbook alsa", to no avail. after not finding anything i tried just picking random options i've seen on other forum posts, but none of the ones i tried worked, either.

anyway... it looks like my only hope is to re-compile alsa and apply the patch found in this post: ( http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1124185 )... i am REALLY hesitant to do this: when i had Crunchbang linux (a sort-of "Ubuntu-lite") installed, this "patch" broke alsa and i had to re-install the entire OS to get it working again. basically, i'm trying to see if any of you could help me through doing this (keeping in mind that i'm used to a Debian-based system) to see if it'll fix my problem, and, if it doesn't, help me fix alsa again so i can at least have some sound.

again, any help is appreciated.

BUMP BUMP

i hate doing that, but i'm getting desperate... i NEED music!!

Well, it seems your sound hardware isn't being supported correctly by alsa and no one has reported an easy fix.

USB audio works fairly reliably with Slackware 12.2. A cheap & easy workaround might be to use USB speakers or headphones with your system. No one's going to guarantee USB audio will work with your configuration, so maybe you can borrow USB headphones to try them out first.

If you do that, you'll have to make sure the USB audio is your default alsa sound device. For your system (which uses the snd-hda-intel driver for its onboard sound card) that's done by first running (as root) alsaconf, running alsamixer to set the default volumes, then running alsactl store. Then (also as root) edit your /etc/modprobe.d/sound file to look like this:

Alternatively, if you can disable your onboard sound card in your bios setup, you can simply run alsaconf, alsamixer, and alsactl store. In that case only the USB audio device will be detected, and it should automatically get assigned to be the alsa default device.

wow, embarrassingly enough, i hadn't even thought of that... i'll give it a shot, thanks!

josh