I have installed 13.1 on a 24 inch iMac. I am not having any luck getting*
sound from my internal speakers. Most programs act like they think sound is*
playing. In xmms, I see the visualization stuff like it is playing. Just*
nothing audible. I hear nothing in Flash. In KDE, I hit the test button in*
the Control Center/Multimedia and I get no errors but no sound. Yes, I have*
run alsaconf, alsamixer (nothing muted), alsactl store...

Here is a link to my alsa information output script:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=93...aac51ccab184de

In /etc/modprobe.d/options, I have tried a couple different model names with*
no change.*

If I plug in my Bose speakers to the USB, I get sound out of them from some*
applications including KDE.

I appreciate any suggestions you might have.*

Just the usual - run alsamixer, unmute everything, and then run alsactl store. You didn't say you did that.

Yes I did say that
"Yes, I have*
run alsaconf, alsamixer (nothing muted), alsactl store...", end of first paragraph.

I just tried Ubuntu as well and no sound on the internal speakers with it either... I tried to get help at the alsa IRC channel on freenode and not luck there either. Looks like I am just out of luck. Not that many people running slack on imacs apparently
I know it is probably weird.

Well, it's using the snd-hda-intel module and that's always a barrel of fun. I'm pretty sure you're going to have to edit /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf (or a similar file...I know things have changed in recent kernel versions. I'm still on 13.0 with /etc/modprobe.d/sound so I'm in the dark ages here) and add a model option. The ALC889A card is not really supported in ALSA fully (or at least wasn't until recently, if it is now) so the relevant documentation is a little less than helpful...but /usr/src/linux/Documentation/sound/alsa/HD-Audio-Models.txt should have the possible model options you can pass. It looks like you want options under the ALC882/885 (/889A but I'm not sure that the docs list that as an option) section since they are fairly compatible. If I were you (and I'm not) I would try the following *in runlevel 3* before X has started.

Unload the snd-hda-intel module by running (as root):
Add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf or equivalent:
Load the snd-hda-intel module by running (as root):
Then run `alsamixer` as your normal user, max out the sound levels, unmute everything, and then run (as root)
Then try playing the worst sound known to man by running the following (as your regular user):
Ctrl+C to stop that terrible noise, assuming it plays. If it does, your sound is working...if not, repeat the above, trying out other models (Google tells me mbp3 might work as well).

[edit] You should also make sure your user is in the audio group. [/edit]

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi ringwraith, I'm in the same boat as you. I have an iMac 20" dual-boot Slackware 13.1 and have gotten poor audio adding the below to my "/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf".

A few months ago I also got sound reasonably well in Ubuntu 9.10 using the "alsa-driver-1.0.22.1-mb5.patch". Good luck man!

1 members found this post helpful.

Today, I downloaded and installed the daily snapshot of the alsa drivers. I configured as hda-intel and then a install-modules. I now have sound working to my internal speakers. Curiously alsaconf can not find any cards to probe. I also need to back up the steps now to get my Bose USB speakers working, but I am sure that is just another ./configure option to add along with the hda-intel.

Thanks for the ideas T3 and powerball. I had tried both those options at one point or another. I went through 6 or 7 different models to see if they would work. I thought it was weird the way everything seemed to think they were playing but no sound.