Re: [gentoo-user] Can't hear anything. :-(

[Mark Knecht]

On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 1:15 AM, Alan Mackenzie <acm@×××.de> wrote:
> Hi, Mark,
>
<SNIP>
>
>> VERY strange that you don't see pcm as a mixer control...
>
> I've got alsamixer 1.0.21.  Could it be that it choses its controls
> according to the capabilities of the sound card?
>

OK, so did you run alsaconf? This will often (but in my experience not
always) unmute everything required to get sound. However MANY people
(including myself for about a day) have had problems with the
HDA-Intel stuff. I'm not exactly sure what HDA ATI SB means thought.

If alsaconf finds and unmutes what you need to get sound then alsa run
alsactl store to save state.

BTW - On a new motherboard I found the Intel HDA analog output (the
green plug is analog) wouldn't drive cheap speakers at all. I get
sound on that output if I use headphones or a power amp but nothing at
all when driving cheap speakers with no power amp. That's the first
motherboard I've had which had this problem.

If you have some good headphones give them a try.

OK - what did you put in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa? Here's mine:

firefly ~ # cat /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf


# ALSA portion
alias char-major-116 snd
# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore

### IMPORTANT:
### You need to customise this section for your specific sound card(s)
### and then run `update-modules' command.
### Read alsa-driver's INSTALL file in /usr/share/doc for more info.
###
###  ALSA portion
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel index=0

alias snd-card-1 snd-hdsp
options snd-hdsp index=1

###  OSS/Free portion
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
#alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
###
#
## OSS/Free portion - card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
###  OSS/Free portion - card #2
### alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss
### alias sound-service-1-3 snd-pcm-oss
### alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss
#
alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss
alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss
alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss
#
## Set this to the correct number of cards.
options snd cards_limit=2
#
firefly ~ #

>> It's a bit hard to say much with so little info but I'll offer a
>> couple of things:
>
>> 1) IMO Alsa has never run so well when drivers are compiled into the
>> kernel. I do a lot of audio in Linux and have always had the best
>> results using modules. I would strongly suggest you give it a try...
>
> Oh deity!  I was hoping not to have to do this.  I've never used modules
> before, since they are (or were) an unnecessary complication, and might
> introduce security risks.  Maybe I'll have to read up on this.

OK - I get that you don't want to, and that you have good reasons, but
I'm suggesting you do it at least for debug. Once you have it working
you can try building them into the kernel. I will report that I've had
trouble over the years doing this, but I've used a lot of strange
cards here so maybe it's old issues that have been fixed.

I know the Alsa developers used to insist we do it with modules. That
was 1999-2000 so likely it's all fixed but I still use modules here.

>
>> 2) Under /proc/asound/card0 (or whatever card you are using if you
>> have more than 1) do you see any pcm directories?
>
>    # ls /proc/asound/card0
>      codec#0  id  oss_mixer  pcm0c  pcm0p pcm1p  pcm2c
>
> , so yes, I can see some pcm directories.
>
>> 3) Post back a little more info?
>
>> cat /proc/asound/cards
>
>   0 [SB             ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
>                        HDA ATI SB at 0xfbcf8000 irq 16
>   1 [HDMI           ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI
>                        HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfbffc000 irq 19
>
>
>> aplay -l
>
>   **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
>   card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC1200 Analog [ALC1200 Analog]
>     Subdevices: 1/1
>     Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
>   card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 1: ALC1200 Digital [ALC1200 Digital]
>     Subdevices: 1/1
>     Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
>   card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: ATI HDMI [ATI HDMI]
>     Subdevices: 1/1
>     Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
>
>> aplay -L
>
>   default:CARD=SB
>       HDA ATI SB, ALC1200 Analog
>       Default Audio Device
>   front:CARD=SB,DEV=0
>       HDA ATI SB, ALC1200 Analog
>       Front speakers
>   surround40:CARD=SB,DEV=0
>       HDA ATI SB, ALC1200 Analog
>       4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
>   surround41:CARD=SB,DEV=0
>       HDA ATI SB, ALC1200 Analog
>       4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
>   surround50:CARD=SB,DEV=0
>       HDA ATI SB, ALC1200 Analog
>       5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
>   surround51:CARD=SB,DEV=0
>       HDA ATI SB, ALC1200 Analog
>       5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
>   surround71:CARD=SB,DEV=0
>       HDA ATI SB, ALC1200 Analog
>       7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
>   iec958:CARD=SB,DEV=0
>       HDA ATI SB, ALC1200 Digital
>       IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
>   null
>       Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
>   hdmi:CARD=HDMI
>       HDA ATI HDMI, ATI HDMI
>       HDMI Audio Output
>
>

So it seems that the Intel SB cards - what's SB? Sound Blaster? - is
being chosen as default. That implies to me it's got a reasonable
driver.

It may well be that the card is routing audio to the digital output
when you are trying to get analog.

>> lsmod
>
>   Opening /proc/modules: No such file or directory
>
>> Good luck,
>
> Thanks!
>
>> Mark
>
> --
> Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).
>
>