help! cannot detect soundcard

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genfive · Post by **genfive** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 4:09 pm

Please help. I am trying to install gentoo on my laptop, but it won't detect sound card. Here is the output from lspci

# lspci | grep audio
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)

I emerged alsa, but when I do modprobe snd_intel8x0, it could not even find that module:

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toshiba ~ # modprobe snd_intel8x0
FATAL: Module snd_intel8x0 not found.

I looked online for solutions -- people were having problems with intel8x0, but did not seem to be the same as I am having. I would really appreciate your help.

-- G5

-valheru- · Post by **-valheru-** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 4:12 pm

did you enable this as a module in your kernel or built it in?

genfive · Post by **genfive** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 5:35 pm

I followed the Gentoo ALSA guide, and went with the recommended way of using ALSA provided by the kernel.

Since genkernel is what I used, I did

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genkernel --menuconfig all

and then I followed their instructions in the Kernel Options for ALSA section

when I used alsaconf, it could not find any sound card at all. I was actually a little confused here, because after the the kernel option section, the guide says to jump to the ALSA utilties section. However, in this section, there is a paragraph saying "if you activated ALSA in your kernel and did not compile ALSA as modules, please proceed to the ALSA initscript section"... not sure what they meant by those two, because I used their recommended way, but I also emeged alsa.

Then i tried to

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rc-update add alsasound boot

When it rebooted the system, it complained that unable to find any ALSA drivers.

I am very confused here. please help

-- G5

genfive · Post by **genfive** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 5:51 pm

also, I just want to add that when I boot gentoo with its universal installation CD, it gives the same error

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Soundcard: ...
         Intel Corp.|82801DB AC'97 Audio Controller ...
         driver = snd-intel8x0 ...
Loading ALSA modules ...
Could not find any ALSA drivers.  Have you compiled aalsa-drivers correctly?
ERROR: Failed to load necessary drivers

does this mean my machine is doomed to not have sound?

djpenguin · Post by **djpenguin** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 6:35 pm

Not at all. I have seen the liveCD miss many soundcards that are fully functional under gentoo.

The first thing to do is figure out what your kernel sound setup looks like. I don't know where genkernel keeps copies of the .config file (never used genkernel), but you need to find it and execute the following command:

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# cat /path/to/kernel/.config | grep SND

That should tell us whether or not the kernel is correctly configured, which is the first step to troubleshoot this sort of thing.

jwahl540 · Post by **jwahl540** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 8:17 pm

im having same issue, just wanted to get in on the action here

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bofus ~ # cat /usr/src/linux/.config | grep SND
CONFIG_SND=y
CONFIG_SND_TIMER=y
CONFIG_SND_PCM=y
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=y
# CONFIG_SND_SEQ_DUMMY is not set
CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y
CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER_OSS=y
# CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PRINTK is not set

...
...
# CONFIG_SND_SSCAPE is not set
CONFIG_SND_AC97_CODEC=y
# CONFIG_SND_ALI5451 is not set
...
...
# CONFIG_SND_ICE1724 is not set
CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0=y
# CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0M is not set

djpenguin · Post by **djpenguin** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 10:07 pm

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CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0=y

You've got ALSA compiled into the kernel. Not the reccomended way to do it. Set all ALSA stuff as modules and use the alsasound initscript to load them.

genfive · Post by **genfive** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 10:19 pm

well, in my current .config file, I have the following:

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CONFIG_SND=y
CONFIG_SND_TIMER=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=m
# CONFIG_SND_SEQ_DUMMY is not set
CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y
CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=m
...
# CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0M is not set
...

what does my .config mean?

Also, how do I modify my .config so that I won't use the ALSA in the kernel, but rather, use it as a module? (I am new to linux) Thanks!

-- G5

genfive · Post by **genfive** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 11:27 pm

I got a breakthrough on the alsa-driver by removing the ALSA from the genkernel and used alsa-driver. Everything seems to be loading fine and I dont get warnings or errors anymore. when I do alsaconf, it also lists the correct sound card and configures it.

However, when I boot up the system, there is no volume controller shown in the panel, nor there is volume control applet. I tried

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cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp

there is no sound or noise what-so-ever.

below is the list of my /etc/modules.d/alsa

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# Alsa 0.9.X kernel modules' configuration file.
# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/media-sound/alsa-utils/files/alsa-modules.conf-rc,v 1.4 2004/11/16 01:31:22 eradicator Exp $

# ALSA portion
# OSS/Free portion

##
## 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-interwave
## alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371
##  OSS/Free portion
## alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
## alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
##

# OSS/Free portion - card #1
##  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.

# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
# --- ALSACONF verion 1.0.8 ---
alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0
alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0
# --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

Please help... I am sooo close to the finish line!

dwblas · Post by **dwblas** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 1:19 am

Alsa mutes everything by default so you have to unmute. I like gnome-alsamixer, although alsa does have a mixer, alsamixer I think, that comes with it.

djpenguin · Post by **djpenguin** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 3:01 am

genfive wrote:well, in my current .config file, I have the following:
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CONFIG_SND=y
CONFIG_SND_TIMER=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=m
# CONFIG_SND_SEQ_DUMMY is not set
CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y
CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=m
...
# CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0M is not set
...
what does my .config mean?

Also, how do I modify my .config so that I won't use the ALSA in the kernel, but rather, use it as a module? (I am new to linux) Thanks!

-- G5

Simple...you don't have the module for your sound card compiled, so of course it doesn't work. I have no idea how you set things as modules using genkernel, I've never used genkernel. I just use menuconfig, and using that you just make sure there's an 'm' instead of a '*' next to the feature you want to modularize.

Using the seperate alsa-driver will work, but you'll need to recompile it every time you compile a new kernel. I'd really suggest using the in-kernel ALSA drivers, it's easier in the long run.

genfive · Post by **genfive** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 6:56 am

djpenguin, yup. I solved that problem by removing the ALSA support from the kernel and installed the driver modules... but nowthe problem is that I don't see the volume control applet icon on the top panel. Nor is it showing up in the list of gizmos for "Add to Panel".

In addition, some of the applications won't make any sound while others such as xmms works... any ideas and suggestions? Thanks!

-- G5

djpenguin · Post by **djpenguin** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 7:10 am

Yeah, don't use the seperate ALSA-driver package...it tends to exhibit freaky behaviour with 2.6 kernels.

Like I said before, compile your ALSA stuff in the kernel as modules, and add the alsasound initscript to the default runlevel. If you compile it in directly, you will have to reset sound levels every time you reboot the machine.