865perl Intel onboard sound system and 6.1 speakers

Message

Slynix · Post by **Slynix** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 5:08 pm

I just got my new computer

Anyone know how I can get 865perl Intel onboard sound system and 6.1 speakers to work?

I only get sound on 2 speakers so far

Im using alsa with intel8x0

Anything to go on would be highly appreciated!

ozonator · Post by **ozonator** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 12:33 am

There are a couple of suggestions here, which might help, or at least get you going in the right direction: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=94976

Ultimately, it's probably going to be fiddling with amixer settings that will do the trick.

Slynix · Post by **Slynix** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 3:51 am

Im trying alot with alsamixer but no luck :/

Could it have something to do with?:

The .asoundrc file

Find out more about this file here.

This file allows the you to have more advanced control over your card/device. Some very useful applications will not work without it. The .asoundrc file consists of definitions of the various cards available in your system. It also gives you access to the pcm plugins in alsa-lib. These allow you to do tricky things like combine your cards into one or access multiple i/o's on your mulitchannel card.

Below is the most basic definition.

Make a file called .asoundrc in your home and/or root directory.

vi /home/xxx/.asoundrc

copy and paste the following into the file then save it.

pcm.intel8x0 {
type hw
card 0
}

ctl.intel8x0 {
type hw
card 0
}

ozonator · Post by **ozonator** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 4:36 am

I'm not familiar with your exact motherboard and sound hardware, nor do I recognize (or use) the settings in that asoundrc file. In my case, I examined the settings alsa was using, and tweaked them to get my 5 speaker set working. The default config is stored in /etc/asound.state, which is where the default Gentoo /etc/init.d/alsasound saves settings; if it doesn't exist, or if you want to refresh it with your current alsa settings, run "alsactl store" as root. In the end, these are the settings that alsamixer and amixer change, and the appropriate setting to change is likely easiest to find by looking at the alsa settings.

Here are some more details about my situation: My onboard sound uses the line-in port as the rear speaker out port; looking in alsa's config file, I found the relevant setting ("Line-In as Rear"), made an adjustment (set it to 'true'), and re-loaded the config with alsactl. Since then, all speakers have worked perfectly. With luck, in the alsa settings you'll find something, too. (I've seen reference to a "Wave Surround" volume setting for cards other than mine, for example.) Once you find a setting that might be relevant, you can change it in /etc/asound.state and reload the settings with alsactl, or you can use amixer to change the setting.

Best of luck!

Slynix · Post by **Slynix** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 4:59 am

Ok ill try it a bit thx

Anyone know any other tips so I can check "earlier stages"
For ex if the hardware channels are showing ok in /proc/*

like:

cat /proc/asound/pcm
00-00: Intel ICH : Intel ICH5 : playback 1 : capture 1
00-01: Intel ICH - IEC958 : Intel ICH5 - IEC958 : playback 1
Shouldnt there be more?

-----------------------------------------------------

I cant find any option in xmms about choocing between front and rear speakers. Iv heard there should be such an option

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Alot people talk about change Wave this and wave that but I dont even have something called wave in there

Code: Select all

numid=11,iface=MIXER,name='Master Mono Playback Switch'
numid=12,iface=MIXER,name='Master Mono Playback Volume'
numid=1,iface=MIXER,name='Master Playback Switch'
numid=2,iface=MIXER,name='Master Playback Volume'
numid=9,iface=MIXER,name='Headphone Playback Switch'
numid=10,iface=MIXER,name='Headphone Playback Volume'
numid=26,iface=MIXER,name='PCM Playback Switch'
numid=27,iface=MIXER,name='PCM Playback Volume'
numid=7,iface=MIXER,name='Surround Playback Switch'
numid=8,iface=MIXER,name='Surround Playback Volume'
numid=3,iface=MIXER,name='Center Playback Switch'
numid=4,iface=MIXER,name='Center Playback Volume'
numid=5,iface=MIXER,name='LFE Playback Switch'
numid=6,iface=MIXER,name='LFE Playback Volume'
numid=20,iface=MIXER,name='Line Playback Switch'
numid=21,iface=MIXER,name='Line Playback Volume'
numid=22,iface=MIXER,name='CD Playback Switch'
numid=23,iface=MIXER,name='CD Playback Volume'
numid=19,iface=MIXER,name='Mic Boost (+20dB)'
numid=32,iface=MIXER,name='Mic Select'
numid=17,iface=MIXER,name='Mic Playback Switch'
numid=18,iface=MIXER,name='Mic Playback Volume'
numid=15,iface=MIXER,name='Phone Playback Switch'
numid=16,iface=MIXER,name='Phone Playback Volume'
numid=13,iface=MIXER,name='PC Speaker Playback Switch'
numid=14,iface=MIXER,name='PC Speaker Playback Volume'
numid=24,iface=MIXER,name='Aux Playback Switch'
numid=25,iface=MIXER,name='Aux Playback Volume'
numid=31,iface=MIXER,name='Mono Output Select'
numid=28,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Source'
numid=29,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Switch'
numid=30,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Volume'
numid=33,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Con Mask'
numid=34,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Pro Mask'
numid=37,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback AC97-SPSA'
numid=35,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Default'
numid=36,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Switch'
numid=38,iface=MIXER,name='External Amplifier Power Down'

ozonator · Post by **ozonator** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 1:10 pm

Slynix wrote: cat /proc/asound/pcm
00-00: Intel ICH : Intel ICH5 : playback 1 : capture 1
00-01: Intel ICH - IEC958 : Intel ICH5 - IEC958 : playback 1
Shouldnt there be more?

I don't know what it should be for you, but that's similar to what I've got in the same file (for C-Media PCI sound) -- just a couple of lines identifying the DAC chips on the sound card (I think that's what this is -- I defer to anyone else who knows more about this).

I cant find any option in xmms about choocing between front and rear speakers. Iv heard there should be such an option

I've never seen an option like this in xmms. Maybe a plug-in? Again, someone else may know better than I do. On the other hand, given all the alsa volume settings and the volume plus front/rear balance controls on my speaker set itself, I figure I've got enough ways to control output.

As for settings:

Code: Select all

numid=7,iface=MIXER,name='Surround Playback Switch'
numid=8,iface=MIXER,name='Surround Playback Volume'
numid=3,iface=MIXER,name='Center Playback Switch'
numid=4,iface=MIXER,name='Center Playback Volume'

These look like they might be candidates for getting controlling output to your other speakers. The 'switch' settings are true/false (i.e., to enable or disable); the volume settings can be set 0-100. Have you checked how these are set? (Just run amixer without any arguments, and it should report current settings.) If it looks like these settings aren't appropriate, you can also change the settings with amixer, e.g., "amixer set 'Surround Playback Volume' 100" or "amixer set 'Surround Playback Switch' true".

Slynix · Post by **Slynix** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 2:42 pm

Its pretty much on

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 13 [42%] [on]
Front Right: Playback 13 [42%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Master Mono',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono: Playback 31 [100%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [on]
Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 19 [61%] [on]
Front Right: Playback 19 [61%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Surround',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [on]
Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Center',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono: Playback 31 [100%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'LFE',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono: Playback 31 [100%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined cswitc
clusive
Capture exclusive group: 0
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [on] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'CD',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined cswitc
clusive
Capture exclusive group: 0
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [on] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitc
ined cswitch-exclusive
Capture exclusive group: 0
Playback channels: Mono
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono: Playback 31 [100%] [on]
Front Left: Capture [off]
Front Right: Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost (+20dB)',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Select',0
Capabilities:
Mono:

Simple mixer control 'Video',0
Capabilities: cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
Capture exclusive group: 0
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Front Left: Capture [off]
Front Right: Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Phone',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitc
ined cswitch-exclusive
Capture exclusive group: 0
Playback channels: Mono
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono: Playback 31 [100%] [on]
Front Left: Capture [off]
Front Right: Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Playback AC97-SPSA',0
Capabilities: volume volume-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: 0 - 3
Mono: 3 [100%]
Simple mixer control 'PC Speaker',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 15
Mono: Playback 15 [100%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Aux',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined cswitc
clusive
Capture exclusive group: 0
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [on] Capture [on]
Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [on] Capture [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mono Output Select',0
Capabilities:
Mono:
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Capture 0 - 15
Front Left: Capture 15 [100%] [on]
Front Right: Capture 15 [100%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mix',0
Capabilities: cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
Capture exclusive group: 0
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Front Left: Capture [off]
Front Right: Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mix Mono',0
Capabilities: cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
Capture exclusive group: 0
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Front Left: Capture [off]
Front Right: Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'External Amplifier Power Down',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]

[/code]

ozonator · Post by **ozonator** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 3:46 pm

As I mentioned, I don't have experience with your exact sound card, so unfortunately, short of suggesting that you check cabling and volume/surround settings on your speaker set (which I presume you've already done a dozen times), I don't have anything else to suggest, and can only wish you luck. Anyone else with ideas?

Slynix · Post by **Slynix** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 5:29 pm

Im sorry I didnt reply more in the last post. I wont reply much in this post either sense Im at work until friday. Just wanted to say:

ozonator thx alot for your help.

I will look more into this when I get home. The hardware is as far as I know correctly hooked up. And yes iv been over it a few times as you mentioned

Slynix · Post by **Slynix** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 1:35 pm

When I play a dvd in xine and left mouse click--> Stream --> Window Information..

Under audio I see Codec A/52 5.1

But Channels say: 2
shouldnt it say more?

Other probably not useful info it says:
Handled: yes, Ignore: No, Bitrate: 384000, Bits: 16, Samplerate: 48000, FourCC: 0x0

Slynix · Post by **Slynix** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 9:50 am

Anyone who has several working speakers and could take a look and see how many channels get displayed?