Ok, so I changed motherboards a couple days ago from a Via chipset to an Nforce2 chipset (Shuttle SK41G XPC to a Chaintech 7NIL1 board). I recompiled my kernel before the move to include support for the new hardware, everything booted up fine, accept that using the snd_intel8x0 alsa driver (in the 2.6.9-r13 kernel) the sound works, but is full blast and I can't change the volume. In alsamixer, I can change Master, but PCM is either on or off. Then I tried the nvsound driver in nvidia's driver package, and same thing occurs, only I have to use nvmixer because alsamixer doesn't see the card then.
Any ideas where my PCM volume control has gone? Thanks.
Help! Volume is crazy loud and can't adjust it.
Message
Help! Volume is crazy loud and can't adjust it.
<kow`> "There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't."
Bump
Anything? I still havn't found any solutions on the net.
***edit***
I did find this:
For everyone who's missing volume control with his CMedia 9739 onboard sound chip, here are the facts I found out so far. This chip is used at least on Epox 8RDA3+ and maybe in every newer nforce2 chipset. (Who knows where else it is used?)
The general problem with the 9739 is that it doesn't have a volume control in hardware. As the technical reference (avail. at http://www.cmedia.com.tw/e_t_twp.htm) states, there is no PCM volume register on chip, only a PCM muting register. Strangely, it also states that there is a _Master_ volume register where you should be able to set the volume (not only muting)! But I had no success using it; changes to that register have no effect. Maybe this is a hardware bug, or the tech reference is wrong.
BTW. CMedia's OSS driver does volume control in software, so they know about the problem...
So it seems that the best solution is to use some kind of software volume control.
To get the chip in fact working under Linux, there are several possibilities:
use intel8x0 driver (and an external volume control, maybe at the speaker)
Pro: mostly works (stable etc.)
Con: you need an external volume control; and it's not very elegant
use intel8x0 driver and an extra sound demon (eg. KDE's artsd)
Pro: works; and the sound daemon has volume control
Con: not every app supports those sound daemons (but xmms and mplayer do); you have one program more running in background; the daemons are not always reliable (that's my experience); you need to use a specific program for setting the volume (eg. kmix)
use CMedia's OSS driver (avail. at http://www.cmedia.com.tw/download/e_UDA ... nux_01.htm)
Pro: built by manufacturer ; has built-in volume control
Con: only usable with old OSS (Open Sound System), AFAIK not usable with ALSA; didn't work reliably for me
curse CMedia for building such a crappy chip; curse them again for not releasing an ALSA driver; curse NVidia for using such a crappy chip (older nforce boards had a better chip onboard..); in the end, buy an extra soundcard and be happy
Pro: it does work really well (if you buy a good card and not an el-cheapo for 9.95 EUR which features as chip a 9739
Con: additional costs to your PC; takes a PCI slot
BTW. I think I also tried the nforce2 soudn driver; it worked stable, but had no volume control as well...
Well the (probably) best solution would be to integrate generic software volume control in ALSA; that means to write an ALSA plugin that does about the same as CMedia's driver does: rescale every sound sample to the desired volume. CMedia's driver is under the GPL, so their algorithm could be used. I've heard that such a plugin is planned, but I don't know about the current status. Ask at Alsa-devel mailing list (https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-devel) about it.
More about ALSA plugins: http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/al ... ugins.html
Seems to me the easiest way would be to use the method marked in blue, anyone know how to set that up? Mostly just need sound for XMMS, mplayer, and xine.
***edit***
I did find this:
For everyone who's missing volume control with his CMedia 9739 onboard sound chip, here are the facts I found out so far. This chip is used at least on Epox 8RDA3+ and maybe in every newer nforce2 chipset. (Who knows where else it is used?)
The general problem with the 9739 is that it doesn't have a volume control in hardware. As the technical reference (avail. at http://www.cmedia.com.tw/e_t_twp.htm) states, there is no PCM volume register on chip, only a PCM muting register. Strangely, it also states that there is a _Master_ volume register where you should be able to set the volume (not only muting)! But I had no success using it; changes to that register have no effect. Maybe this is a hardware bug, or the tech reference is wrong.
BTW. CMedia's OSS driver does volume control in software, so they know about the problem...
So it seems that the best solution is to use some kind of software volume control.
To get the chip in fact working under Linux, there are several possibilities:
use intel8x0 driver (and an external volume control, maybe at the speaker)
Pro: mostly works (stable etc.)
Con: you need an external volume control; and it's not very elegant
use intel8x0 driver and an extra sound demon (eg. KDE's artsd)
Pro: works; and the sound daemon has volume control
Con: not every app supports those sound daemons (but xmms and mplayer do); you have one program more running in background; the daemons are not always reliable (that's my experience); you need to use a specific program for setting the volume (eg. kmix)
use CMedia's OSS driver (avail. at http://www.cmedia.com.tw/download/e_UDA ... nux_01.htm)
Pro: built by manufacturer
; has built-in volume control Con: only usable with old OSS (Open Sound System), AFAIK not usable with ALSA; didn't work reliably for me
curse CMedia for building such a crappy chip; curse them again for not releasing an ALSA driver; curse NVidia for using such a crappy chip (older nforce boards had a better chip onboard..); in the end, buy an extra soundcard and be happy
Pro: it does work really well (if you buy a good card and not an el-cheapo for 9.95 EUR which features as chip a 9739
Con: additional costs to your PC; takes a PCI slot
BTW. I think I also tried the nforce2 soudn driver; it worked stable, but had no volume control as well...
Well the (probably) best solution would be to integrate generic software volume control in ALSA; that means to write an ALSA plugin that does about the same as CMedia's driver does: rescale every sound sample to the desired volume. CMedia's driver is under the GPL, so their algorithm could be used. I've heard that such a plugin is planned, but I don't know about the current status. Ask at Alsa-devel mailing list (https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-devel) about it.
More about ALSA plugins: http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/al ... ugins.html
Seems to me the easiest way would be to use the method marked in blue, anyone know how to set that up? Mostly just need sound for XMMS, mplayer, and xine.
<kow`> "There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't."
Nothing yet?
This sucks. I've found many threads with people talking about the same issue, but no real solutions except these. Well...I tried the Cmedia OSS drivers, won't compile for the 2.6.x kernel (nice, the only drivers that work are their own and they can't even keep them up to date)
The method in blue I still can't get to work, anybody know how to set that up properly?
I'd just get a pci sound card, but I'm still broke from christmas for awhile.
This sucks. I've found many threads with people talking about the same issue, but no real solutions except these. Well...I tried the Cmedia OSS drivers, won't compile for the 2.6.x kernel (nice, the only drivers that work are their own and they can't even keep them up to date)
The method in blue I still can't get to work, anybody know how to set that up properly?
I'd just get a pci sound card, but I'm still broke from christmas for awhile.
<kow`> "There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't."
I'm not having as much time as I want at the moment to be experimenting with my gentoo a little more, but next thing I'm going to try is not to use the built-in driver from the kernel but load the i8x0 driver for alsa. This way I should also be able to use dmix for software mixing which is not working now 
.
If it helps I will certainly post it, but I suppose you already tried that.
.If it helps I will certainly post it, but I suppose you already tried that.
According to this post on a related thread that i've been following, there might be a conflict between the intel8x0 driver & esound... 
No idea why, & i'm not sure if he disabled esound, or unmerged it, or what, but he seems happy
.
Haven't managed to help the other guy with the same problem on a via82xx chipset, though
Note to self: Gotta stop using these bloody emoticons!
No idea why, & i'm not sure if he disabled esound, or unmerged it, or what, but he seems happy
.Haven't managed to help the other guy with the same problem on a via82xx chipset, though
Note to self: Gotta stop using these bloody emoticons!
"Anyone who goes to see a psychiatrist should have their head examined!"
aha, I compiled a new kernel following the alsa & dmix howto on gentoo-wiki.com and after running alsaconf it appears to be better now. It is not as loud as at first but still a bit loud.
At least I can easily adjust the volume now without crackling sounds at high volume.
now try to check out why dmix doesn't seem to work. Maybe just a problem between beep and mplayer.
At least I can easily adjust the volume now without crackling sounds at high volume.
now try to check out why dmix doesn't seem to work. Maybe just a problem between beep and mplayer.