alsa not working

bananaoomarang · 08-08-2009, 11:35 AM

my sound card is 00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB4x0 High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)

and alsaconf can't detect it also alsa mixer returns

Code:

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such file or directory

so I don't know what to try I have been through gentoo's official guide but it still doesn't work.

/etc/init.d/alsasound start returns

Code:

* Loading ALSA modules...
*   Could not detect custom ALSA settings.  Loading all detected alsa drivers.
*   ERROR: Failed to load necessary drivers                               [ ok ]
* Restoring Mixer Levels...
* No mixer config in /var/lib/alsa/asound.state, you have to unmute your  [ ok ]

and /var/lib/alsa/asound.state is not a directory

please help

p.s I also wan't help with my graphics card (ati radeon 200M) and have made thread about that so if you have my card tell me what you did to get it working)

mcolangelo · 08-08-2009, 03:41 PM

Is your kernel compiled with support for that sound card and if so is the correct module loaded?

You can check what kernel modules are in use by your sound card with.
lspci -vnn -s 00:14.2 | grep modules

You can try modprobe snd_hda_intel to manually load the module if it exists.

If there is no error messages check your sound again. If you get an error then most likely your kernel isn't compiled with support for your sound card.

Checkout the sound section at http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/ASUS_M3A78-EM for help on compiling your kernel with support for your card

bananaoomarang · 08-09-2009, 03:48 AM

Thanks alot for the quick reply I will try that when I get to my laptop. Oh and I was wondering of topic but I heard there was a graphical fromtend for emerge called kuroo but it lost support or something and I can't find it in the portage tree is there a replacement

bananaoomarang · 08-09-2009, 04:20 AM

lspci -vnn -s 00:14.2 | grep modules
returns nothing hmmm

mcolangelo · 08-09-2009, 04:53 PM

What happens when you do modprobe snd_hda_intel??

If it returns about the module not being found then you'll need to reconfigure your kernel to compile and add that module. If it returns nothing you can try the lspci command again to see if it's being used.

Heres what the output looks like on mine (I have a different sound card but you should see similar results)

Code:

 # lspci -vnn -s 00:10.1
00:10.1 Audio device [0403]: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio [10de:026c] (rev a2)
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Presario V6133CL [103c:30b7]
	Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 21
	Memory at b0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
	Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask+ 64bit+ Count=1/1 Enable-
	Capabilities: [6c] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping Enable- Fixed+
	Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
	Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

# lspci -vnn -s 00:10.1 | grep modules
	Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

If the module is loaded you can try alsaconf again to see if it detects your sound card this time around.

You can also use lsmod to display a list of what modules are currently loaded. If it's a big list you can use lsmod | grep snd_hda_intel or lsmod | grep snd to display only the relevant modules.

himerge is another graphical frontend

bananaoomarang · 08-10-2009, 12:49 PM

thanks for the reply lsmod | grep snd returns

Code:

snd_seq                41516  0
snd_seq_device          6112  1 snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            31748  0
snd_mixer_oss          12072  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_atiixp             13704  0
snd_ac97_codec         90032  1 snd_atiixp
ac97_bus                1408  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                61900  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_atiixp,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              17084  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd                    45700  8 snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_atiixp,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore               6108  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          7760  2 snd_atiixp,snd_pcm

but modprobe snd_hda_intel

returns that the module is not found and thanks for the hemerge tip

I will post back with more results once I have tried to recompile my kernel.

bananaoomarang · 08-11-2009, 12:05 PM

I have tried enableing the atiIXP AC97 controller module but I did have that installed when I first posted I am now trying uninstalling it but which should I enable

mcolangelo · 08-11-2009, 03:34 PM

You could probably safely select support for all the devices listed under
Intel HD Audio --->

My personal configuration has everything except hwdep interface and digital beep via input layer selected. And pretty much everything under PCI Sound Devices as a module.

You know for sure you'll end up with the right driver then, lol. For sure select the ATI, INTEL, and Generic driver support though.

After you've done your configuration but before you run make you can double check you selected it with cat .config | grep -i snd_hda_intel from the /usr/src/linux directory.

I wouldn't worry too much about un-selecting things from the previous configuration. Those modules will just remain unused that's all. There are occasions where the wrong module gets loaded but that is easily resolved.

bananaoomarang · 08-12-2009, 05:28 AM

Sound is working i think but i cannot alter sound level using the little twizzel thing on my laptop but thankyou so much any way w000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000t

mcolangelo · 08-12-2009, 10:07 AM

Twizzel thing??

You talking about a hot key?? Try a program called keytouch, it's in portage. I think I remember seeing an install guide somewhere for it too, works really good and pretty easy to setup.

Glad it works!

bananaoomarang · 08-12-2009, 11:17 AM

Yeah sorry I as a bit exited I meant the little dial on the side of my laptop that usualy alters the sound level