No sound after install to BT4 to HD

[Falcon22]

Hi all,

I'm having problems to get my sound working on my desktop. First some specs of my sytem. When i type lspci i find 2 audio devices, one of my VGA and one of the motherboard:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller
02:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc HD48x0 audio

The chip on the motherboard is according to alsamixer the ALC889A Realtek chip. I've tried several solutions which on this forum and the internet. I've listed them below.

1. Turn up the volumes in alsamixer
2. Downloaded and installed the latets drivers of alsa mixer
3. Added root as user in /etc/group (after audio:x
4. Added two lines in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base (options snd-hda-intel model=mbp3, options snd-hda-intel model=3stack)

Sound is enabled in Settings ==> Sound & Media ==> Sound System

However I got no sound in BT4. Even not when I run the test in the foreamentioned Sound System.

Does any1 know how I can get my sound system working?

[lupin]

You have confirmed that snd-hda-intel is the driver being used havent you? Id try with different model numbers in the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base - 3stack might not be the correct model for your hardware. You also need to make sure you are reloading the driver and restarting Alsa after every change you make in that file.

[Falcon22]

You have confirmed that snd-hda-intel is the driver being used havent you? Id try with different model numbers in the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base - 3stack might not be the correct model for your hardware. You also need to make sure you are reloading the driver and restarting Alsa after every change you make in that file.

I'm not completely sure of snd-hda-intel is the driver i'm using. I've downloaded "alsa-driver-1.0.23.tar.gz" from the internet, unpacked it and installed it.

Well after i added each line I rebooted, so the driver is automaticly reloaded then I think? I've also typed the following command: "lsa force-reload" after I added 1 of these lines. For the moment I've removed thes lines.

I don't know how to restart Alsa? Isn't this done when I reboot my PC?

If needed I can post some output of some commands here. When I'm typing this I think the problem has a good chance to be caused by a kernel and drivers which are not compatible with each other. Does any1 know how to check this?

[lupin]

There are various commands you can use to determine if the snd-hda-intel driver is the one you are using, such as lsmod, modprobe, lshw, lspci, etc. Try the man command for each to see how they work. Alsa will get restarted when you restart your system, on BackTrack there is also a script in /etc/init.d/ that will restart it for you. Id suggest you search the Internet for terms such as "alsa troubleshooting" and once you find out the name of your driver also try searches like "<driver_name> alsa" and "<driver_name> ubuntu", e.g. "snd_hda_intel alsa"/"snd_hda_intel ubuntu" for the snd_hda_intel driver.

[Icht00r]

Have you happened to press the hard mute button on your laptop?

[Falcon22]

Have you happened to press the hard mute button on your laptop?

No I've not, I haven't got a laptop either. Sound is under Ubuntu and Windows properly working so I don't think this problem is caused by a hardware setting.

There are various commands you can use to determine if the snd-hda-intel driver is the one you are using, such as lsmod, modprobe, lshw, lspci, etc. Try the man command for each to see how they work. Alsa will get restarted when you restart your system, on BackTrack there is also a script in /etc/init.d/ that will restart it for you. Id suggest you search the Internet for terms such as "alsa troubleshooting" and once you find out the name of your driver also try searches like "<driver_name> alsa" and "<driver_name> ubuntu", e.g. "snd_hda_intel alsa"/"snd_hda_intel ubuntu" for the snd_hda_intel driver.

Well after a full day of trying to get the sound working and with the advices above I haven't solved the problem yet. But I know some things more abot the driver and sound configuration. First of all I know the driver which is installed is: Sound Driver:3.8.1a-980706 (ALSA v1.0.23 emulation code). I found this with the command cat /dev/sndstat, but i also found that MIDI Devices and Synth Devices are not enabled. Screen below.



I also found there are several (??) SND modules loaded into the kernel. I don't really understand why there is more than one and if these are compatible with this particular kernel. I made (partly) also a screen of this:



At last I tested if a .wav file could be played with the command aplay -vv applause.wav. This gave a lot of output and at the end a line with a bar which moved from from left to right. I thinks this means the sound was played by the system but I heard nothing. I've captured this playing in the screen below.



Reading on the internet gave some answers but it raised a lot more. As far as I understand it now, my soundchip needs first of all a working driver. Then I need the right modules loaded into the kernel. Whatever then need to be done is a big questionmark for me.

At last I found that I can't start Kmix Soundmixer from the KDE Menu. But I'm not sure this is related to the sound problem cause it could have something to with that it first need to started from the terminal. This was also the case with WICD.

Any further help would be greatly appreciated!

[lupin]

Regards drivers, there is both an Alsa driver and a device driver for your soundcard - the device drivers are loaded as modules into the kernel. From your list of modules I see that snd_hda_intel is loaded on your system - and that is a sound card device driver.

For this particular driver, problems with no sound being produced from a card that is apparently working in all other ways are quite common. To resolve you need to set the appropriate model name for the driver in the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base file. Essentially you use lines like you reproduced in your post before, like "options snd-hda-intel model=3stack", except only try ONE of these "model" lines at a time. Use different, valid model names each time, reloading the snd_hda_intel module and restarting Alsa after each change, until things start working properly. Check dmesg logs for any errors when the module is loaded.

This is a great guide to follow, at least as a starting point. There are also a number of other posts around that suggest various ways to get this driver working with various models of card that use this driver. Keep looking around and trying things til you find an answer. I have had to do this with both of the laptops I have installed BackTrack on in the last year. It can be a painful process, but if you persist you can usually find some joy.

Also, upgrading the kernel version can also sometimes help, as new (hopefully better) driver versions are distributed with the kernel. You might actually want to start with that, it might just fix things for you without further effort.

[Falcon22]

Well after some changes and removing an option in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base, I finally got sound. But I only got sound from my side-speakers, centre and bass. I can't get any sound from my front speakers! I'm using a 5.1 surround set.

The options I've tried are:

3stack-dig
6stack-dig
alc883-6stack-dig
intel-alc889a
intel-x58

See also: http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentat...dio-Models.txt

Is a 5.1 surround system always problematic to get working in linux or is this problem related to the problem that I had no sound at all?

Also, upgrading the kernel version can also sometimes help, as new (hopefully better) driver versions are distributed with the kernel. You might actually want to start with that, it might just fix things for you without further effort.

My kernel version is allready: 2.6.30.9

[lupin]

Well after some changes and removing an option in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base, I finally got sound. But I only got sound from my side-speakers, centre and bass. I can't get any sound from my front speakers! I'm using a 5.1 surround set.

The options I've tried are:

3stack-dig
6stack-dig
alc883-6stack-dig
intel-alc889a
intel-x58

See also: http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentat...dio-Models.txt

Is a 5.1 surround system always problematic to get working in linux or is this problem related to the problem that I had no sound at all?

Id say that its a symptom of either not having the correct model set or it could be an Alsa speaker configuration issue. I had an issue on my system where sound still came out of the main speakers when the headphones were plugged in which was resolved by choosing the correct model for the snd_hda_intel driver.

My kernel version is allready: 2.6.30.9

That link I provided was a guide to update the kernel to 2.6.34.

[Falcon22]

Well, I followed exactly the instructions on the page you provided. But when I reboot, I saw in the bootlog several failures, and GRUB said BT was still on kernel 2.6.30. Then when I start X, my mouse didn't work anymore.

I had to re-install BT4 to solve this problem...

EDIT: And when I had reinstalled, I did the same upgrade but then with the dev sources enabled in /etc/apt/sources.list and my sound works as it should be!

Thnx every1 for helping.