Sound

I've read some threads about no sound on laptops like mine, but I still can't solve my problem. I have read http://sudan.ubuntuforums.com/showthread.php?t=284405 about sound in ubuntu and that didn't help. I have also read threads about different laptops (mine is a dell inspiron 3500) with the same sound card neomagic magicmedia 256AV downloading OSS drivers, but I couldn't get that to work either. When I try to edit it in yast it says "the kernel module snd-nm256 for sound support could not be loaded. This can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invail IO or IRQ parameters."
I followed the Audio troubleshooting, but got stopped after running the alsa script and not being able to find information on a codec, (although there was one mentioned in boot, but I'll get to that later) my pastebin for the alsa script thing is http://pastebin.ca/918575 . my hwinfo --sound is "20: PCI 100.1: 0401 Multimedia audio controller
[Created at pci.301]
UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_10c8_8005
Unique ID: NXNs.jvVbMLBpbg1
Parent ID: vSkL.+oqW+GBE7wA
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.1
SysFS BusID: 0000:01:00.1
Hardware Class: sound
Model: "Dell MagicMedia 256AV Audio Device on Colorado Inspiron"
Vendor: pci 0x10c8 "Neomagic Corporation"
Device: pci 0x8005 "NM2200 [MagicMedia 256AV Audio]"
SubVendor: pci 0x1028 "Dell"
SubDevice: pci 0x008f "MagicMedia 256AV Audio Device on Colorado Inspiron"
Revision: 0x20
Memory Range: 0xfe000000-0xfe3fffff (rw,prefetchable)
Memory Range: 0xfe700000-0xfe7fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
IRQ: 11 (no events)
Module Alias: "pci:v000010C8d00008005sv00001028sd0000008Fbc04sc0 1i00"
Driver Info #0:
Driver Status: snd_nm256 is active
Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe snd_nm256"
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #12 (PCI bridge)"

Under lspci i get "01:00.1 Multimedia audio controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2200 [MagicMedia 256AV Audio] (rev 20)"
At boot i get "nm256: no ac97 is found!
force the driver to load by passing in the module parameter
force_ac97=1
or try sb16, opl3sa2, or cs423x drivers instead."
I have tried other alsa configurations but to no avail.
Also I don't know if this has anything to do with my sound but to get my battery to be recognized I have to do acpi=force. But I do not do this because it makes my fan never turn off when it comes on. So I don't know if acpi has anything to do with soundcards or not though, but I thought I'd tell that i don't do acpi=force just in case.

So anyway is there anything I can do to get my sound card to work (without buying commercial drivers, my sound worked fine when I had xp installed). If not then thats fine because I don't use my speakers that much anyway (so don't spend too much time trying to help me), but it would be nice to have sound now and then, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Oh and my modinfo soundcore is:
"filename: /lib/modules/2.6.22.17-0.1-default/kernel/sound/soundcore.ko
alias: char-major-14-*
license: GPL
author: Alan Cox
description: Core sound module
srcversion: 548AA54AF08207316C104F8
depends:
supported: yes
vermagic: 2.6.22.17-0.1-default SMP mod_unload 586"

I have also read threads about different laptops (mine is a dell inspiron 3500) with the same sound card neomagic magicmedia 256AV downloading OSS drivers, but I couldn't get that to work either. ...... snipped ... I followed the Audio troubleshooting, but got stopped after running the alsa script and not being able to find information on a codec, (although there was one mentioned in boot, but I'll get to that later) my pastebin for the alsa script thing is http://pastebin.ca/918575 .[/b]

It may be worth while installing the latest alsa-1.0.16 (now released), per the audio troubleshooting guide, to see if that helps. Also, please confirm you installed alsa-firmware per the audio troubleshooting guide.
http://en.opensuse.org/AudioTroubleshooting

Under lspci i get "01:00.1 Multimedia audio controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2200 [MagicMedia 256AV Audio] (rev 20)"
At boot i get "nm256: no ac97 is found!
force the driver to load by passing in the module parameter
force_ac97=1
or try sb16, opl3sa2, or cs423x drivers instead."[/b]

Its possible you may need to try this. ... ie ... you may need to try one of those three drivers. Note they require alsa-firmware.

I note it is possible to get sound working on the dell-inspiron-3500. For example this thread:
http://pont.net/linux/linuxI3500.html#SOUND
... but again, alsa-firmware (for openSUSE) is likely required for your chipset.

Reference your:

Model: "Dell MagicMedia 256AV Audio Device on Colorado Inspiron"
Vendor: pci 0x10c8 "Neomagic Corporation"
Device: pci 0x8005 "NM2200 [MagicMedia 256AV Audio]"
SubVendor: pci 0x1028 "Dell"
SubDevice: pci 0x008f "MagicMedia 256AV Audio Device on Colorado Inspiron"[/b]

When trying alsaconf (per the audio troubleshooting guide) what selections did you get? Note this:
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/linux-lap...a-problems.html

When running alsaconf from the command line I was presented with a list of two items. The first item was the Neomagic 256 soundcard and the second was for ISA/PNP Legacy cards. I had no luck in selecting the Neomagic 256 soundcard from the list but struck gold when I selected item number two. A list of sound cards was then presented, all of the cards were selected by default. I selected the option to allow alsaconf to probe the cards on the list. After completion of the probe alsconf successfully configured the card as a Crystal Audio CS4232. It worked just fine. [/b]

Is that solution applicable to your setup?

The options for alsaconf are one for nm256 one for op13sa2 and one for legacy which leads to op13sa2, cs4236, cs4232, cs4231, es18xx, es1688, sb16, sb8. I tried the nm256, and the cs4232 one.after installing firmware and upgrading alsa. I think a have tried all before, but that was before I got the firmware and upgraded alsa. But still no sound. I have tried the alsa mixer before but always get some error about a certian alsa thing not found or something. So the update and trying the other drivers didn't work. I also tried the ubuntu code edit solution again, but still no luck. So far the only thing ive ever been able to get is beeps if i search for a work in firefox and it doesn't find it, but i dont know if thats the same or not. the kmixer doesn't work eitherm it says mixer not found and is blank. when i try to get volume in the yast sound maneger it doesn't show up, and if I try to edit the sound card alsa configured the whole sound thing from yast just closes down. I have gotten sound in linux before when i tried puppy linux and used the ubuntu code solution, but i guess something is different were it wont work for suse. I tried downloading the oss driver again meantioned in the http://pont.net/linux/linuxI3500.html#SOUND site for kernels newer than 2.4 (although mine was not the commercial driver) from the 4front site, but i either did something wrong installing/downloading or that doesn't do anything either. So is there anything else I can do? Thanks.

The options for alsaconf are one for nm256 one for op13sa2 and one for legacy which leads to op13sa2, cs4236, cs4232, cs4231, es18xx, es1688, sb16, sb8. I tried the nm256, and the cs4232 one.after installing firmware and upgrading alsa. [/b]

I find it very difficult to understand what you tried, and in what order.

The script output (from the audio troubleshooting guide), was that run by you BEFORE or AFTER you installed alsa-firmware? If you ran the script before you installed alsa-firmware, please run the script again. Also, please run both scripts (not just one), and post the URLs from both scripts, as there is a slightly better chance of identifying your hardware codec if you run both scripts.

Did you try updating your alsa from 1.0.14 to 1.0.16? Again, I can't tell from your post if you tried this.

And finally, can you post the output of:
<span style="font-family:Courier New">rpm -q alsa alsa-firmware alsa-utils</span>

But still no sound. I have tried the alsa mixer before but always get some error about a certian alsa thing not found or something. [/b]

All you have to do is "something" new, together with applying a new "certain alsa thing", and do "some error fix" (that is new), and it will work.

... Apologies for the humour, .... I'm sure you must feel frustrated right now. ... But "some error" and "a "certain alsa thing not found or something" is so vague, one can not possibly help you with specific suggestions. Can't you provide EXACT errors/messages you are getting? Without that, its very difficult to help.

If you don't want to write it down and re-type the error here, then take a screen dump, or a picture of the error with your digital camera, and post the error./image that way. ... also, please examine and try to answer the questions/suggestions in my previous post.

Trying alsaconf, after updateing alsa and installing firmware, doesn't work no matter which option I try that alsaconf gives me. But I did notice, if i scroll up and view the code, I don't normally see, I get a message like "amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such device" and later one like "ALSA lib confmisc.c:768parse_card) cannot find card '0'
ALSA lib conf.c:3510_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_driver returned error: No such device
ALSA lib confmisc.c:392snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings
ALSA lib conf.c:3510_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat returned error: No such device
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1251snd_func_refer) error evaluating name
ALSA lib conf.c:3510_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such device
ALSA lib conf.c:3982snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such device
ALSA lib pcm.c:2145snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default
aplay: main:564: audio open error: No such device
Saving the mixer setup used for this in /etc/asound.state."
I downloaded kamix and gmerlin mixer, but kamix says "did not find any soundcard" and gmerlin mixer says "Could not find any Alsa mixers. Check your setup." I thought that when I tried at a much earler time that I recieved a differnt message, but it might have been from a different mixer, I can't remember.

rpm -q alsa alsa-firmware alsa-utils gives
alsa-1.0.16.hg20080226-1.1
alsa-firmware-1.0.16.hg20080206-1.1
alsa-utils-1.0.16.hg20080226-1.1

cat /proc/asound/version gives
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.16.
Compiled on Feb 26 2008 for kernel 2.6.22.17-0.1-default (SMP).

cat /proc/asound/modules gives nothing.

cat /proc/asound/cards gives
--- no soundcards ---

First script (after alsa update and firmware install): http://pastebin.ca/919547

Second script (after alsa update and firmware install): http://nopaste.com/p/ahAtqq1Tn (On this for some reason it says I have 0 speakers, but I thought I choose 2. Anyway just people know, I have 2 speakers and not zero.)

Also, when I refer to earlier attempts perhaps I should be more clear. I mean, earlier installations too. I have switched xp and suse 10.3 a couple times testing out different things. Also one more thing I forgot to mention: Most of the time after new installatins on suse i get the same IO error message i mentioned earlier when trying to edit the card in yast, and kmixer still doesnt work, but there was one time, when somehow i did get the mixer to show up and the soundcard to configure after a new installation (still no sound) but im not sure how. Maybe it has something to do with the Fn button that mutes my speakers but i'm not sure.

Do I need to run the lspci and modinfo scipts again after i updated and installed alsa/firmware? I would post them here just in case, but if i don't need to I don't want to take up unnecessary/repetitive room/info on the posts.

Thanks again.

So I found I weird, sort of solution to get sound to work.
I thought I did this before and it didn't work, but something must be different. Anyway, here is what I did:

I put XP and SuSE on as a dual boot. (very little room left on my small HD, but since I'm just using it to experiment on right now I don't really care). If I go straight into SuSE, I do not get any sound, but my wireless works through ndiswrapper. But if I boot into windows, then restart to SuSE, somehow I get sound! However, unfortunately for some reason this disables my wireless, no lights even come on my pcmcia card even with modeprobe ndiswrapper.

I don't really know what I've done different than when I did and XP SuSE dual boot before. There might have been some sort of linux partition left when I installed XP, which I later deleted at least part of to install SuSE (I might have left part of a swap I don't exactly remember).

Does anyone have any ideas on why sound would work after an XP reboot? Also how damaging would it be for my system to be rebooted every time I wanted to get sound? (As for my wireless problems I'll have to ask in the correct section of the forums if I can't fix it, but since it works fine when I don't do xp reboot, I don't know if I can fix it)

P.S. Something that might be related is some one I know who uses SuSE said that their tv card won't really work in SuSE, but if they got to windows and select a channel, then reboot to SuSE, they can watch that channel, and only that channel in SuSE. Mabey this is a similar issue, but i don't really know.

EDIT: So I found out that if I start my comp, go into windows, reboot to SuSE, then in SuSE go to reboot into operating system things, and choose SuSE, which reboots to SuSE, both my sound and wireless work! I don't know how or why though. So anyway, how bad is it for my comp to reboot it twice if I want both internet and sound on my comp?
Thanks.

Does anyone have any ideas on why sound would work after an XP reboot? [/b]

This is strange. My first speculation is this could be power management related. I did a search on the Dell Inspiron 3500 and Linux, to see if other's had experienced this, and it turns out other's have had problems.

Here is one URL, where the author tried various alsa drivers:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DellInspiron3500

There are many other URLs providing various solutions, most of them pretty old. I think you may be forced to do a trial and error approach.

You could also try booting with various acpi options, to see if any of them improve the situation:
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Kernel_Pa..._for_ACPI/APIC

Ensure you have installed: alsa, alsa-firmware, alsa-utils, alsa-tools, alsa-driver-kmp-default. Good luck.