Suse 10.3 + Cmedia Cm6501

I have googled and looked at a lot of forum posts but I have come to a blank.

I cannot get my sound card to work properly and I am thinking of buying one from ebuyer for pennies, but want to have a last chance before I make my order.

In SuSE 10.3 when I set the sound system to "open sound system" it works fine.

When I switch this back to "ALSA" or "Auto Detect", there is an instant crackling/popping sound and any sound which is played is v.distorted.

In the "OSS" mode, it appears to work undistorted except applications have to be manually forced to use "OSS", for instance amarok. Flash doesn't work, which is a little annoying. I have not tried mplayer or vlc. I was wondering, if this is the best I am going to get it or if I am missing something.

aplay-l

card :default [Pnp Audio Device], device 0: USB Audio [USB AUdio]
Subdevices 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Contents of /etc/modprobe.d/sound

options snd-usb-audio enable=1 index=0
# uniq.unknown_key:USB Audio
alias snd-card-0 snd-usb-audio

I cannot do the commands such as specified in the ubuntu forums e.g.

asoundconf set-default-card default'

I don't have a /proc/asound nor do i have .asoundrc - can /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf be used instead...?

Should I add something like this ?

'pcm.usb-audio {
type hw
card 0
}
ctl.usb-audio {
type hw
card 0
}'

Most Linux distributions (and most Linux applications) come setup for alsa (advanced linux sound architecture) and not for OSS (open sound system). Did you do something special to setup your sound hardware for OSS ? Its rather unusual.

I checked the Linux incompatibility list for audio, and your card is NOT listed (but since you have functioning audio already with OSS, you knew that): http://www.leenooks.com/page/show/Audio

I also checked for alsa compatibility, and in the process discovered your CM6501 is a USB device: http://www.cmedia.com.tw/?q=en/USB/cm6501
I checked for openSUSE compatibility and your card is not listed as working under openSUSE:
http://en.opensuse.org/HCL/Sound_Cards
but that doesn't mean much, as sadly most openSUSE users can't be bothered to contribute to update that list.

I note that your USB sound card is supported by alsa: http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php...odule-usb-audio
This is consistent with your /etc/modprobe.d/sound file.

I've never had to to edit a .asoundrc file, nor have I tried to help get OSS to run properly (and hence I know nothing about this). Reference .asoundrc, there are example .asoundrc files here:
http://home.cfl.rr.com/infofiles/asoundrc.examples.html
But I confess I had thought the .asoundrc was for alsa setup and not for OSS. I don't think its practical to try and have a system run with both OSS and alsa drivers.

How about your motherboard sound? Doesn't that work?

If you remove your OSS drivers, and try to get alsa to work, you could try work your way through the openSUSE audio troubleshooting guide: http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:AudioTroubleshooting

Thanks for the quick reply. I've seen that in ALSA it says my card is supported but that doesn't really help me!

As for OSS working, it seems that the only package with SuSE 10.3 is a "wrapper" for ALSA. So its really running ALSA so I'm not sure what it does different when it switches to OSS.

This is the motherboard on-chip sound card.

I will try removing the alsa-oss wrapper package.....

edit: I did it and it makes no difference with or without the wrapper, the OSS option still works in control panel.

As for OSS working, it seems that the only package with SuSE 10.3 is a "wrapper" for ALSA. [/b]

I take it then you did nothing special to install an OSS driver? Can you type:
rpm -qa | grep oss
(you should find no oss apps installed).

This is the motherboard on-chip sound card.[/b]

Ok, then you could try work your way through the openSUSE audio troubleshooting guide: http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:AudioTroubleshooting

If that fails, could you post the output URL of the two diagnostic scripts that the audio troubleshooting guide has you run? http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:AudioTroublesho...led_information

Also post the output of:
<span style="font-family:Courier New">rpm -qa | grep alsa
uname -a</span>

Okay, I didnt mention before, but alsaconf doesnt detect the sound card, nor does yast etc- I had to add it manually in YAST as a generic USB audio device, I worked this out from various forums.

In YAST, the test sound option gives the same distorted sound. Sounds a bit like you are underwater lol.

First script: http://www.pastebin.ca/1022212

Second Script: http://nopaste.com/p/aSkJ9jlGA

linux-mbu9:/home/george # rpm -qa | grep alsa
alsa-plugins-samplerate-1.0.14-41
alsa-utils-1.0.14-27
alsa-plugins-1.0.14-41
alsa-patch-bay-1.0.0-0.pm.2
alsa-firmware-1.0.14-24
alsa-plugins-maemo-1.0.14-41

alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.14-41
kalsatools-1.5.0-468
alsamodular-1.8.7-0.pm.2
alsa-tools-1.0.14-38
alsa-1.0.14-31.2
alsaplayer-0.99.80-1
FA_clalsadrv-1.2.2-0.pm.3
alsa-tools-gui-1.0.14-38
alsa-plugins-jack-1.0.14-41

alsamixergui-0.9.0rc1-644

linux-mbu9:/home/george # rpm -qa | grep oss
gmerlin-oss-0.3.7-0.pm.1


linux-mbu9:/home/george # uname -a
Linux linux-mbu9 2.6.22.17-0.1-bigsmp #1 SMP 2008/02/10 20:01:04 UTC i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

[/b]

I've got a quadcore desktop with 64-bit prorcessor.
Motherboard ALIVENF5-SLI
Processor AMD 64-bit Quad Core 9500 Phenom
Memory 4GB DDR2
Hard Drive 500GB SATA
Optical Drive 20x Lightscribe DVDRW
Case Coolermaster Elite 330
Graphics Card TWIN 8600gt 1GB SLI CARDS
TFT 24" WIDESCREEN TFT


edit: After doing the above scripts, I just updated alsa using the advice in the link you gave me and restarted, but it made no difference as of yet..

This is the motherboard on-chip sound card.[/b]

Very strange. Typically mother board devices are PCI, and not USB. Yet a Cmedia CM6501 is a USB device, and the scripts that you ran confirm that.

Okay, I didnt mention before, but alsaconf doesnt detect the sound card, nor does yast etc- I had to add it manually in YAST as a generic USB audio device, I worked this out from various forums. [/b]

Thats good to know. Thankyou for mentioning this.

In YAST, the test sound option gives the same distorted sound. Sounds a bit like you are underwater lol.[/b]

That may come important later. Possible interrupt problem?

First script: http://www.pastebin.ca/1022212
Second Script: http://nopaste.com/p/aSkJ9jlGA[/b]

Thanks for that. I see you have a BIG SMP, but installed the 32-bit openSUSE, and you have the latest openSUSE-10.3 2.6.22.17 kernel release.

I just updated alsa using the advice in the link you gave me and restarted, but it made no difference as of yet..[/b]

Did you install the correct alsa apps? Since you changed your alsa version, can you please (again) run:
Those are exactly 3 lines of code above (not 4 or 5).

Note you have to reboot after having updated alsa.

Yes, I did the exact steps as stated on that page to update alsa and I restarted!

Hope this helps you

linux-mbu9:/home/george # rpm -qa | grep alsa
alsa-plugins-maemo-1.0.16.hg20080514-1.1
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.16.hg20080514-1.1
alsa-firmware-1.0.16.hg20080314-1.3
alsa-plugins-samplerate-1.0.16.hg20080514-1.1
alsa-plugins-jack-1.0.16.hg20080514-1.1
alsa-plugins-1.0.16.hg20080514-1.1
alsa-1.0.16.hg20080510-1.1
alsa-driver-kmp-bigsmp-1.0.16.hg20080516_2.6.22.17_0.1-2.1
kalsatools-1.5.0-468
alsa-tools-gui-1.0.16.hg20080122-7.14
alsa-patch-bay-1.0.0-0.pm.2
alsa-utils-1.0.16.hg20080429-1.3
alsaplayer-0.99.80-5.24
alsamixergui-0.9.0rc1-644
FA_clalsadrv-1.2.2-0.pm.3
alsamodular-1.8.7-4.18
alsa-tools-1.0.16.hg20080122-7.19

I dont know really why I should support cmedia anymore, as even if I do get this working, I know the 5.1 does not work properly. See here: http://www.cmedia.com.tw/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1295

but I was going for this soundcard, which I hope/believe is 100% supported.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/106539

Yes, I did the exact steps as stated on that page to update alsa and I restarted!
Hope this helps you [/b]

Thanks, that alsa configuration looks good. Please, can you run those two scripts again? as with the newer alsa, its possible some more information will be present (such as the USB sound device's vendor-id and pid).

ie ... post the output URL of the two diagnostic scripts that the audio troubleshooting guide has you run? http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:AudioTroublesho...led_information

Oh I can get the vendor/device id using "lsusb" - would that help?

george@linux-mbu9:~> lsusb
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 0d8c:0201 C-Media Electronics, Inc.

Anyway, it is the device and vendor id listed on the alsa support site:
http://www.qbik.ch/usb/devices/showdev.php?id=3925

Which says it is fully supported, although it doesn't mention if this is on-board or not.

Some suggestions I've read suggest disabling "legacy USB" in the BIOS- I have tried this to no avail.

Here go the two scripts...

Script 1 (alsainfo.sh) http://www.pastebin.ca/1022295
Script 2 (tsalsa.sh) http://nopaste.com/p/aVZ6nB71kb

Should I add something like this ?

'pcm.usb-audio {
type hw
card 0
}
ctl.usb-audio {
type hw
card 0
}'

[/b]

Yes, you could try something like that as a .asoundrc file. I read of a user successfully using this
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-439392.html :

pcm.!default {
type hw
card 0
}

ctl.!default {
type hw
card 0
}

(Note, I changed "card 1" to "card 0").

After making this file, restart alsa with <span style="font-family:Courier New">rcalsasound restart</span>