Hardware Help Please (Compaq CQ50)

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by growbag

Seeing as he is using 11.1, the first thing would be to remove pulseaudio wouldn't it? That should fix the sound problem in 1 easy step .

How do you know the problem is pulse? How do you know the problem is not a problem with the alsa autoprobe not configuring the card correctly? How do you know that the hardware on their PC may be new and not yet supported by 1.0.18 of alsa but rather might be 1.0.21 of alsa?

They state their hardware is a Conexant 221 HD Smart Audio chip and detected as nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] High Definition Audio (rev a1). What does that tell you? It tells me not much as I am not familiar with that, and so I asked for more information.

I'm trying very hard to follow a logical troubleshooting process, and not just random remove pulse suggestion. ... There can be side effects to removing pulse, and pulse often is NOT the culpret.

So I prefer to try and get information, and attempt other approaches first, before a drastic removal of pulse.

Note I have 6 PCs at home, all with different hardware (4 of which are really OLD pcs) and all play sound in openSUSE-11.1 with no problem, WITH pulse. Plus my mother's very old PC also plays sound very well with PULSE.

Is it co-incidence that 7 of 7 PCs play sound ok with Pulse? NO it is not a co-incidence. Yes pulse has problems. But the vast majority of PCs can play sound ok with Pulse. Its only a minority (an important minority, but still a minority) that have a problem.

Should we force the majority to immediately adopt a solution applicable to the minority, before first logically testing other alternatives?

[mjung79]

Okay, firstly regarding the wireless.

To get the ieee80211_crypt_tkip module loaded, use YaST => System => /etc/sysconfig Editor. On the screen that follows, click on the + next to System and Kernel, then click on MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT. Add ieee80211_crypt_tkip module to that line.

The wl module will auto load once it is installed. Change to the directory where you built the driver, and enter sudo make install. Once you do the above two things, you should not need to enter those
commands.

I did these two things, but eth1 still does not show up after reboot. I no longer have to modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip, so I believe that part worked. I do still have to insmod wl.ko for eth1 to appear though. Once I do that, my wlan works perfectly and my eth0 (wired ethernet) worked out of the box.

Regarding the sound:

The general advice I give for sound problems is to start trying to work your way through the openSUSE audio troubleshooting guide: SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE .

Do NOT use the startup system sound as your criteria for stating sound does not work. Also be certain to check your mixer. Its not uncommon for a mixer setting (master, pcm or speaker) to be muted upon boot. In KDE your mixer is "kmix" (the small speaker in right hand corner). In Gnome your mixer is "alsamixer".

I found the link to the SDB:AudioTroubleshooting page earlier and worked with that prior to my post. I went up through Step 4 and also step 6. I didn't know what to do in step 5 because, as I stated, there seems to be some confusion about the detected model of my card.

I have adjusted the mixer settings in kmix and also the volume settings in YAST -> Hardware -> Sound. I also increased volume and toggled mute on/off using the laptop FN key combinations. I also have tried with PulseAudio enabled and disabled in YAST. No errors in either speaker test, but still no sound. Incidentally, sound works fine if I boot into Windows, so I know my hardware is functional.

I still think the detection of the sound chip as Nvidia is odd, but could be explainable with one vendor using another's chipset. I think the most telling clue is the message I get on bootup. I got a better look at it this time. It reads:

The audio playback device HDA NVidia [CONEXANT Analog] does not work. Failing back to HDA NVidia, NVIDIA HDMI (HDMI Audio Output).

As I mentioned, the laptop does not have an HDMI out.

I am pretty experienced in Windows administration, but as you can tell my Linux is nearly nil. I appreciate all the help you guys are providing.

> I am pretty experienced in Windows administration

unfortunately, most of that experience is not applicable on any
version of Linux, Unix, AIX, BSD, etc etc etc..

and, in some cases will lead you down blind alleys and to traps..

these might provide some relief for the frustration that usually
builds in the transition process

Linux is not Windows http://tinyurl.com/8b9s6
One Guys RANT "Not easier" http://tinyurl.com/yg3y9ca

-it *is* difficult at first, as you learn more it will smooth out and
in the end you will save all that time installing virus protection,
cleaning out the malware, rebooting to solve problems, reinstalling to
regain speed and sanity, etc etc etc..

patience and study will pay off..

oh, and your experience WILL help, because it is obvious that you have
already learned it is easier to read the documentation BEFORE you
break it beyond any level of "back out" is impossible..

-welcome-

--
palladium
Have a lot of fun..

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by mjung79

I still think the detection of the sound chip as Nvidia is odd, but could be explainable with one vendor using another's chipset.

I have a pc with such a detection, and your explanation is IMHO correct.

There is more detail on the chipset that we need to dig out. The script I asked you to run:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

will dig out that information, and it will post it to a private URL on the internet, which I need you to post the URL here. PLEASE read the more detailed instructions on my above post!

Alternative, if no internet, one can run:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh --no-upload

which will put the output of the script in the file /tmp/alsa-info.txt which one can then copy and paste on a pastebin site such as pastebin - Type, paste, share. ... and post here the URL.

Originally Posted by mjung79

I think the most telling clue is the message I get on bootup. I got a better look at it this time. It reads:

The audio playback device HDA NVidia [CONEXANT Analog] does not work. Failing back to HDA NVidia, NVIDIA HDMI (HDMI Audio Output).

Unfortunately, sound should still work after that. That is a bug/error most of us get.
There are a more than a few threads here to get rid of the error message (it won't fix your sound), where users have posted solutions that worked for them:

• Sound Problem - openSUSE Forums
• Phonon error - openSUSE Forums
• openSUSE Forums - View Single Post - openSUSE 11.1 display and audio problems
• SIS AC'97 problems for beginner - openSUSE Forums

I think I've seen other "solutions" as well, but a quick search did not reveal it (I probably had the wrong search parameters).

[lwfinger]

On 11/04/2009 09:46 AM, mjung79 wrote:
> I did these two things, but eth1 still does not show up after reboot. I
> no longer have to modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip, so I believe that part
> worked. I do still have to insmod wl.ko for eth1 to appear though. Once
> I do that, my wlan works perfectly and my eth0 (wired ethernet) worked
> out of the box.

Does 'modprobe wl' work? If not, then the 'make install' step failed.
Perhaps Broadcom forgot the 'depmod -a' step. As long as 'modprobe wl'
works, you should be able to add wl to the MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT.

[mjung79]

Does 'modprobe wl' work? If not, then the 'make install' step failed. Perhaps Broadcom forgot the 'depmod -a' step. As long as 'modprobe wl' works, you should be able to add wl to the MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT.

Nope, 'modprobe wl' yields, 'FATAL: Module wl not found.'

There is more detail on the chipset that we need to dig out. The script I asked you to run:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

will dig out that information, and it will post it to a private URL on the internet, which I need you to post the URL here. PLEASE read the more detailed instructions on my above post!

Here is the link to the output of the script.

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by mjung79

Here is the link to the output of the script.

Ok, the script confirms a Compaq Presario CQ50 Notebook PC with a 32-bit openSUSE-11.1 and a 2.6.27.37-0.1-pae kernel, with 1.0.17/1.0.18 of the alsa sound driver. The hardware audio codec is a Conexant CX20561 (Hermosa).

Your mixer settings look fine, although you could move the Master volume up from 74% to 95% until we get sound established, and then back off the volume to a lower level to reduce distortion.

Please provide the remainder of the information I asked for. ie output of:

rpm -qa '*alsa*'
rpm -qa '*pulse*'
rpm -q libasound2
uname -a
cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound

That will help me in coming up with the best recommendation.

[mjung79]

Here you go, thank you again.

mjung@geekbox:~/Desktop/hybrid_wl> rpm -qa '*alsa*'
alsa-utils-1.0.18-6.4
alsa-driver-unstable-kmp-pae-1.0.21.20091030_2.6.27.37_0.1-4.1
alsa-plugins-1.0.18-6.12
alsa-docs-1.0.18-8.12.1
alsa-tools-1.0.18-1.13
alsa-1.0.18-8.12.1
alsa-driver-kmp-pae-1.0.21.20091103_2.6.27.37_0.1-1.1
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.18-6.12
alsa-oss-1.0.17-1.37
alsa-firmware-1.0.17-1.42

mjung@geekbox:~/Desktop/hybrid_wl> rpm -qa '*pulse*'
pulseaudio-module-lirc-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-lang-0.9.14-2.2.1
libpulse-browse0-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-module-x11-0.9.14-2.2.1
libxine1-pulse-1.1.15-23.3.3
pulseaudio-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-module-jack-0.9.14-2.2.1
libpulse-mainloop-glib0-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-utils-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-esound-compat-0.9.14-2.2.1
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.18-6.12
libpulse0-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-module-bluetooth-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-module-zeroconf-0.9.14-2.2.1

mjung@geekbox:~/Desktop/hybrid_wl> rpm -q libasound2
libasound2-1.0.18-8.12.1

mjung@geekbox:~/Desktop/hybrid_wl> uname -a
Linux geekbox 2.6.27.37-0.1-pae #1 SMP 2009-10-15 14:56:58 +0200 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

mjung@geekbox:~/Desktop/hybrid_wl> cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound

options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
# M71A.fSQZAcZzQX5:MCP78S [GeForce 8200] High Definition Audio
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by mjung79

Here you go, thank you again.

OK, there is a problem right there. It looks like you attempted and failed to update to 1.0.21 of alsa. Note the diagnostic script gave this:

!!ALSA Version
!!------------

Driver version:     1.0.17
Library version:    
Utilities version:  1.0.18

which indicates your openSUSE is still using the version of alsa that comes with the 2.6.27.37 kernel, and NOT using the alsa-driver-kmp-pae.

The reason for that, I believe, is you have inappropriately installed alsa-driver-unstable-kmp-pae, which has prevented your alsa-drive-kmp-pae from functioning.

Please remove only alsa-driver-unstable-kmp-pae, and then re-update your alsa versions. To do that, first go to YaST > Software > Software Repositgories and disable your CD/DVD as a respository. Then from a terminal, with your PC connected to the internet, with root permissions, by copying and pasting the following:

zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/multimedia:/libs/openSUSE_11.1/ multimedia

zypper install alsa alsa-docs alsa-utils alsa-plugins alsa-tools alsa-plugins-pulse alsa-oss alsa-firmware libasound2

zypper rr multimedia

zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/multimedia:/audio:/KMP/openSUSE_11.1_Update/ multimedia

zypper install alsa-driver-kmp-pae

zypper rr multimedia

Then restart your PC and test the sound.

The above assumes you managed to sort your Internet access. It also assumes you did not inappropriately leave a repository called "multimedia" in your repository list.

[lwfinger]

On 11/04/2009 10:56 AM, mjung79 wrote:
>
>> Does 'modprobe wl' work? If not, then the 'make install' step failed.
>> Perhaps Broadcom forgot the 'depmod -a' step. As long as 'modprobe wl'
>> works, you should be able to add wl to the MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT.
>
> Nope, 'modprobe wl' yields, 'FATAL: Module wl not found.'

This gets confusing with two separate threads running. In the future,
please keep each problem in its own thread.

After you issue the command 'sudo /sbin/depmod -a', does 'sudo
/sbin/modprobe wl' then work? If not, please send me the output of

sudo find /lib/modules -name wl.ko

Thanks.