Hi,
The quality of sound I am getting is very poor with lots of noises.
I’m using openSUSE 11.4 on a DELL Inspiron 6400, and the sound is “82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller”.
I have tried removing pulseaudio but it did not change anything.
I had no problem with the sound on 11.2 and the quality of sound is normal on Windows.
I would appreciate any help and would happily provide more information if needed.
Thanks.
Firstly Which music files do you use and you have this problem?
Secondly go to system settings and see if gstreamer is energized.
And thirdly I want to see your repos
su
# zypper lr -d
Post the output here.
Thanks for the reply.
Well normally I’m listening to mp3 files using Amarok, but even when I’m listening to music on the internet (e.g flash based applications like youtube or grooveshark) I’m having the same issue.
I noticed something last night that thought maybe my problem is not sound related but I only notice it when there are some music playing, but couldn’t edit my post and didn’t want to look I’m bumping the thread.
I’m using 6 desktop (on KDE) the problem occurs when I switch to a desktop which has an active window on focus. If no window is open in a desktop or if windows are minimized everything is back to normal. But an active window causes the music play with noise and sometime a little slower and I think the system gets respectively slower as well.
Back to 11.2 everything was normal for me, but about a moth before 11.4 I upgraded from 11.2 to 11.3 and right after upgrading I had problem with my radeon ati, the system crushing right after logging in to the system most of the time. After I noticed how the problem occurs I thought it might be a graphic issue or maybe some other hardware issue and I only notice it when I’m having some music playing. I also should mention that the problem does not occur all the time.
I have gstreamer installed if that is what you mean by energized?
linux-svsd:~ # rpm -qa | grep gstreamer
gstreamer-0_10-fluendo-mp3-12-2.1.i586
libgstreamer-0_10-0-0.10.32-4.1.i586
gstreamer-0_10-plugins-base-0.10.32-4.1.i586
phonon-backend-gstreamer-0_10-4.4.4-3.1.i586
PackageKit-gstreamer-plugin-0.6.12-1.4.1.i586
gstreamer-0_10-0.10.32-4.1.i586
gstreamer-0_10-plugins-good-0.10.27-4.5.1.i586
gstreamer-0_10-plugin-hal-0.10.27-4.5.1.i586
gstreamer-0_10-plugin-gnomevfs-0.10.32-4.1.i586
Here the list of my repos:
linux-svsd:~ # zypper lr -d
# | Alias | Name | Enabled | Refresh | Priority | Type | URI | Service
--+----------------------------------+--------------+---------+---------+----------+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------
1 | Updates-for-openSUSE-11.4-11.4-0 | update | Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/update/11.4/ |
2 | ftp.uni-erlangen.de-suse | packman | Yes | Yes | 98 | rpm-md | http://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/mirrors/packman/suse/openSUSE_11.4/ |
3 | openSUSE:11.4:Contrib | contrib | Yes | Yes | 95 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/11.4:/Contrib/standard/ |
4 | repo-debug | debug-oss | No | Yes | 90 | NONE | http://download.opensuse.org/debug/distribution/11.4/repo/oss/ |
5 | repo-debug-update | debug-update | No | Yes | 90 | NONE | http://download.opensuse.org/debug/update/11.4/ |
6 | repo-non-oss | non-oss | Yes | Yes | 99 | yast2 | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.4/repo/non-oss/ |
7 | repo-oss | oss | Yes | Yes | 99 | yast2 | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.4/repo/oss/ |
8 | repo-source | source | No | Yes | 99 | NONE | http://download.opensuse.org/source/distribution/11.4/repo/oss/ |
linux-svsd:~ #
Thanks 
I have gstreamer installed if that is what you mean by energized?
I mean if it is enabled. Go to system settings and in phonon check if gstreamer is enabled.
Hi,
To make sure you have everything needed to gst the best out of your audio system, I suggest you check your multimedia settings here : MultiMedia Checker or mmcheck - Check Your openSUSE MultiMedia Setup in Just 16 Steps
The only place I can see gstreamer is in the backend tab as the preferred one.
http://i52.tinypic.com/1177hxz.png
Thanks, I’ll go through it
I thing maybe the pacman repo is responsible for that
2 | ftp.uni-erlangen.de-suse | packman | Yes | Yes | 98 | rpm-md | http://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/mirrors/packman/suse/openSUSE_11.4/ |
Try to modify this repo using this as URL Index of /suse/openSUSE_11.4/
I’m not sure if this helps… but given that you are using KDE, are you sure that Phonon is configured to use which backend? If I remember correctly the default backend is Xine and not gstreamer, so any changes to gstreamer will most likely be futile if the configured backend is Xine.
Try switching Phonon backend to gstreamer and see if you have the same problems (if you haven’t already).
Knowing which backend you are using is important for this situations. Note that I’m not all wise with KDE (don’t use it since 1.1.1), but we might have some cool results.
On 11.4 I noted even on KDE, gstreamer precedes xine in the Phonon backend list, so gstreamer will be used first. Unless you switch the order in System Settings>Multimedia.
Yeahh but first thing is to see the repos. As I know this repo
| ftp.uni-erlangen.de-suse | packman | Yes | Yes | 98 | rpm-md | http://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/mirrors/packman/suse/openSUSE_11.4/ |
is not so stable.
Thanks for the replies.
Done, but no improvement.
linux-svsd:~ # zypper lr -d |grep packman
3 | packman.inode.at-suse | packman | Yes | Yes | 98 | rpm-md | http://packman.inode.at/suse/openSUSE_11.4/
The prefered phonon backend is gstreamer:
http://i52.tinypic.com/1177hxz.png
Please post the contents of /var/lib/alsa/asound.state and the output of
aplay -l
.
Just another question, if you swap the backend of Phonom to Xine, do you still have the same results ?
contents of /var/lib/alsa/asound.state:
state.Intel {
control.1 {
iface MIXER
name 'Master Playback Volume'
value.0 17
value.1 17
comment {
access 'read write'
type INTEGER
count 2
range '0 - 31'
dbmin -9999999
dbmax 0
dbvalue.0 -2100
dbvalue.1 -2100
}
}
control.2 {
iface MIXER
name 'Master Playback Switch'
value.0 true
value.1 true
comment {
access 'read write'
type BOOLEAN
count 2
}
}
control.3 {
iface MIXER
name 'Capture Volume'
value.0 8
value.1 8
comment {
access 'read write'
type INTEGER
count 2
range '0 - 15'
dbmin 0
dbmax 2250
dbvalue.0 1200
dbvalue.1 1200
}
}
control.4 {
iface MIXER
name 'Capture Switch'
value.0 true
value.1 true
comment {
access 'read write'
type BOOLEAN
count 2
}
}
control.5 {
iface MIXER
name 'Mux Capture Volume'
value.0 0
value.1 0
comment {
access 'read write'
type INTEGER
count 2
range '0 - 4'
dbmin 0
dbmax 4000
dbvalue.0 0
dbvalue.1 0
}
}
control.6 {
iface MIXER
name 'IEC958 Playback Con Mask'
value '0fff000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000'
comment {
access read
type IEC958
count 1
}
}
control.7 {
iface MIXER
name 'IEC958 Playback Pro Mask'
value '0f00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000'
comment {
access read
type IEC958
count 1
}
}
control.8 {
iface MIXER
name 'IEC958 Playback Default'
value '0400000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000'
comment {
access 'read write'
type IEC958
count 1
}
}
control.9 {
iface MIXER
name 'IEC958 Playback Switch'
value false
comment {
access 'read write'
type BOOLEAN
count 1
}
}
control.10 {
iface MIXER
name 'IEC958 Default PCM Playback Switch'
value true
comment {
access 'read write'
type BOOLEAN
count 1
}
}
}
linux-svsd:~ # aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: STAC92xx Digital [STAC92xx Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
I did it once last night and the system crushed, will try it one more time.
When listening to music from Amarok I can open an MP3 file in VLC and get both sounds, however when I open an audio in a browser I only get one sound, I need to stop one to get the sound from the other one.
Edit:
Yes when I change the preferred backend to Xine I still have the issue.
It seems your configuration is ok, at least for me… I know this is a boring and extensive debugging process and thanks for trying to solve this issue.
I need to know which subsystem you are running so we can do some magic: output of “lspci -s 0:1b -vn” as root please 
Also you can try to unload and reload the snd-hda-intel module with “model=<from list>”
dell-bios
dell-m25
dell-d81
dell-d82
dell-m44
linux-svsd:~ # lspci -s 0:1b -vn
00:1b.0 0403: 8086:27d8 (rev 01)
Subsystem: 1028:01bd
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 41
Memory at efffc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [60] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [70] Express Root Complex Integrated Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [130] Root Complex Link
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
I don’t know how to do that :\
linux-svsd:~ # rmmod snd-hda-intel
ERROR: Module snd_hda_intel is in use
Thanks.[/size]
You can’t remove the module because it’s in use… so you have two options:
Then reloading the module with the options and test them out. If one of those works out for you, then we just need to add it to modprobe.conf… we’ll get back to it.
RIght I will add my 2C$ worth to this topic.
While it is difficult to be sure this sounds like the same problem that I am having in that sound / audio is choppy / and or with strange sound artifacts, music is not enjoyable.
The problem does seem to vary with the amount of screen activity less when no window has focus. This only happens when running KDE, with or without pulse audio makes no difference. It does not happen when using a Gnome or other desktop. My hardware is an IBM T60 laptop 2Gb memory 2G processors. Suse 11.2 was /is fine.
IMHO this incarnation of KDE has a problem with sound / video clashes on my hardware, may not be KDE per se, possibly KDE drives the hardware in such a way that some bits break This for me is sad and I will have to go back to either 11.2 if I want the KDE desktop although having now played with Gnome I am beginning to like it (and Bluetooth works as a bonus).
tonyd
I have the same problem. The sound to play with problem - short-plugging. Especially noticeable at high frequencies. In a browser, player, games, everywhere.
OpenSuse 11.4, Gnome
I to deleted PulseAudio.
My sound system:
82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller
Can you help me? Anybody?