I see you also got the ALC888 (my laptop also got that one).
Try to install/compile the newest alsa drivers.
Then, in /etc/modprobe.d/sound add/modify the line:
options snd-hda-intel enable=1 index=0 model=auto
where model can take one of the values specified in the “ALSA-configuration.txt” in the alsa-driver sources, after the line containing the string “ALC880”. Here are some possible models:
Before I tried your advice PVince81 I was getting a channel in kmix for headphones but there was no volume slider, like the channel was ‘greyed out’ so to speak
Adding options snd-hda-intel enable=1 index=0 model=auto to /etc/modprobe.d/sound as you suggested did get the headphone channel enabled complete with volume slider, thought we were in business!
(/etc/modprobe.d/sound was empty before doing this)
Still don’t get volume through the headphones though
Even in windows with this card you can’t just plug the headphones in and get sound through them, there’s an I/O section in the card’s ‘control panel’ and headphones have to be selected in there to get sound out of them and mute the speakers
It’s as if it’s almost there but there’s something I must do to ‘tell’ the card to send the output to the phones instead of the speakers … god knows what though
Incidentally there’s also a file called sound.YaST2Save in /etc/modprobe with the following lines in it:
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
M71A.usNviCF37Y6:MCP78S [GeForce 8200] High Definition Audio
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
I’m assuming this file gets read in and wondering if the values in it might not be interfering
Can you provide more very detailed information so a good recommendation can be given? For openSUSE-11.1, you can do that, with your laptop connected to the internet, by opening a gnome-terminal or a kde konsole and twice copy and paste the following into that terminal/konsole
/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh
Run it the 1st time with root permissions. It will ask if you wish to do an update of the script. Select YES.
Then run it again (as either a regular user or as root). This time it will diagnose your PC’s hardware and software configuration for audio, and it will post its output on the Internet/web. It will give you the URL of the web site. Please post that URL here. JUST the URL.
Also, please copy and paste the following commands one line at a time into a gnome-terminal or a konsole and post here the output: rpm -qa | grep alsa
rpm -qa | grep pulse
rpm -q libasound2
uname -a
cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound… with that information I may be able to make a recommendation.
Also, do NOT waste too much time on this. Simply post on our forum if you get stumped, and continue to look for help that way.
Please note I am on vacation, so my reply may be 3 or 4 days in coming.
Note that instead of the model option “auto”, there are many other options one can try instead. From the alsa-configuration.txt file for 1.0.18 of alsa:
ALC883/888
3stack-dig 3-jack with SPDIF I/O
6stack-dig 6-jack digital with SPDIF I/O
3stack-6ch 3-jack 6-channel
3stack-6ch-dig 3-jack 6-channel with SPDIF I/O
6stack-dig-demo 6-jack digital for Intel demo board
acer Acer laptops (Travelmate 3012WTMi, Aspire 5600, etc)
acer-aspire Acer Aspire 9810
medion Medion Laptops
medion-md2 Medion MD2
targa-dig Targa/MSI
targa-2ch-dig Targs/MSI with 2-channel
laptop-eapd 3-jack with SPDIF I/O and EAPD (Clevo M540JE, M550JE)
lenovo-101e Lenovo 101E
lenovo-nb0763 Lenovo NB0763
lenovo-ms7195-dig Lenovo MS7195
lenovo-sky Lenovo Sky
haier-w66 Haier W66
3stack-hp HP machines with 3stack (Lucknow, Samba boards)
6stack-dell Dell machines with 6stack (Inspiron 530)
mitac Mitac 8252D
clevo-m720 Clevo M720 laptop series
fujitsu-pi2515 Fujitsu AMILO Pi2515
3stack-6ch-intel Intel DG33* boards
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)
Note they can only be applied one at a time, and alsa must be restarted between each attempt, either by restarting the pc, or by typing in a terminal: su -c ‘rcalsasound restart’ enter root password, restart one’s mixer, and test the sound.
On my laptop I don’t have a headphone channel. When I plug a headphone/external speakers into the jack, it will automatically switch to headphone/out mode and the laptop speakers will mute.
In your case, like oldcpu advised, you can try the other model strings.
I did try every model, other than the channels being available (or not) in kmix/alsamixer makes little difference to the actual behaviour of the card
Automatically switching to headphone output and muting speakers isn’t what the card in this laptop does
Even on the factory default setup it never did that but had to be switched over ‘manually’ using the card’s software
Therein lies the problem
I was hoping there would be a command or setting (like in a conf file somewhere) that could redirect the output to headphones, I wouldn’t even mind if it was permanently set to use headphones as I generally plug in portable speakers when I don’t want to use headphones anyway
But … I can’t use external speakers unless I’m in windows anyway because, you guessed it, for it to use the external speakers the sound has to be redirected to the headphone socket I’m plugging them into
It’s just an annoyance having to boot into windows every time I wanna use the headphones
At the risk of being flamed, I confess I have to state that I’m skeptical about this claim wrt Linux.
It appears you have 1.0.17/1.0.18 of alsa installed, but you did not answer my request about installed rpms. I note this on the alsa page in searching for the ALC888 that your laptop has: Search results - AlsaProject - ALC888 search results which specifically notes update to alsa for the ALC888 wrt the headphones.
But given you did not provide the answer to this request:
I can provide no more advice. That information is necessary for the methodology that I follow in troubleshooting.
Good luck with your efforts, and I’ll quietly leave this thread.
From the alsa information you posted before it seems that the headphone channel is redirected to the “Surround” mixer control.
Please try to unmute all mixer controls and increase the volume and see which one controls the headphone jack.
You might be able to set the volume of the headphone jack to some value, and mute the front mixer control which will mute your internal speakers.
Also, it would be better that you upgrade your alsa drivers to the latest version (1.0.21), because what I mentionned in 1) is just a workaround. As oldcpu mentioned, many problems related to your sound chipset have been fixed since then.
Once you have upgrade, please try the “auto” again.