CK804 AC'97 Audio Controller problems.

English Hardware
1

Hi,

I’m having some trouble getting this audio controller to output sound. It’s on an ‘ECS NFORCE4 A939’ motherboard. Yast2 configures it to use the snd-intel8x0 module automatically; I’ve also tweaked some of the workarounds to no avail.

Audio plays in applications but I can’t hear anything, even with volume (software and hardware) at full.

I’ve read around and discovered that other people have had similar problems yet their solutions do not work for me. Therefore I require some assistance in this matter.

For your convenience I have most of the output you need:

OpenSuSE 11.0 x86 i586 , Using Gnome 2.22.1

alsa-info output:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=05f98fe05fee19b3464a8f15a0fb195e9a4742d7

rpm -qa | grep alsa:


alsa-oss-1.0.15-48.1
alsa-plugins-1.0.16-57.1
alsa-1.0.16-39.1
alsa-utils-1.0.16-35.1

I don’t have anything pulseaudio related installed.

rpm -q libasound2:

libasound2-1.0.16-39.1

cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound:



options snd slots=snd-intel8x0
# 8otl.VGcxzxZ4x17:CK804 AC'97 Audio Controller
alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0

uname -a:


Linux i-ghost 2.6.25.20-0.4-pae #1 SMP 2009-06-01 09:57:12 +0200 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

Wasn’t working with an older kernel either, so that option can be dismissed.

Thanks in advance.

2

SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE

Unfortunately our resident sound guru (oldcpu) is away on his Jollies. Maybe you already checked that page.
Anyway ‘oldcpu’ might check in, he has been doing.

3

Darn, I was hoping oldcpu would shed some light on the matter. Nevermind, I’ll install alsa-firmware to see if that does any good and I’ll also run throught that troubleshooting guide tommorrow.

Thanks. :slight_smile:

4

Hi
You need to set the stream, have the same sound card (diff m/b though)
and found tweaking with the gnome mixer applet to use the CK804 not he
CK804-IEC958 then under the control center sound devices have a play
with the options there.

Although I’m using SLED at the moment, this does dual boot with
openSuSE and have to do the same…

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.23-0.1-default
up 2:43, 2 users, load average: 0.14, 0.13, 0.25
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 185.18.14

5

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. Could you please provide some detailed instructions for the solution you provided? What do you mean by setting the stream etc?

Thanks.

6

Hi
Assuming Gnome, if you right click on the volume icon, then
select ‘open Volume Control’ there are three icons in a row on the
output devices tab, the far right one had a ^ but pointing down, this
is how you can select streams (although I do note I only have default
now…)

The other is via the Control Center -> Sound I currently have selected
'Nvidia CK804 with ALC850 Nvidia CK804 (OSS) for all three sound
playback options, ALSA for sound capture and Nvidia CK804 (Alsa Mixer)
for Default Mixer Tracks.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.23-0.1-default
up 10:41, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.08
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 185.18.14

7

I note from the diagnostic script that your PC has an ALC655. You are also running 1.0.16 of alsa. If I search the alsa web site for the ALC655 I note this: Search results - AlsaProject - for ALC655

That suggests to me you should try updating your alsa driver. You can do that by following the guidance here (to update to 1.0.20 of alsa). Alsa-update - openSUSE

Note you MUST send 6 zypper commands, and you must pick the commands that are specific to your kernel version and to your openSUSE version. Optimize the command for alsa-oss, alsa-plugins, etc … to match your installed alsa versions. Be certain to pick the correct alsa-driver-kmp-pae to install for your PC.

While I live in Europe, I’m currently on vacation in Asia. Tonight in Bangkok Thailand (after a whirl-wind 3 day/night visit to China (MaCau, Shenzhen, Hong Kong)). Tomorrow I fly to Phuket. The place where I am staying in Phuket has no internet access.

8

Thanks for the speedy replies guys, very much appreciated. I will run through these instructions tomorrow when I have access to my computer.

However, I believe it is the onboard sound that is actually fried as I can get a very faint crackling when playing music with the music just barely audible. This is also true for when I tried it on Windows Vista (with proprietary drivers, mind you) and another set of speakers which I know aren’t broken. Therefore, as a precaution, I have ordered a new ‘Creative Labs Soundblaster Live!’ soud card which is confirmed 100% working by ALSA and H4L.

Again, thank you for the detailed replies, I shall put these solutions into motion tomorrow.

:slight_smile: