DELL e521 NVIDIA MCP51, output sound mangled

English Hardware
#1

This onboard card is recognised by kernel driver snd-hda-intel.
It only works with this modprobe file:

cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound

+++++++
options snd-hda-intel model=5stack
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel

wRyD.d0Gzwbsa7K3:MCP51 High Definition Audio

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
+++++++

Unfortunately, according to speaker-test, the speakers get mapped this way:(speaker-test -c6 -l2 -twav)
Front Left -> Front Left
Front Right -> Front Right
Center -> Front Right
Rear Right -> Center
Rear Left -> Center
LFE -> MUTE

I can provide alsa-info.txt output, just don’t know how to do it in this interface. Sorry.

I hope this is the right forum.
Thanks for any help.

#2

Getting 5.1 sound to work properly can be tricky.

My recommendation is to go in IRC chat “freenode” IRC channel #alsa and ask for help there. You may need to ask a dozen times at different times of the day, before you get the help you need.

I use the program ‘xchat’ to communicate on IRC chat.

#3

Where you have model=5stack

try it with “ref”

If it works let everyone know.

#4

China_Jobs, welcome to openSUSE forums.

I note you replied to a number of sound support threads, and in every case recommended the application of the model “ref”.

In fact, that model option does NOT work in most cases. If one looks at the 1.0.18 version of alsa-configuration.txt file, and does a search for ref, one will find that option “might” only work for the following options …

STAC9200, STAC9205/9254, STAC9220/9221, STAC9202/9250/9251, STAC9227/9228/9229/927x, STAC92HD71B*, STAC92HD73*

In the case of user fgbd, we do not know what hardware audio codec is on their PC. I note that they applied 5stack, and 5stack and ref both apply only to the following hardware audio codecs STAC9220/9221, STAC9227/9228/9229/927x which is a subset of the above. But “5stack” is also applicable to an ALC880, and if they apply “ref” to a PC with an ALC880 hardware audio codec, it may break their sound.

We can use all the help we can get in the forums, so if you get the chance you could read the following files (comes with the documentation in every alsa tarball):

  • alsa-configuration.txt
  • hd-audio-models.txt
  • hd-audio.txt

and that should shed some light on this, and the various aspects associated with troubleshooting Linux sound.

#5

Sorry for the long silence. I was away.
I found out my chipset is not fully supported: Sigmatel STAC9227.
So, it seems to be a kernel driver problem.
Thanks for the comments.

#6

You could try updating the driver. openSUSE-11.1 comes with alsa 1.0.17/1.0.18 in the kernel. But it is possible for one to install an rpm alsa-kmp-<kernel> which will replace the kernel driver.

There is guidance here on how to do that: Alsa-update - openSUSE
Note you must send six zypper comands. Six. The guide will explain what six to send. You could also type: rpm -qa ‘alsa’ to determine what alsa apps you have installed, and then update more than just “alsa, alsa-docs and libasound2” to the version in the repository quoted in that guide.

If you have any questions, please advise.

Also, if you have any specific suggestions on how to improve that update guide/wiki, please advise. I wrote the wiki and would like to improve it where possible.