Ok thanks
I note a Gateway T series with openSUSE-11.4 and the 2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop kernel (ie you have not updated with any of the security fixes) running the alsa sound driver 1.0.23 version and alsa sound utilities version 1.0.24.2. Your gateway’s hardware audio codec is a STAC9205.
This should have just worked … and the fact it did not suggests to me that even if we get this to work, you are still in ‘bug reporting territory’.
I am going to speculate that your alsa sound driver automatic configuration is not configuring properly upon booting and so we can try to force a configuration by specifying a ‘model’ option. For your 2.6.37.1-1.2 kernel, if you look inside the directory (which is something like, but perhaps not exact) you will see the directory:
/usr/src/linux-2.6.37.1-1.2/Documentation/sound/alsa
and inside that directory you will see the file HD-Audio-Models.txt file.
That has the list of modules that can be forced (one at a time).
In the case of the STAC-9205 it has this list:
STAC9205/9254
=============
ref Reference board
dell-m42 Dell (unknown)
dell-m43 Dell Precision
dell-m44 Dell Inspiron
eapd Keep EAPD on (e.g. Gateway T1616)
auto BIOS setup (default)
So what you could do is try each of those, one at a time,specifying the model in your /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf file, restarting the alsa driver, restarting your mixer, and testing your sound headphone. If that makes things worse or does not make things better, then try a different model option. Keep doing this until all have been attempted. If nothing works, remove the change you made.
You can apply the model option (lets say you are trying ‘eapd’ ) with root permissions by adding a line to the front of your /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf file such that it looks like:
options snd-hda-intel model=eapd
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
# u1Nb.0KXjhfiYyx4:82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
and then save that change. Then restart your alsa sound driver by sending the command with root permissions:
rcalsasound restart
Then restart your mixer (kmix in KDE and alsamixer (?) in Gnome) and then test.
If that does not work, then replace ‘eapd’ with another setting (say ‘ref’) and save, restart alsa driver, restart your mixer and test.
Do that for each option.
If you wished to try the line you read about on the Internet you would try:
options snd-hda-intel model=auto position_fix=0
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
# u1Nb.0KXjhfiYyx4:82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
restart your alsa sound driver restart your mixer and test.
If you look inside the file /usr/src/linux-2.6.37.1-1.2/Documentation/sound/alsa/Alsa-Configuration.txt you will see it reads:
Module snd-hda-intel
--------------------
Module for Intel HD Audio (ICH6, ICH6M, ESB2, ICH7, ICH8, ICH9, ICH10,
PCH, SCH),
ATI SB450, SB600, R600, RS600, RS690, RS780, RV610, RV620,
RV630, RV635, RV670, RV770,
VIA VT8251/VT8237A,
SIS966, ULI M5461
[Multiple options for each card instance]
model - force the model name
** position_fix - Fix DMA pointer (0 = auto, 1 = use LPIB, 2 = POSBUF)**
probe_mask - Bitmask to probe codecs (default = -1, meaning all slots)
When the bit 8 (0x100) is set, the lower 8 bits are used
as the "fixed" codec slots; i.e. the driver probes the
slots regardless what hardware reports back
probe_only - Only probing and no codec initialization (default=off);
Useful to check the initial codec status for debugging
bdl_pos_adj - Specifies the DMA IRQ timing delay in samples.
Passing -1 will make the driver to choose the appropriate
value based on the controller chip.
patch - Specifies the early "patch" files to modify the HD-audio
setup before initializing the codecs. This option is
available only when CONFIG_SND_HDA_PATCH_LOADER=y is set.
See HD-Audio.txt for details.
beep_mode - Selects the beep registration mode (0=off, 1=on, 2=
dynamic registration via mute switch on/off); the default
value is set via CONFIG_SND_HDA_INPUT_BEEP_MODE kconfig.
[Single (global) options]
single_cmd - Use single immediate commands to communicate with
codecs (for debugging only)
enable_msi - Enable Message Signaled Interrupt (MSI) (default = off)
power_save - Automatic power-saving timeout (in second, 0 =
disable)
power_save_controller - Reset HD-audio controller in power-saving mode
(default = on)
This module supports multiple cards and autoprobe.
See Documentation/sound/alsa/HD-Audio.txt for more details about
HD-audio driver.
with more detail in the HD-Audio.txt in the same directory.
HD-AUDIO CONTROLLER
-------------------
DMA-Position Problem
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The most common problem of the controller is the inaccurate DMA
pointer reporting. The DMA pointer for playback and capture can be
read in two ways, either via a LPIB register or via a position-buffer
map. As default the driver tries to read from the io-mapped
position-buffer, and falls back to LPIB if the position-buffer appears
dead. However, this detection isn't perfect on some devices. **In such
a case, you can change the default method via `position_fix` option**.
`position_fix=1` means to use LPIB method explicitly.
`position_fix=2` means to use the position-buffer. 0 is the default
value, the automatic check and fallback to LPIB as described in the
above. If you get a problem of repeated sounds, this option might
help.
In addition to that, every controller is known to be broken regarding
the wake-up timing. It wakes up a few samples before actually
processing the data on the buffer. This caused a lot of problems, for
example, with ALSA dmix or JACK. Since 2.6.27 kernel, the driver puts
an artificial delay to the wake up timing. This delay is controlled
via `bdl_pos_adj` option.
When `bdl_pos_adj` is a negative value (as default), it's assigned to
an appropriate value depending on the controller chip. For Intel
chips, it'd be 1 while it'd be 32 for others. Usually this works.
Only in case it doesn't work and you get warning messages, you should
change this parameter to other values.
Both the HD-Audio.txt and Alsa-Configuration.txt contain suggestions, but the instructions are complex and not for the faint hearted (I don’t understand 95% of what is in there).
If none of the above helps, advise, and we can try to update your alsa sound driver.
