I just installed OpenSuse11.1 on my new laptop. Everything seems to be working fine with with the exception of the sound card.My notebook is completely silent.
The codec of the audio card:
head -n 1 /proc/asound/card0/codec*
Codec: VIA VIA VT1708S
Searching the internet I found a few sites mentioning a driver for this codec but none that applied to OpenSuse11.1.
Then I found a thread about a new Linux kernel version 2.6.28 which stated that this version added (among many other things) support for VT1708S.
Now I have the following questions:
Did I understand the thread correctly that I have to get a Linux kernel of at least version 2.6.28 to get my sound card to work?
If I switch to a new kernel version, which version should I take? It seems that there is already version 2.6.31 available.
Would it be sensible to install milestone 5 of OpenSuse11.2 instead?
openSUSE-11.1 has a mix of 1.0.17/1.0.18 of alsa and may not yet as packaged support that sound card. But there are new alsa rpms available that one can install (up to 1.0.20 of alsa).
The kernel contains a version of alsa, but my understanding is one can also install alsa rpms that the kernel will use instead, if these rpms are installed.
I don’t know. I seriously doubt that is necessary. IMHO its not necessary. Just update alsa.
Don’t update your kernel for sound, without trying an alsa update.
Yes. That is possible. That is also NOT recommended, unless you wish to do it for TESTING ONLY and not for day to day activities.
Just update your alsa.
There is guidance here for sound problems: SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE
… now assuming you have checked all the nominal stuff (mixer, yast, alsaconf, etc … ) then to update your alsa go here for user space alsa update commands: Alsa-update - openSUSE
If the user-space alsa updates suggested above do not work, one can also try installing even more cutting edge (essentially daily (or momentary) snapshot packages from the upstream GIT trees) going here: Alsa-update-snapshot - openSUSE
In each of those URLs, you must send 6 commands (an amazing number of users only send 3 commands … I can NOT figure out how to stop them from making that mistake).
Note a reboot is needed after each set of 6 zypper commands, in order to unload old alsa modules and load the new.
If the above does not work, then write a bug report on openSUSE, as the packagers for openSUSE alsa are also alsa developers, and they definitely will be able to comment on the ability to get sound working without updating the kernel. Submitting Bug Reports - openSUSE