I just got a new audio setup. A 5.1 with all the bells and whistles… I am currently using the native intel sound card with the realtek audio codec. Configured it on windows with o sweat at all… but I dont use windows for anything other than gaming…
I booted in Suse 10.3
Problem Statement: Installed alsa drivers /lib/utilites and tools from the tar balls and everything is release 1.0.17. I modified the /etc/modprobe.d/sound file to add the model=3stack-6ch line and restarted alsa. Swapped the jacks because LFE and Center from speaker-test were playing in rear left and right speakers. Now everything except my rear left and right speakers is working.
I figured from browsing across various guides that rear speakers are controlled from the wave surround control. I dont have it. Its not there in any of the mixers. not even there in amixer simple controls.
Your codec is not recognized by that script. What lead you to believe that your Intel DG33FB needed the 3stack-6ch model assignment in your /etc/modprobe.d/sound ?
If you are looking for a quick solution, you could install xchat, go to irc channel freenode #alsa and see if you can get user “wishie” or “gnubien” to help. They are real guru’s when it comes to sorting 5.1 sound.
Its possible you need to create a “.asoundrc” file under /home/your-user-name directory:
.asoundrc - ALSA wiki](http://alsa.opensrc.org/.asoundrc)
I found out from the intel website the my sound card could give 5.1 surround sound through the ALC888 hd codec… and under those the 3 jack model in back was 3stack-6ch.
and its only the rear speakers that arent working because I can’t raise the wave surround setting… because I can’t see it… the front left,right,center and woofer boxes work perfectly…?
Do I need to get a new mixer or recompile alsa from the start…
The script output is unusual. It does not give the normal output for openSUSE-11.0. Did you by chance custom compile one or more of the alsa packages? If so, that might explain the unusual information being provided on your openSUSE-10.3 PC.
Please note, that there is an alternative to compiling to get the latest alsa. One can install rpms for the latest alsa per the guidance here: Alsa-update - openSUSE
ie. one can send six commands for one’s alsa and one’s kernel (2.6.22.5 in your PC’s case):
zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/multimedia:/audio/openSUSE_10.3/ multimedia
I entered the command for the bigsmp as I note you have that kernel. (Your PC must have a lot of RAM to need the bigsmp kernel).
Note that if one update’s their kernel, then one will need to change the “zypper install alsa-driver-kmp-bigsmp” to a version compatible with the new kernel (per the guidance in the alsa update url I provided)
I does appear you need 1.0.16 of alsa (which you have) to obtain surround sound. I note this on the alsa site searching for alc888: Search results for alc888 - AlsaProject
And the ALSA-Configuration.txt file (for 1.0.16 of alsa) lists the following as possible options for the ALC883/888, of which you have applied 3stack-6ch:
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
haier-w66 Haier W66
6stack-hp HP machines with 6stack (Nettle boards)
3stack-hp HP machines with 3stack (Lucknow, Samba boards)
6stack-dell Dell machines with 6stack (Inspiron 530)
mitac Mitac 8252D
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)
… and the 1.0.17 ALSA-Configuration.txt file removes one of the hp entries and adds a dell and fujitsu entry (I won’t post it here). I did not check the ALSA-Configuration.txt file for 1.0.18 RC1 of alsa.
(Your PC must have a lot of RAM to need the bigsmp kernel).
Yeah 4GB of highly overclocked RAM…
Anyhow back to topic I did compile everything from the tar-balls… Thats how I do almost all of my things. I like to work in a very tight system tree so I always maintain a log of what file goes where. I just don’t have that kind of freedom with the RPM installs. Plus after I get this working on the big-smp I would like to make it work with my custom kernel. so I need to know exactly what was the problem.
I’m thinking visiting IRC freenode #alsa may be your best bet. Sometimes it takes a few visits to get attention.
On IRC #alsa User wishie visits after work, I think (he is located down under in Australia) so if you do some time zone conversions you can get a flavour as to when he visits. I think (not sure) user gnubian is based out of Europe (possibly UK ? ) and he also drops by IRC #alsa after work. There are also others (like crimsum) who will answer questions from time to time.
Their alsa knowledge is incredibly deep (as opposed to mine where my knowledge is very shallow in comparison) and its possible they can rattle off a 5.1 setup solution very quickly.
i,ll definitely try… Any how thanks for all your help and everything… by the way… can you tell me how you climb from a puzzled penguin to something higher…?
Lol… Then I need to catch up fast. I recently discovered forums as a much faster and more chaotic way of disseminating and assimilating knowledge on a instant cure for things front. and im all about speed and chaos. Consider Me a regular from now on.
By the way sound is working now. I figured it may just be a conflict so did a lotta cleaning up in usr/lib and usr/include… built again with the release candidates and I have glorious 5.1 in Linux.
