problem with sound card

I am using a Dell inspiron 1420 laptop with a Sigmatel STAC 92XX C-Major Sound Card. I am not able to listen to audio from the speakers. Its working with head phones. I have tried all the options given in
SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE

The results to steps given in the above document are as follows:

  1. Output fo the command: rpm -q alsa alsa-utils alsa-firmware
    alsa-1.0.14-31
    alsa-utils-1.0.14-27
    alsa-firmware-1.0.14-24
  2. Output for the command: speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2 -l5 -twav or speaker-test -c2 -l5 -twav

NO AUDIO but text keeps coming
3. I tried alsaconf. Successfully finished but no change in situation.
4. Output for the command: cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
HDA Intel at 0xfebfc000 irq 20
5. bash alsa-info.sh
Successfully finished but no change in situation.

Kindly help me regarding this. Its truly annoying.

OK, thanks for the info. I would like to try and help, but I need some more information. First, the script “alsa-info.sh” will not fix anything. Its just a diagnostic script that is intended to provide as much information as possible, paste it to a web site, and then one is to pass the web site URL to the person trying to provide help. This way they have a better chance of providing the necessary help.

Please, can you run that script again? Just copy and paste the following into a konsole or terminal with your PC connected to the Internet:

wget -O alsa-info.sh http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh && bash alsa-info.sh

it will give you a URL. Please post the URL here.

Please also provide the output of copying and pasting the following one line at a time into a konsole or terminal:
rpm -qa | grep alsa
rpm -q libasound2
uname -a
cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound

With the above, I may be able to provide a recommendation.

Reference your sound symptoms. First let me say I’m sorry to read it does not work for you. I know that can be frustrating. Well done in determining sound works in your headphones but not your speakers. According to one of the alsa developers, it is easier to get sound working in headphones than speakers, so that may explain that symptom partially.

You did not mention your openSUSE version, but I note you mentioned 1.0.14 of alsa, which suggests to me 10.3 of openSUSE. If your hardware is newer, the 1.0.14 of alsa that came with openSUSE-10.3 may need updating.

Thank you for your reply. Yes It is very frustating. The version you have guessed is right. I am using OpenSuse 10.3. The output of the link you gave me is
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=071bcf8ccd1e17df898407d41ee3cc422297173b

Output of the commands:

  1. rpm -qa | grep alsa
    alsa-utils-1.0.14-27
    alsa-plugins-1.0.14-41
    alsa-oss-1.0.14-23
    alsa-firmware-1.0.14-24
    alsa-1.0.14-31

  2. rpm -q libasound2
    libasound2-1.0.14-31

  3. uname -a
    Linux bsn-linux 2.6.22.5-31-default #1 SMP 2007/09/21 22:29:00 UTC i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

  4. cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
    alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
    alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel

I hope that the above information should be sufficient for you to diagnose my problem.

Thanks in anticipation

OK, thanks for that ! I note the 2.6.22.5-31-default kernel on a 32-bit openSUSE-10.3 with 1.0.14 version of alsa on a stac9228 hardware audio codec.

As near as I can see, your PC is set up correctly, but either:

  • the alsa autoprobe of your hardware to automatically configure your sound did not work, or
  • your hardware is sufficiently new that an update to alsa is needed. I note you are running the older openSUSE-10.3 with the older 1.0.14 of alsa (where alsa is now up to version 1.0.20).

I’m not in a believer in updating alsa if it is not necessary, so lets first try to get your sound working out of your speakers without updating alsa, and only then if that does not work, try updating alsa.

So first, lets try some edits to your PC’s /etc/modprobe.d/sound file to force an alsa configuration. The module settings I recommend you try are listed here from the alsa-configuration.txt file that comes with version 1.0.14 of alsa for the stac9228:

	STAC9227/9228/9229/927x
	  ref		Reference board
	  3stack	D965 3stack
	  5stack	D965 5stack + SPDIF

I recommend you try “3stack” and if that does not work, then try “5stack” and if that does not work, then try “ref”. You can do that for “3stack” by opening /etc/modprobe.d/sound file and adding a line so that it now looks like:

options snd-hda-intel model=3stack
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel

save the change, then restart alsa sound driver by typing in a terminal/konsole su -c ‘rcalsasound restart’ and restart your mixer (kmix in kde and alsamixer in gnome) and test your headphone and speakers.

Note you can edit the /etc/modprobe.d/sound file by typing in a terminal or konsole:

  • in gnome: gnomesu ‘gedit /etc/modprobe.d/sound’
  • in KDE: kdesu ‘kwrite /etc/modprobe.d/sound’
    and enter root password when prompted for a password, make and save the change.

If “3stack” does not work, in the /etc/modprobe.d/sound file, change “3stack” for “5stack”. Save the change. Restart alsa sound driver by typing in a terminal/konsole su -c ‘rcalsasound restart’ and restart your mixer (kmix in kde and alsamixer in gnome) and test your headphone and speakers.

If it does not work, instead of “5stack” try “ref”. Restart alsa per above, your mixer, and test.

If that does not work, its possible an update of alsa is needed. I searched the alsa web site for the stac9228 (which is in your PC) and I noted the following:

Clearly there are updates in alsa sound driver to the stac9228 that is in your PC.

So to update, I recommend you remove the line we added from the /etc/modprobe.d/sound file and update your alsa version to version 1.0.20. You can do that by opening a terminal or a konsole, type ‘su’ (no quotes, enter root password when prompted) and with your PC connected to the internet copy and paste one by one (and execute one at a time) the following six zypper commands:

zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/multimedia:/audio/openSUSE_10.3/ multimedia
zypper install alsa-utils alsa-tools alsa-plugins alsa-oss alsa-firmware
zypper rr multimedia
zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/multimedia:/audio:/KMP/openSUSE_10.3/ multimedia
zypper install alsa-driver-kmp-default
zypper rr multimedia

Restart and test your sound. You may need to go to YaST > Hardware > Sound to configure your sound card after restarting after the update, and if YaST does not work, you can try running “alsaconf” with root permissions to configure alsa.

Note the above is optimized for the 2.6.22.5 kernel, and if you update your 10.3’s kernel to 2.6.22.19, you may lose sound and have to post here to get guidance on how to fix that.

This took a long time to type, so I am hoping it works.

Good luck !

Thank you so much for your prompt reply.
I am very sorry to say that I am still not able to hear sound.

I have followed your steps in sequence and the following is the responce I obtained.

  1. I was not able to execute the instruction given by you. Is the follwing a code or should I append these lines to the /etc/…/sound file?
    STAC9227/9228/9229/927x
    ref Reference board
    3stack D965 3stack
    5stack D965 5stack + SPDIF

I tried executing this as a code by first entering it directly on the command line and then saving it as a .sh file and then executing it. Both dint work. When I tried to execute it as a .sh file then it said permission denied.

Then I tried to paste these lines into the /etc/…/sound file. This is how the file looks after pasting the lines
STAC9227/9228/9229/927x
ref Reference board
3stack D965 3stack
5stack D965 5stack + SPDIF

options snd-hda-intel model=3stack
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel

When i tried to restart the sound file these are the Warnings I recieved.

Shutting down sound driver done
Starting sound driver: hda-intelWARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/sound line 1: ignoring bad line starting with ‘STAC9227/9228/9229/927x’
WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/sound line 2: ignoring bad line starting with ‘ref’
WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/sound line 3: ignoring bad line starting with ‘3stack’
WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/sound line 4: ignoring bad line starting with ‘5stack’
done
WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/sound line 1: ignoring bad line starting with ‘STAC9227 /9228/9229/927x’
WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/sound line 2: ignoring bad line starting with ‘ref’
WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/sound line 3: ignoring bad line starting with ‘3stack’
WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/sound line 4: ignoring bad line starting with ‘5stack’
WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/sound line 1: ignoring bad line starting with ‘STAC9227 /9228/9229/927x’
WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/sound line 2: ignoring bad line starting with ‘ref’
WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/sound line 3: ignoring bad line starting with ‘3stack’
WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/sound line 4: ignoring bad line starting with ‘5stack’

After doing this even the head phones are not working.
Then I have successfully installed the update for alsa.

When I opened YAST->Hardware->Sound then there is a new entry called [Colour=Blue]Sound Card\COLOR]. Under the index column of the 82801H Audio Controller it says not configured. When I try to configure it by clicking on Edit then there is an error saying
The kernel module snd-hda-intel for sound support could not be loaded. This can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.

Now when I try to play some music using Real Player 10, It says
Cannot open the audio device. Another application may be using it.

I think I have worsened the situation by doing some error. I am a novice in Linux and this is the first time I am using it. I installed Linux to learn it. Kindly point out the error I committed while following your instuctions. My heartfelt thanks for your support. As I will be out of town I will not be able to respond to your posts till 10th of Jun 09.

Stop ! Stop ! Stop!

Please, you have to read my post. I don’t think you did. I think you only skimmed through it. Let me quote:

Does that make it clear???

Yes, one adds a line, but one does NOT put in the line from the alsa-configuration.txt file. Just the model option. I gave you an example. LOOK AT THE EXAMPLE ! The rest of the line is a description of what the model option “might” be needed for. So please, read my post again.

No worries. We were all novices at some time. Just take it slow, … and when frustration mounts, go watch a movie or something else. Thats what I do.

I’m also going to be out of town from 4 to 5 June, and then from 16-June to 8-July.

Good luck in your efforts.