Problem with soundcard AC 97

henah · March 2, 2009, 10:52pm

Hi

I have an Toshiba Satellite Laptop, with a Realtek AC 97 ICH6 Family)sound card

It don’t seem to find my card…

82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC’97 Audio Controller
• Configured as sound card number 0
• Driver snd-intel8x0

(if I understand the phrase (card number 0) it means that the card is not working???)

When I do test on it, I cant hear any test sound at all

I have followed a couple of tutorials and reinstalled OpenSuse 11 , four times

but I don’t seem to solve the problem,

thankful for help!!

oldcpu · March 3, 2009, 7:48am

No, it means the counting starts at “0”

Ok, what test sound ?

openSUSE-11.0. Not 11.1. Correct?

If you have not tried already, you could try working your way thru the openSUSE audio troubleshooting guide (I wrote that guide):
SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE

Ensure you moved both master and PCM volume and headphone controls up in your mixer to 95% when testing sound. After you have confirmed basic sound you can move those down to a lower level to remove distortion.

Please read the troubleshooting guide correctly, … especially the part about going to YaST > hardware > sound > other > volume and moving your volume levels up really high there (up to 95% for testing - you can back off later if need be).

To test your sound I recommend you try each of these sound tests (as both a regular user, and with root permissions) to see if one might work:speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2 -l5 -twavNote Linux is case sensitive, and “D” is not the same as “d”. To stop the above test, while the konsole/xterm has the mouse focus, press <CTRL><C> on the keyboard. Note you should check your mixer settings (kmix if using KDE, and alsamixer if using Gnome) to ensure that PCM and Master Volume are set around 75%. Note the test for surround sound is different.

If that test yields errors, try instead this more simple test: speaker-test -c2 -l5 -twavNote, you should hear a lady’s voice saying ‘FRONT LEFT’,‘FRONT RIGHT’ five times. Note its quite common only 1 of those 2 speaker tests will work. You only need 1 to work to prove your basic sound works.

If you have no success with the audio troubleshooting guide, then I will need more information if I am to make a recommendation … So can you provide more very detailed information so a good recommendation can be given? In the case of openSUSE-11.0, you can do that, with your PC connected to the internet, by opening a gnome-terminal or a kde konsole and with root permissions copy and paste the following:

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

it will run a diagnostic script and post the output to a web site on the Internet. It will give you the URL of the web site. Please post that URL here. Just the URL.

Also, please to provide additional information, copy and paste the following commands one line at a time into a gnome-terminal or a konsole and post here the output: rpm -qa | grep alsa
rpm -qa | grep pulse
rpm -q libasound2
uname -a
cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound

henah · March 3, 2009, 8:15pm

Great thanks, I will try the tutorial at once!!

I hope it works, I really want to shift over from Windows

henah · March 3, 2009, 8:44pm

I am trying with the tutorial again, don’t want to ask to stupid questions… but the section about rpm and Tarball, I get little lost… should I add this to the command prompt and instead change /openSUSE_10.3/ to /OpenSUSE_11.0/ that I am using?

zypper ar Index of /repositories/multimedia:/audio/openSUSE_10.3 multimedia-audio

I added the info you asked for…

–2009-03-03 21:27:43-- http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh

Resolving Main Page - AlsaProject… 212.20.107.51

Connecting to www.alsa-project.org|212.20.107.51|:80… connected.

HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 302 Found

Location: http://git.alsa-project.org/?p=alsa-driver.git;a=blob_plain;f=utils/alsa-info.sh [following]

–2009-03-03 21:27:49-- http://git.alsa-project.org/?p=alsa-driver.git;a=blob_plain;f=utils/alsa-info.sh

Resolving git.alsa-project.org… 212.20.107.51

Reusing existing connection to Main Page - AlsaProject.

HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 200 OK

Length: unspecified [text/plain]

Saving to: `alsa-info.sh’

  <=>                                  ] 24,649      76.1K/s   in 0.3s

2009-03-03 21:27:49 (76.1 KB/s) - `alsa-info.sh’ saved [24649]

Your ALSA information is located at

Please inform the person helping you.

linux-nwsg:/home/henrik # rpm -qa | grep alsa

alsa-oss-1.0.15-48.1

alsa-utils-1.0.16-35.1

alsa-1.0.16-39.1

alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.16-57.1

alsa-plugins-1.0.16-57.1

linux-nwsg:/home/henrik # rpm -qa | grep pulse

pulseaudio-module-bluetooth-0.9.10-26.1

gstreamer-0_10-pulse-0.9.5-54.1

pulseaudio-module-lirc-0.9.10-26.1

libpulse0-0.9.10-26.1

pulseaudio-module-x11-0.9.10-26.1

pulseaudio-module-zeroconf-0.9.10-26.1

libpulse-mainloop-glib0-0.9.10-26.1

pulseaudio-0.9.10-26.1

pulseaudio-module-gconf-0.9.10-26.1

pulseaudio-esound-compat-0.9.10-26.1

alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.16-57.1

libpulsecore4-0.9.10-26.1

libpulse-browse0-0.9.10-26.1

pulseaudio-utils-0.9.10-26.1

linux-nwsg:/home/henrik # rpm -q libasound2

libasound2-1.0.16-39.1

linux-nwsg:/home/henrik # uname -a

Linux linux-nwsg 2.6.25.20-0.1-pae #1 SMP 2008-12-12 20:30:38 +0100 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

linux-nwsg:/home/henrik # cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound

alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0

alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0

linux-nwsg:/home/henrik #

Thanks for help!!!

ps I get this error message quit a bit

error
“Volume Control” has quit unexpectedly
If you reload a panel object, it will automatically be added back to the panel.

henah · March 3, 2009, 8:50pm

I can hear sound when I do the command

speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2 -l5 -twav

But, when I am going to YaST > hardware > sound > other Play test, , it doesn’t work

bless henrik

oldcpu · March 3, 2009, 9:46pm

Yes, if you have 11.0 you should be using 11.0 and not 10.3.

oldcpu · March 3, 2009, 9:52pm

The “play test” does not always work in YaST. Its quirk of 11.0 and 11.1 (it worked well in earlier openSUSE versions).

Since your sound now works, I recommend you add the necessary codecs you need to play many different audio and video formats. You can do that by first setting up your software package management’s repositories for easily installing software. I recommend you add links to only OSS, Non-OSS, Update and Packman repositories (where repositories are in essence file servers connected to the internet with openSUSE software on them). There is guidance for adding those 4 here for openSUSE-11.0: Repositories/11.0 - openSUSE-Community Again, only add oss, non-oss, update and packman. If you added others, give serious thought to removing them.

Once they are added, with your pc connected to the internet, go to YAST > Software > Software management, and change the “filter” to “search” and search for and install the packman packaged versions of amarok, amarok-xine, amarok-packman, smplayer, mplayerplug-in, xine-ui. Apply that. Then mark for removal xine-lib (don’t apply it yet) and mark for installation the packman packaged libxine1. Then apply both at the same time (one removal and one install). Also install the packman pacakged libffmpeg0 and w32codec-all and vlc. Exit YaST and you should have reasonable multimedia playback.

henah · March 6, 2009, 4:53pm

Sorry for late replay, my touchpad died, but after some tweaking and reading i got it to work!

I followed your instructions on:

Since your sound now works, I recommend you add the necessary codecs you need to play many different audio and video formats. You can do that by first setting up your software package management’s repositories for easily installing software. I recommend you add links to only OSS, Non-OSS, Update and Packman repositories (where repositories are in essence file servers connected to the internet with openSUSE software on them). There is guidance for adding those 4 here for openSUSE-11.0: Repositories/11.0 - openSUSE-Community Again, only add oss, non-oss, update and packman. If you added others, give serious thought to removing them.

Once they are added, with your pc connected to the internet, go to YAST > Software > Software management, and change the “filter” to “search” and search for and install the packman packaged versions of amarok, amarok-xine, amarok-packman, smplayer, mplayerplug-in, xine-ui. Apply that. Then mark for removal xine-lib (don’t apply it yet) and mark for installation the packman packaged libxine1. Then apply both at the same time (one removal and one install). Also install the packman pacakged libffmpeg0 and w32codec-all and vlc. Exit YaST and you should have reasonable multimedia playback.

But the sound card is still not working,it worked for a while and i could hear the"start up" sound, but next time I logged on the computer the sound was gone, I installed all the codecs and I removed some of the other resps I had there so Only the only one you recommended is there

When I try to get pulseaudio started I get a error msg that the connection is lost? Can that be where the problem is? Or

can it also be something that has to do if I log on as Root or not?

Thanks for all help so far!! I feel a bit stupid that i dont have got it to work yet!

oldcpu · March 6, 2009, 5:21pm

Whether the start up sound works, or does not work, is not a good test to determine if your basic sound is working. Just the contrary. its a bad test.

Please to test your sound I recommend you try each of these sound tests (as both a regular user, and with root permissions) to see if one might work:

speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2 -l5 -twav

Note Linux is case sensitive, and “D” is not the same as “d”. To stop the above test, while the konsole/xterm has the mouse focus, press <CTRL><C> on the keyboard. In this second case, when checking your mixer settings (kmix if using KDE, and alsamixer if using Gnome) to ensure that PCM and Master Volume are set around 55%. Note the test for surround sound is different. You can back off on those settings once basic sound is established.

If that test yields errors, try instead this more simple test:

speaker-test -c2 -l5 -twav

Note, you should hear a lady’s voice saying ‘FRONT LEFT’,‘FRONT RIGHT’ five times. Note its quite common only 1 of those 2 speaker tests will work. You only need 1 to work to prove your basic sound works.

Please let us know of one of those two speaker-tests work?

henah · March 6, 2009, 5:32pm

The first test works fine, i hear her voice 5 times

the second tests fails

look below on output in terminal

henrik@linux-nwsg:~> speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2 -l5 -twav

speaker-test 1.0.16

Playback device is plug:front
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
WAV file(s)
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 8 to 16384
Period size range from 8 to 16384
Using max buffer size 16384
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 4096
was set buffer_size = 16384
0 - Front Left
1 - Front Right
Time per period = 2.735994
0 - Front Left
1 - Front Right
Time per period = 3.071074
0 - Front Left
1 - Front Right
Time per period = 2.901450
0 - Front Left
1 - Front Right
Time per period = 3.072409
0 - Front Left
1 - Front Right
Time per period = 3.071004
henrik@linux-nwsg:~> speaker-test -c2 -l5 -twav

speaker-test 1.0.16

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
WAV file(s)
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 128 to 1048576
Period size range from 64 to 262144
Using max buffer size 1048576
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 262144
was set buffer_size = 1048576
*** PULSEAUDIO: Unable to create stream.
Unable to set hw params for playback: Input/output error
Setting of hwparams failed: Input/output error
henrik@linux-nwsg:~>

henah · March 6, 2009, 5:36pm

I redid the tst as su also, the same result

“*** PULSEAUDIO: Unable to create stream.
Unable to set hw params for playback: Input/output error
Setting of hwparams failed: Input/output error”

Does tha means that there is some kind of problems with pulse?

linux-nwsg:/home/henrik # speaker-test -c2 -l5 -twav

speaker-test 1.0.16

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
WAV file(s)
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 128 to 1048576
Period size range from 64 to 262144
Using max buffer size 1048576
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 262144
was set buffer_size = 1048576
*** PULSEAUDIO: Unable to create stream.
Unable to set hw params for playback: Input/output error
Setting of hwparams failed: Input/output error
linux-nwsg:/home/henrik #

oldcpu · March 6, 2009, 6:55pm

Then I believe your basic sound functions.

What is the output of running this in a konsole or terminal:

rpm --query --all 'libav*' 'libpostproc*' 'libswscale*' '*xine*' '*gst*' '*layer*' '*vlc*' | grep -v avahi | sort

You could try working your way thru this:
Check your multimedia problem in ten steps - openSUSE Forums

henah · March 6, 2009, 8:20pm

henrik@linux-nwsg:~> rpm --query --all ‘libav*’ ‘libpostproc*’ ‘libswscale*’ ‘xine’ ‘gst’ ‘layer’ ‘vlc’ | grep -v avahi | sort
amarok-xine-1.4.10-100.pm.1
banshee-1-backend-engine-gstreamer-1.0.0-0.2
flash-player-9.0.159.0-0.1
gst-fluendo-mp3-2-72.1
gstreamer-0_10-0.10.22-42.pm.1
gstreamer-0_10-lang-0.10.22-42.pm.1
gstreamer-0_10-plugins-bad-0.10.6-36.1
gstreamer-0_10-plugins-bad-lang-0.10.6-36.1
gstreamer-0_10-plugins-base-0.10.22-42.pm.2
gstreamer-0_10-plugins-base-lang-0.10.22-42.pm.2
gstreamer-0_10-plugins-good-0.10.14-42.pm.1
gstreamer-0_10-pulse-0.9.7-42.pm.1
libavcodec52-0.4.9.17680svn-20090301.pm.1319
libavdevice52-0.4.9.17680svn-20090301.pm.1319
libavformat52-0.4.9.17680svn-20090301.pm.1319
libavutil49-0.4.9.17680svn-20090301.pm.1319
libgstinterfaces-0_10-0-0.10.22-42.pm.2
libgstreamer-0_10-0-0.10.22-42.pm.1
libpostproc51-0.4.9.17680svn-20090301.pm.1319
libswscale0-0.4.9.17680svn-20090301.pm.1319
libvlc2-0.9.8a-12.7
libvlccore0-0.9.8a-12.7
libxine1-1.1.16.2-0.pm.1
libxine1-codecs-1.1.16.2-0.pm.1
MPlayer-1.0rc2_r27637-3.pm.3
mplayerplug-in-3.55-0.pm.1
RealPlayer-10.0.9-51.1
vlc-0.9.8a-12.7
vlc-aout-pulse-0.9.8a-12.7
vlc-gnome-0.9.8a-12.7
vlc-noX-0.9.8a-12.7
vlc-qt-0.9.8a-12.7
xinetd-2.3.14-115.1
henrik@linux-nwsg:~>

this is the output I get

oldcpu · March 6, 2009, 8:30pm

OK, I see some problems there. You have a mix of applications from different repositories, where the packagers of those repositories do not package their packaged applications to be compatible with each other. I don’t know gstreamer, but note below the itmes I quoted and highlighted in read:

amarok-xine-1.4.10-100.pm.1
libavcodec52-0.4.9.17680svn-20090301.pm.1319
libavdevice52-0.4.9.17680svn-20090301.pm.1319
libavformat52-0.4.9.17680svn-20090301.pm.1319
libavutil49-0.4.9.17680svn-20090301.pm.1319
libgstinterfaces-0_10-0-0.10.22-42.pm.2
libgstreamer-0_10-0-0.10.22-42.pm.1
libpostproc51-0.4.9.17680svn-20090301.pm.1319
libswscale0-0.4.9.17680svn-20090301.pm.1319
**libvlc2-0.9.8a-12.7
libvlccore0-0.9.8a-12.7
**libxine1-1.1.16.2-0.pm.1
libxine1-codecs-1.1.16.2-0.pm.1
MPlayer-1.0rc2_r27637-3.pm.3
mplayerplug-in-3.55-0.pm.1
RealPlayer-10.0.9-51.1
**vlc-0.9.8a-12.7
vlc-aout-pulse-0.9.8a-12.7
vlc-gnome-0.9.8a-12.7
vlc-noX-0.9.8a-12.7
vlc-qt-0.9.8a-12.7
**
It looks like you have mixed video lan packaged versions of vlc with packman packaged versions. Replace that version of vlc with the packman packaged version.

Also, install smplayer and xine-ui from packman.

henah · March 8, 2009, 7:55pm

Thanks so much,

I have been able to removed:

libvlc2-0.9.8a-12.7
libvlccore0-0.9.8a-12.7

vlc-0.9.8a-12.7
vlc-aout-pulse-0.9.8a-12.7
vlc-gnome-0.9.8a-12.7
vlc-noX-0.9.8a-12.7
vlc-qt-0.9.8a-12.7

I’ve install smplayer and xine-ui from packman

it works fine

But I can’t seem to install VLC from pack man rep. in Yast

what would the syntax be from the terminal window?

oldcpu · March 8, 2009, 8:06pm

Make certain you have 4 repositories setup. Specifically, I recommend you add links to only OSS, Non-OSS, Update and Packman repositories (where repositories are in essence file servers connected to the internet with openSUSE software on them). There is guidance for adding those 4 here for openSUSE-11.0: Repositories/11.0 - openSUSE-Community Again, only add oss, non-oss, update and packman. Just those 4. No others. If you added others, give serious thought to removing them.

Once they are added, with your pc connected to the internet, go to YAST > Software > Software management, and change the “filter” to “search” and search for and install the packman packaged versions of vlc. Also install the packman packaged version of ffmpeg, libffmpeg0, and w32codec-all.

henah · March 15, 2009, 9:37pm

Thanks so much for help!!

I have got sound to work with SMplayer

havn’t got xine and VLC to work yet

but at least I can see on movies now, that it is real nice!!

thanks again!!

oldcpu · March 15, 2009, 10:56pm

Note what I stated about adding only 4 repositories - OSS, Non-OSS, Update, and Packman. In particular, do NOT add videolan, as its codecs are mostly not compatible with Packman’s. If you installed any videolan packaged applications (other than libdvdcss2) then replace them with packman packaged applications. This is in particular true for vlc and libffmpeg0. Also ensure you replace the Novell/SuSE-GmbH packaged libxine1 with the Packman packaged libxine1.

You can tell packman packaged versions because they have “pm” in the version numbering.