Sound problems on Dell Sutdio 1737 (opensuse 11.1)

Hey all,

Been trying to get sound working on my new Dell Studio 1737 laptop. I’ve done a lot of messing around myself and looked into these two threads:
No sound on Dell Studio 1737 - openSUSE Forums
No sound in opensuse 11.1 - openSUSE Forums

I think I got into some fudge with updating alsa. I added the alsa repo, but the packages were not of the same version, so it doesn’t seem to have worked properly.

Another thing is that the codec isn’t listed in /usr/src/linux-2.6.27.23-0.1/Documentation/sound/alsa/ALSA-Configuration.txt so it doesn’t seem supported, but people have got it working, so guess it is.

Here’s some more info:

rpm -qa | grep alsa:
alsa-oss-32bit-1.0.17-2.11
alsa-tools-1.0.20-10.2
alsa-firmware-1.0.20-5.1
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.20-7.6
alsa-utils-1.0.20-9.3
alsa-oss-1.0.17-2.11
alsa-driver-kmp-default-1.0.20.20090615_2.6.27.23_0.1-3.1
alsa-1.0.18-8.9
alsa-plugins-1.0.20-7.6

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh output:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=11fc3e1d741034f046f20a8926761f42a44391cb

rpm -q libasound2:
libasound2-1.0.18-8.9

cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound:
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel

u1Nb.DHYBSDpOxeA:82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel

Please help, I’m completely stuck.

Cheers,

Benoni

I have a dell studio 1537, which in terms of audio hardware is identical. Sound works.

Here is the output of the script run vs my laptop:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=feda2e525debfbe1de443c7892576defef5eb2b1

oldcpu@studio15:~> rpm -qa | grep alsa
alsa-1.0.19.git20090224-1.1
alsa-driver-kmp-pae-1.0.20.20090613_2.6.27.23_0.1-2.1
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.20-7.6
alsa-tools-1.0.20-10.2
alsa-utils-1.0.20-9.3
alsa-devel-1.0.19.git20090224-1.1
alsa-plugins-1.0.20-7.6
alsa-firmware-1.0.20-5.1
alsa-oss-1.0.17.git20080715-2.21 
oldcpu@studio15:~> rpm -qa | grep pulse
pulseaudio-module-lirc-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-module-x11-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-module-zeroconf-0.9.14-2.2.1
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.20-7.6
pulseaudio-esound-compat-0.9.14-2.2.1
libxine1-pulse-1.1.16.3-0.pm.2
libpulse-browse0-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-module-jack-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-utils-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-lang-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-module-bluetooth-0.9.14-2.2.1
libpulse-mainloop-glib0-0.9.14-2.2.1
libpulse0-0.9.14-2.2.1
oldcpu@studio15:~> uname -a
Linux studio15 2.6.27.23-0.1-pae #1 SMP 2009-05-26 17:02:05 -0400 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
oldcpu@studio15:~> cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel,snd-hda-intel
# u1Nb.ifylLOqC327:82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
# NXNs.efgx9V_Z6L7:RV620 Audio device [Radeon HD 34xx Series]
alias snd-card-1 snd-hda-intel

As noted, sound just works for me.

I have to run off to supper, pack (for upcoming vacation), etc … but I’ll try to look at your output before I leave.

ok, your mixer is set wrong. You need to turn up your PCM volume and your speaker volume. Both of them !!

I note this on your PC (from the script you ran for me):
Simple mixer control ‘PCM’,0
Capabilities: pvolume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 255
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] -51.00dB]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] -51.00dB]

Simple mixer control ‘Speaker’,0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 64
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] -48.00dB] [on]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] -48.00dB] [on]

The above setting guarantee’s no sound, and that is NOT what you want/need.

Just a further note, in addition to your laptop’s speaker audio/sound working, so should your headphones and mic.

I’m busy checking out all electronic equipment before the trip. I just finished successfully testing the mic and headphone outputs on my Dell Studio 15 (1537) laptop. Both headphone inputs work (with independant mixer control of each - which is great, so my wife and I can watch a movie while waiting at the airport). I checked the laptop’s integrated digital mics, and they work great (albeit capture of sound from integrated mic is a bit low) and I checked out my wife’s favourite portable headphone/mic combo with the laptop, and it works great also for recording sound. The wife likes to use the headphone mic from WinXP running in a Virtual Box under Linux, so I have to ensure the Linux side is working first, and then she worries about the WinXP virtual box.

So this is good news for us, and it sounds/records like we are prep’d for the trip for headphones and mics!!

Cheers ,

Well, at the moment the soundcard has disappeared completely, so there is no volume to change! I can fix it through yast (delete/edit), but then pulse dies, and it reverts back on reboot anyway. Ah, well, I’ll play around for a bit first.

In the meantime, what repositories are you using to get your version of alsa from? The ones I listed were the newest versions from the repositories/multimedia:/audio/openSUSE_11.1/ repo, but they don’t have the git suffix and some packages are a bit older, eg alsa 1.0.18 is the max version I can get.

Cheers,

Benoni

Hmmm … it reads like you are somehow making this more complex than it is. I simply added the repos. Installed the updates. Removed the repos. And sound worked. I did not even have to go into YaST nor run alsaconf, although those are always options.

That reads like the repos. The “git” are old versions from a previous update to my PC. The openSUSE packager no longer names them “git”, and no longer updates “alsa” nor “libasound2”, but only updates alsa-driver-kmp-default, alsa-driver-kmp-pae (kernel dependant), alsa-utils, alsa-oss, alsa-tools, alsa-plugins, … etc …

Guide I wrote for updating is here: Alsa-update - openSUSE

One MUST send six zypper commands to do the update. Do NOT leave the multimedia repos in one’s repository list. Thats very important.

That makes NO sence to me. None at all.

What are you using for a sound test?

I recommend you use the sound tests here:
SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE

Typically only one or two of those 3 sound tests will work.

Do NOT expect sound out of the YaST sound test (as it is known to be buggy). And do NOT use system start up sounds as your test for functioning sound (as that is often irrelevant when it comes to testing sound functionality).

Right, cool, it is working, but with everything at 100%, it still sounds a bit quiet. Do you think the speakers are a bit quiet, and that’s just normal?

Also, did you get your remote control working? I haven’t heard of anyone getting it working, but I have heard the makers have a linux driver, and have e-mailed them to check and get it if there is one. But, if you’ve already got it working, then that would save me some work!

Cheers,

Benoni

I think they are a bit quiet. But not too bad. Most the time we use the laptop with headsets on, so that was not an important feature for me. Sound is plenty loud through the headset.

I don’t have a remote control for the laptop. I know nothing about it.

I was very pleased to get the internal integrated mic working. It took me a long time to figure that out.

Hey,

Yes, the internal mic is very cool, and gives a very good quality recording.

However, still having trouble! Ahhhh! My sound was working fine, so I presumed it was fixed, but now I’ve found out that actually it wasn’t going through pulseaudio. Pulseaudio doesn’t detect the card as an output. Any ideas where to look for the solution?

Cheers,

Benoni

Other than some theory, I don’t know anything about pulse.

If audio is working, is that insufficient?

Ah, got it working. Think that’s it all set up nicely now. For sound anyway. Still got a couple of other bits to get working or test.

Thanks for your help oldcpu.

Cheers,

Benoni

Glad to read its working now !

I’m typing this on my Dell Studio 15 laptop, from an apartment in Bangkok Thailand (using a local wireless). We arrived Bangkok from a 3-night whirl-wind visit to China (arriving at midnight last night). Tomorrow we head off to Phuket Thailand.

Thus far the laptop has been working well for me.