based upon this section of dmesg which I got from Fedora (which was the most verbose on it with the extra line about the sound card removal)
31.951657] ALSA sound/pci/ac97/ac97_codec.c:2091 AC’97 0 does not respond - RESET
31.951671] ALSA sound/pci/ac97/ac97_codec.c:2100 AC’97 0 access is not valid [0xffffffff], removing mixer.
31.952452] ALSA sound/pci/emu10k1/irq.c:44 snd-emu10k1: Suspected sound card removal
31.952548] snd_emu10k1: probe of 0000:01:06.0 failed with error -5
It’s looking to me as if this ac97 driver is stepping in and trying to take over the card but failing to do so and thus results in the sound card being “removed” from under emu10k1’s feet. The card pretty obviously works though because the gameport driver successfully connects to it as seen here from lspci -vv
now I’ve tried putting snd-ac97 and snd-ac97-codec (as are my guesses at the names of the kernel drivers associated with this ac97 driver), in blacklist.conf under /etc/modprobe.d/ but that doesn’t seem to have effected anything. If nobody has a solution over the next few days I’ll go ahead and report a bug against ALSA. I’ll probably do it anyway but I want to make sure it’s not a configuration thing on my side first. For the record onboard sound card is disabled.[/size][/size]
Unfortunately your links didn’t help but I’ve tried now all the way back to Slax 4.2.0 and even that doesn’t work. So we’re probably looking at a long standing ALSA bug here.
You can obtain (and share) more information by running the following diagnostic script with pc connected to the internet and post here the output URL :
/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh
If this is indeed a GNU/Linux problem then write a bug report on openSUSE for your hardware. One of theSuSE GmbH packagers is also an alsa developer and he will likely answer your bug report and help you get this to work. Plus once you and he have this working he will send the fix upstream so thar all GNU/Linux users with your hardware can eventually benefit.
Indeed only your onboard HDMI and ALC889 appear to be recognized. There is the same error in dmesg that you noted relating to snd_emu10k1. My suspicion is you have a card with no GNU/Linux support. If you raise a bug report against openSUSE on this the SuSE-GmbH packager for sound likely will give you a straight answer as to the ‘official’ support status for this hardware.
While it should work, the card is very old and it is likely few that work on the Linux kernel still have this card. I have an Audigy 2 card still working, but I fear that even that will come one day and stop. I would think that using built-in sound is the way to go or consider buying a newer sound card.
I find RedHat is typically a good place to write bug reports until recently, when they deliberately started obfurscating their kernel patches to give themselves a time edge over other GNU/Linux distibutions. It is also not known to me as to whom, if any , alsa developers are on theRed Hat packaging team. … which is another reason why for sound I recommend bug reports on openSUSE: ie there IS an alsa developer on the SuSE GmbH team and openSUSE do not obfurscate their patches like Red Hat (to the best of my current knowledge).
In the off chance its just a bug with the default 3.4 kernel, you can try kernel 3.7.2 to see if that makes any difference. I have had newer kernels allow new cards to work, but old ones likely do not get better. On the other hand, a bug in one might be fixed in a newer one. It is just a thought.
Well, I probably will get one of those ASUS Xonars eventually once I’ve got some money coming in, my friend sent that card to me as he didn’t have any use for it any more. The thing is the difference between an integrated audio codec and a proper hardware mixing sound card is like the difference between Adlib and “CD Music” you don’t have to be (and I’m not) an audiophile to tell the difference, plus it takes interrupts off of the CPU and other nice things, which means everything runs better with one. I’ve seen on someone else’s computer adding in a sound card go from pretty serious microstutters in Crysis to perfectly smooth, and the sound quality difference was just night and day…
Unfortunately I’m stuck on running secondhand hardware for the soundcard unless some jobs I’ve applied for actually pull through. I’ll see what happens in the next few weeks or so here on that though… but if that pulls through I’ll get one of those Xonars and a number of other upgrades I’ve been looking at…
Good luck in what ever you decide to do. Do consider the kernel upgrade, though the compile time might be long. If you make the upgrade, come back and tell us of your success.