# Help with ALSA and ac97-codec

## ckwall

What am I doing wrong? I am trying to enable my onboard sound using ALSA. I have the AC97. I am following the instructions in the Desktop Configuration guide. I get to the part where I type: alsasound start, then amixer. I get the following messages: 

amd1400 root # /etc/init.d/alsasound start 

* ALSA driver is already running. 

amd1400 root # amixer 

amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such device 

amd1400 root # 

What have I done wrong? I have done everything that I was told to in the Desktop Configuration guide. 

 :Embarassed: 

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## Egil

When you compiled the kernel did you enable sound and disable all modules?  That seems to have been my problem and I was receiving the same error messages.

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## wildcard

ARe you using the right sound module.  My winows driver was the same as teh ac97 codec but my board uses the via82cxxx_audio driver.

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## billatq

My "AC-97" board in windows is seen as a "cmipci" in linux, so you may want to check on the manufacturer of the board. Assuming that you have the correct drivers, make sure that they are in /etc/modules.autoload.

An example would be:

```

snd-cmipci

snd-pcm-oss

```

You can simply modprobe them to get them running without rebooting. Then try amixer and see if it works. Otherwise, double check on which alsa drivers to use for that card and work with those per se the instructions on the x86 installation guide.[/code]

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## amasidlover

I have exactly the same problem, the only thing is, if I ignore alsa and just fire up KDE the sound works fine. I'm not sure why this is and probably won't have time to investigate it properly for some time. But it might be worth simply loading up the sound modules and trying KDE or Gnome.

I don't really know what requires alsa but in my experience it is a pain to configure right, if anyone knows of a good tool to configure it I'd be very interested.

Alex[/u]

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## JefP@@

 *amasidlover wrote:*   

> I have exactly the same problem, the only thing is, if I ignore alsa and just fire up KDE the sound works fine. I'm not sure why this is and probably won't have time to investigate it properly for some time. But it might be worth simply loading up the sound modules and trying KDE or Gnome.
> 
> I don't really know what requires alsa but in my experience it is a pain to configure right, if anyone knows of a good tool to configure it I'd be very interested.
> 
> Alex[/u]

 

If you only load the sound modules, you still need a mixer of some kind to unmute your channels ... that's prob why you don't hear sound, until you are in kde (which prob starts kmix, which unmutes your audio channels)

first question: you realy need the right driver for your soundcard. Nearly every soundcard uses ac97 codec. So it could take a while until you find the driver you need ... If you know the manufacturers name, it might already be enough ... (check www.alsa-projects.org for the soundcard matrix)

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## ckwall

I actually got mine working finally. However the quality is terrible under Linux. I had to emerge unmerge my alsa-driver and then re-emerge it.

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## JefP@@

that's weird ... never had poor performance with any alsa driver so far ... (I've used 3 completely different ones)

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