# Realtek AC`97 sound ( "soundblaster compatible" )

## corey_s

Hello - 

I hope someone can help me out here, as I'm having one helluva time figuring this one out.

I've got a new laptop ( ACER 803LCi ) which has what is described as a "Realtek AC'97"

soundcard. Now, I'm not seeing direct support for this in the alsa drivers list, though I do

see reference to "AC'97" and "VIA" or "Avance Logic", nor have I had any luck in finding

any docs describing how to use "SoundBlaster compatible" cards with alsa - which driver

to use, etc. 

Could anyone out there throw me a much needed clue?  Thanks!

Also, what's the best way of figuring out exactly what chipset(s)  I have for my various pci 

and/or isa cards in my laptop? An 'lspci', shows the following for my soundcard:

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)

And a 'cat /proc/pci' shows me this:

  Bus  0, device  31, function  5:

    Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 3).

      IRQ 10.

      I/O at 0x1c00 [0x1cff].

      I/O at 0x18c0 [0x18ff].

      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xd0000c00 [0xd0000dff].

      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xd0000800 [0xd00008ff].

So if I didn't know this was a Realtek card ( as advertised, and as showed in winXP ) - I may

have come to the conclusion that it was an "AC'97", or a "Intel 82801DB AC'97" ...

Thanks for the help!

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## cyrillic

Try the intel driver

```
# ALSA_CARDS="intel8x0" emerge alsa-driver

# modprobe snd-intel8x0

# dmesg 
```

You should be able to tell if this is the correct driver by the error messages (or lack thereof)

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## corey_s

Excellent! 

Thanks a ton - works like a charm... almost.

I can get the sound to work fine, for instance doing:

aplay /usr/kde/3.1/share/sounds/pop.wav

However for some as of yet unknown reason, steenking arts in KDE refuses to work in any 

capacity whatsoever. I set the 'Message Display' option under the 'Sound System' panel

to 'debug' and I get no error msgs, and I'm using /dev/sound/dsp for the sound device,

and I've set ALSA for the 'Sound I/O Method'.  But still, no go... The 'Test Sound' button

don't work, none of the system sounds work, and neither does the KsCD cdplayer app

work. Same results whether I'm a non-privileged user or root.

I've tried restarting alsasound after starting kde, but that doesn't affect anything, and I've

spent quite some time searching through the forum for other similar issues ( I see that many

others have had plenty of probs with both arts and alsa ), with no luck.

Anyone else happen upon similar frustrations?  Is there some other non-alsa related 

kde/arts specific sound volume control? ( amixer/alsamixer and /etc/alsa.sound are 

configured correctly as far as I can tell - i.e. I can hear the 'pop.wav' just fine ).

Thanks for any further assistance - I appreciate the help!

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## feffi

@corey_s

Hey buddy, got the same Laptop, works like a charm until now.  :Laughing: 

BTW do you know how to get the Radeon M9000 to work with DRM / DRI & GLX in Xfree? I'm looking towards a good solution for weeks now !  :Rolling Eyes: 

But that's what Gentoo is about *g* !

If you need any help in configuring your ACER 803LCi, just post here, I'll try to help...  

bya

_kev_::exit(0)

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## kcsduke

 *_kev_ wrote:*   

> BTW do you know how to get the Radeon M9000 to work with DRM / DRI & GLX in Xfree?

 

I just got a Compaq X1000 Centrino laptop.  It has a Radeon Mobility 9200 and I have DRI/GLX working with Xfree.  Take a look at http://www.x1000forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=526.  My post is the very bottom one.  Also check out http://tuxmobile.org/centrino.html, which describes how linux users have set up a variety of different centrino laptops.

I hope that helps!  I had horrible troubles with X on my old HP n5495 laptop because of its piece-o-crap i830m video card with shared memory and the failure of the bios to allocate sufficient memory to the video card, preventing me from using my beautiful 1400x1050 screen above 1280x1024.  Anyway, I can empathize with X setup problems!  :Wink: 

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## feffi

Hi buddy,

you may have a look at 

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=78780

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