# realtek ALC 650 6 channel sound driver

## taskara

anyone know, does the kernel support the realtek ALC 650 sound (found on MSI kt333 mainboards)?

or perhaps alsa?

thanks!

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## BonezTheGoon

According to what I can make out on this ALSA Devel page you should be able to get this working with ALSA (not kernel support) using the "ac97_codec" driver.  You should really read over it very closely though (because I didn't).

According to this link though it appears that you should be able to get kernel support for the Realtek 650 using the kernel ac97_codec support.  Given the URL states unofficial patch you may need to patch your kernel, but then that was back on 2.4.17 and maybe it has since been officiallized??  I don't know man--I just found this stuff searching Google.

Regards,

BonezTheGoon

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## dmason

I use that codec, and all you have to have is the drivers for the southbridge of your mainboard, and for the codec itself, in my situation that is with alsa, and the snd-vai8233 and the snd-ac97-codec and others.

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## taskara

WEEEELL... I found a linux driver on realtek's site - gonna try it sometime

http://www.realtek.com.tw/htm/download/driver.asp

ftp://152.104.125.40/sound/ac97codec/linux/linux.zip

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## taskara

ok I'm confused.

I have never used alsa before, always used kernel drivers.

could someone walk me through the steps for getting alc650 sound to work?

I have emerged alsa and alsa-drivers

I can't seem to modprobe the card.

anyhelp much appreciated.. no sound is annoying!  :Smile: 

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## BonezTheGoon

You shouldn't really need to modprobe the card at all.  You should really follow the directions on the Desktop Guide absolutely completely, simply replace all the "snd-emu10k1" with whatever your card driver is for ALSA.  Since (as far as I can tell) it is ac97_codec on the ALSA Sound Card Matrix, then you would replace "snd-emu10k1" with "snd-ac97_codec"

Make sense?

Regards,

BonezTheGoon

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## therobot

ya, I have it working with that sound card, just follow the desktop guide, and it should work fine.

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## taskara

ok thanks guys, I'll give it a whirl.

ta

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## cfrogjump

I'll do ya one better. I've got that MB and I've got sound working. I did however have to jump through a few hoops to get it working.

First off unmerge any alsa stuff that you've emerged in. The alsa stuff in the portage tree is older release stuff and that codec isn't officially supported by it (at least last time I checked).

Second, Goto alsa's webpage and download the cvs copy of snd-ac97_codec. And also get the source for the alsa install.

Now go and replace the snd-ac97_codec in the alsa install with the cvs copy. Compile and install it according to the instructions and everything should be working. 

You can then emerge any alsa utilities that you want and they should work.

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## taskara

thanks.. I'll see how I go! ta

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