# Intel 82801H in a Dell 1525, alsa problem

## ALF__

Hello guys!

Im in the last phase of my gentoo install on one of my laptops! A dell 1525, but its really fighting me with the sound.

I have followed the gentoo ALSA tutorial to every point. But still the alsaconf dont find it.

Spent about two hours on google to find this out, but the most answers i found are really outdated with old kernels. 

I hope someone here can help me.

lspci reports:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)

I choosed the "Intel/SiS/nVidia/AMD/ALi AC97 Controller" as a module.

Also tried with both support for intel HD audio and without.

I have also two strange things that i have noticed:

when i try to manually (as and experiment) load the module "snd-intel8x0" is cant find it with modprobe

(then again i dont know if that should work that way)

also alsasound reports:

1525 linux # /etc/init.d/alsasound start

 * Loading ALSA modules ...

 *   Could not detect custom ALSA settings.  Loading all detected alsa drivers.

 *   Unable to find any ALSA drivers. Have you compiled alsa-drivers correctly?

 *   ERROR: Failed to load necessary drivers                              [ ok ]

 * ALSA failed to load.                                                   [ !! ]

 * ERROR: alsasound failed to start

And alsaconf says:

No supported PnP or PCI card found.

whats up with this?

----------

## NeddySeagoon

ALF__,

Notice the 

```
HD Audio Controller 
```

HD == High Defintion.  

The "Intel/SiS/nVidia/AMD/ALi AC97 Controller" is therfore not for you.   Intel HD Audio is correct.

Built it as a module, especially for a laptop. It may need  a module parameter to work on your laptop and you might need to try several to find the right one.

That trial and error is best accomplished with a kernel module, not built it.

```
 * Loading ALSA modules ... 
```

but you don't have modules to load - you said that the (incorrect) module as compiled into your kernel.

alsaconf also expects to work with modules, not built in.

Fix your kernel, reboot into the new kernel, look at 

```
uname -a
```

just to make sure.  The date/time is the kernel build date and time.

The module should be loaded automatically during the boot process and it will be shown in 

```
lsmod
```

If all is well, you will have a collection of files in 

```
/dev/snd
```

what do you have there now?

Run alsamixer, unmute master and PCM *only* and set the sliders to about 70%.  It might just work.

----------

## ALF__

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> ALF__,
> 
> Notice the 
> 
> ```
> ...

 

Hello Neddy!

Thank you for your reply.

alright, i deselected the AC97 and did just compile a new kernel with only Intel HD audio (as a module)

Oh and sorry, i was not meaning built in i ment that they were built as modules. Thats clearly specified in the alsa guide.

but anyway, i removed the ac97 and made sure that i had intel hd, compiled, moved to boot, rebooted. checked kernel date, all good. But no go.

lsmod reports back empty

/dev/snd/ is not there, and ofcourse alsamixer wont start because of this, hehe!

----------

## NeddySeagoon

ALF__,

Do 

```
modprobe snd-hda-intel
```

What is in lsmod now?

If that worked /dev/snd should exist too. What does it contain?

----------

## ALF__

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> ALF__,
> 
> Do 
> 
> ```
> ...

 

It took modprobe without any problem, but lsmod still empty, and no /dev/snd

:S shouldnt it spit out something bad if the snd-hda-intel didnt work?

----------

## NeddySeagoon

ALF__

Modprobe returs nothing if it wored, as is customary on Linux commands normally only report failures.

What do you have at the end of dmesg after the modprobe command ?

----------

## ALF__

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> ALF__
> 
> Modprobe returs nothing if it wored, as is customary on Linux commands normally only report failures.
> 
> What do you have at the end of dmesg after the modprobe command ?

 

Well thats interesting.

It dont seem like i get anything in the dmesg after the bootup. Last lines:

[    5.892082] EXT3-fs (sda2): warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended

[    5.892428] EXT3-fs (sda2): using internal journal

----------

## NeddySeagoon

ALF__,

After the 

```
modprobe  snd-hda-intel
```

what is at the end of dmesg ?

----------

## ALF__

Well thats the last entry in the dmesg after the modprobe command.

----------

## NeddySeagoon

ALF__,

Well, thats not right.  Maybe you don't have loadable modules support in your kernel.

```
emerge wgetpaste

wgetpaste /usr/src/linux/.config
```

and tell the 

URL you get please.  I'll look at your kernel setup.

----------

## ALF__

Mygod thats a great tool right there!

Here you go  http://paste.pocoo.org/show/512113/

Please keep in mind that that kernel is not nearly optimized, but i want to get every base function to go first, then start to strip unecessery stuff out! >)

----------

## NeddySeagoon

ALF__,

Looks bloated but 'mostly harmless'.

Have you even changed your kernel config file with anything other than one of the kernel make ...config options (make menuconfig and friends)?

If so, throw away your .config file and start again.

Many options in make menuconfig chaneg several flags in the .config file.  Editing the .config with a text editor will produce an illegal config file that produces a kernel that exhibits all sorts of strange issues.  Its not usually worth trying to sort it out as starting over is faster.

----------

## ALF__

Oh okey,

No i have only used menuconfig, thouhgt that was okey aslong as you just stayed in the same source.

Could that be my problem? :Surprised: 

----------

## NeddySeagoon

ALF__,

Thats fine then.

Just to humor me do the following to rebuild your kernel with the current config file.

```
make oldconfig
```

This command is normally used when you migrate the .config file rom one kernel t another.  It should run wiithout asking any questions in this case.

If it doesn't, that indicates an issue with the .config file as was.  Answer the questions - press ? to read help on the option .

```
make clean
```

to remove all the old binaries. There are a few kernel configuration options that when chaned need this step as the old binaries are no longer useful. Unfortunately, make doesn't know this and odd behaviour results.

Now do the usual make stuff, reboot and check uname -a to make sure all is well.

If modprobe still fails and /dev/snd won't appear its probably not your kernel.

This will probably be my last post tonight

----------

## ALF__

Hello again!

Tried your cocktail there! and it still dont work!

What am i up to here? The sound works with gentoo live dvd btw!

----------

## NeddySeagoon

ALF__,

Something is very odd with your kernel or system.  

What does

```
rc-update -v show
```

produce?

----------

## ALF__

Hello!

Hehe  yeah, something funny is sure going on.

It produce:

```

1525 daniel # rc-update -v show

                acpid |                              

            alsasound |                              

             bootmisc | boot                         

          consolefont |                              

           consolekit |                              

          crypto-loop |                              

                cupsd |                              

                 dbus |                              

                devfs |                       sysinit

        device-mapper |                              

               dhcpcd |                              

                dmesg |                       sysinit

             dmeventd |                              

                 fsck | boot                         

           git-daemon |                              

               hdparm |                              

             hostname | boot                         

              hwclock | boot                         

              keymaps | boot                         

            killprocs |              shutdown        

          laptop_mode |                              

                local |      default                 

           localmount | boot                         

                  lvm |                              

       lvm-monitoring |                              

                 mdev |                              

              modules | boot                         

             mount-ro |              shutdown        

                 mtab | boot                         

               net.lo | boot                         

             netmount |      default                 

              network |                              

                 nscd |                              

              numlock |                              

              pciparm |                              

               procfs | boot                         

            pydoc-2.7 |                              

            pydoc-3.1 |                              

                 root | boot                         

               rsyncd |                              

            savecache |              shutdown        

                 sshd |                              

          staticroute |                              

                 swap | boot                         

              swclock |                              

               sysctl | boot                         

                sysfs |                              

         termencoding | boot                         

                 udev |                       sysinit

     udev-dev-tarball |                              

           udev-mount |                              

       udev-postmount |      default                 

              urandom | boot                         

                 wicd | boot                         

       wpa_supplicant |                              

                  xdm |                              

            xdm-setup |                              

1525 daniel # 

```

But you sure learn me new commands everytime!  :Smile: 

----------

## NeddySeagoon

ALF__,

The alsasound service should be in your default runlevel.  The ALSA guide sasy to use the boot runlevel but when you are trying to get a broken system fixed, to won't need sound so default is better.

```
rc-update add alsasound defualt

/etc/init.d/alsasound start
```

The first line adds alsasound to the default runlevel, the second line starts it now, without a reboot.

This isn't your current problem but it would a problem later.  alsasound saves and restores your sound settings across reboots. You will probably see a lot of errors when you run  /etc/init.d/alsasound start.

After that, please post the output of 

```
uname -a
```

and

```
dmesg | wgetpaste
```

and 

```
wgetpaste /usr/src/linux/.config
```

That will tell me the kernel you have in use, its configuration file and all the messages reported by the kernel since your last boot.

With that self consistent set of information, we can see what you asked to happen and what actually happend.  The two are clearly not the same thing.

----------

## ALF__

Hi again neddy!

I tought i needed to have the card working before add it to the default runlevel!  :Smile:  Will do that.

And also here is the stuff you requested:

[code]

 uname -a

Linux 1525 3.0.6-gentoo #8 SMP Thu Nov 24 23:32:19 GMT 2011 i686 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T8300 @ 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

dmesg:  http://paste.pocoo.org/show/513736

config :  http://paste.pocoo.org/show/513737/

----------

## NeddySeagoon

ALF__,

Your dmesg should have a line like 

```
[    4.699784] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:14.2: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
```

which shows the IRQ being set up for your sound hardware.  You don't have that.

Is your sound card turned off in your BIOS ?

----------

## ALF__

Hello again!

I see. 

I have just checked the bios, and it is not turned off. Still works on both my windows installation and gentoo live dvd.

How come it is showing in lspci? :S

----------

## ALF__

oh my god, 

right after posting that i just tried to start alsasound, it lined up the drivers, and now alsamixer starts up and identifies the card!! WOHO!

Now i just need a program to test the sound with haha! Than you very very much for all your help NeddySeagoon!

----------

## NeddySeagoon

ALF__,

mplayer is a good testing choice as it plays almost anything.

```
mplayer -ao alsa /path/to_sound_file
```

----------

