# [solved] No sound Lenovo T61, alsa, kde

## ArtemShinkarov

Hi

I have just installed Gentoo on my T61 laptop and the sound does not work. I have read a lot of posts about broken sound, but unfortunately all the advices do not bring any results. I suspect that something obvious is missing, but I am really stuck.

My settings.

Kernel config: http://pastebin.com/hCCrT0Ak

Sound-related things:

```
# grep SND /usr/src/linux/.config | egrep '=y|=m'

CONFIG_SND=m

CONFIG_SND_TIMER=m

CONFIG_SND_PCM=m

CONFIG_SND_HWDEP=m

CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI=m

CONFIG_SND_JACK=y

CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=m

CONFIG_SND_SEQ_DUMMY=m

CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y

CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=m

CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=m

CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS_PLUGINS=y

CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER_OSS=y

CONFIG_SND_HRTIMER=m

CONFIG_SND_SEQ_HRTIMER_DEFAULT=y

CONFIG_SND_DYNAMIC_MINORS=y

CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PRINTK=y

CONFIG_SND_VMASTER=y

CONFIG_SND_DMA_SGBUF=y

CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI_SEQ=m

CONFIG_SND_PCI=y

CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL=m

CONFIG_SND_HDA_INPUT_BEEP=y

CONFIG_SND_HDA_INPUT_JACK=y

CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_REALTEK=y

CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_ANALOG=y

CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_VIA=y

CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_HDMI=y

CONFIG_SND_HDA_GENERIC=y

CONFIG_SND_USB=y

CONFIG_SND_USB_AUDIO=m

```

```
# lspci | grep -i audio

# 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)

```

```
# lsmod | grep snd

snd_seq_dummy           1279  0 

snd_seq_oss            24909  0 

snd_seq_midi_event      4858  1 snd_seq_oss

snd_seq                42806  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event

snd_seq_device          4899  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq

snd_pcm_oss            31166  0 

snd_mixer_oss          12840  1 snd_pcm_oss

snd_hda_codec_analog    71015  1 

snd_hda_intel          18777  2 

snd_hda_codec          53577  2 snd_hda_codec_analog,snd_hda_intel

snd_pcm                56266  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec

snd_timer              16115  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm

snd                    48250  15 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,

                                 snd_hda_codec_analog,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer

soundcore               4624  1 snd

snd_page_alloc          6227  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

```

```
# cat /proc/asound/cards 

  0 [Intel          ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel

                        HDA Intel at 0xfe220000 irq 49

```

Alsa mixer shows:

```
Card: HDA Intel

Chip: Analog Devices AD1984   

```

Master, PCM, Beep, Internal Mic channels in alsa mixer are unmuted, S/PDIF channel is muted.

```
cat /proc/asound/devices 

  2:        : timer

  3: [ 0- 1]: digital audio playback

  4: [ 0- 0]: digital audio playback

  5: [ 0- 0]: digital audio capture

  6: [ 0]   : control

  7:        : sequencer

```

When I try to play sound with aplay:

```
aplay -D hw:0,0 test.wav

```

or with 

```
mpg123 -o alsa:default file.mp3

```

It shows like it is playing, but no sound is produced.

Any multimedia tool in KDE has the same effect.

I am also not sure about the THINKPAD_ACPI_ALSA_SUPPORT kernel option, it seems to be irrelevant for the no-sound problem, it adds one more device to /proc/asaund/devices, but primary card is still Intel.

Another alsa-relevant thing. When I start KDE, I can see the following message many times:

```
grepHelper: File does not exists:  "/proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/info"
```

but as far as I understand this is a problem of KDE rather than of alsa.

Any ideas?...

P.S. Consider that it is my first Gentoo installation.Last edited by ArtemShinkarov on Sun May 01, 2011 12:45 pm; edited 1 time in total

----------

## dE_logics

People say the hardware does work but the ALSA docs does not list the ICH8 family.

http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Vendor-Intel

http://hardware4linux.info/component/21335/

----------

## Hypnos

I used to have a T61, and made an installation mini-howto.  Try my idea in there for getting sound to work ...

OFFTOPIC:  I've answered this question at least twice -- why oh why do we not have an official wiki?  This is the perfect subject matter.

----------

## ArtemShinkarov

 *Hypnos wrote:*   

> I used to have a T61, and made an installation mini-howto.  Try my idea in there for getting sound to work ...
> 
> 

 

Hypnos, as far as I understand, your advice is to add "options snd_hda_intel model=thinkpad" to the modules configuration. I played around with the configuration, trying to put thinkpad, lenovo or basic there -- does not help.

Here is my alsa.conf:

```
# cat /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf 

# Alsa kernel modules' configuration file.

# ALSA portion

alias char-major-116 snd

# OSS/Free portion

alias char-major-14 soundcore

##

## IMPORTANT:

## You need to customise this section for your specific sound card(s)

## and then run `update-modules' command.

## Read alsa-driver's INSTALL file in /usr/share/doc for more info.

##

##  ALSA portion

## alias snd-card-0 snd-interwave

## alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371

##  OSS/Free portion

## alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

## alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1

##

# OSS/Free portion - card #1

alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss

alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss

alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss

alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss

alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

##  OSS/Free portion - card #2

## alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss

## alias sound-service-1-3 snd-pcm-oss

## alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss

alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel

alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel

# Set this to the correct number of cards.

options snd cards_limit=1

options snd-hda-intel model=basic

```

----------

## Hypnos

Let's start debugging by checking simple things:

1) First, you should edit /etc/modprobe.d/local.conf , and not the other files in there which are owned by packages -- it just increases your work when you update packages.  (BTW, you should be using the "cfg-update" or "dispatch-conf" packages to manage files in /etc/.)

2) After changing something in /etc/modprobe.d , you need to run "update-modules" to make the system aware of your changes, and then reload any modules whose settings you changed.

3) Are you sure your audio channels are not muted?  Use "alsamixer" (in the alsa-utils package) to check.

4) What software are using to check the audio?  I would use the command

```
# aplay -f cd /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
```

"aplay" is also from alsa-utils.

----------

## ArtemShinkarov

Update. 

I have changed the settings of CONFIG_I2C_I801 from =y to =m and reemerged my alsa-lib with

```
emerge --update --newuse --deep -av alsa-lib
```

then I reemerged my alsa-utils, and after the reboot I was able to hear sound with

```
mpg123 -o alsa:default file.mp3
```

However, after starting KDE and trying to configure Phonon sound disappeared again.

I'll do more updates and will post some results later.

----------

## dE_logics

Why not just try and boot a generic distro see output of lspci -k first?

I2C is pretty important... but not that much. In by system this bus is used for hardware monitoring.

----------

## cach0rr0

output of alsa-info plz

----------

## ArtemShinkarov

Update 2. 

I solved the problem by removing user-related KDE configuration files ~/.kde4/ and ~/.config/kde.org and starting KDE from scratch.

The way I came to this solution was the following:

I noticed that if I change snd_hda_intel options from mode=lenovo to mode=basic and then back, then in console I can hear sound using something like:

```
mpg123 -o alsa:default file.mp3
```

However, after I launch KDE with startx, the sound disappears everywhere, even after restarting the system. It seems that KDE skilfully saved some wrong configuration about the sound system which muted some channels I guess.

Anyway, now I have a full sound support.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Artem.

----------

