# [SOLVED] Soundcard Trouble

## installer_swan

Hi,

I recently bought a new laptop (Toshiba A215-S7422).  And I'm having trouble setting up my soundcard and wireless.  One main problem is that nowhere on the website could I find detailed specs of my hardware and I had to do most of it by searching, probing my hardware, trial and error etc.  But as it stands now, I am facing the following problem:

Soundcard:

I currently don't have a /dev/dsp at all, and my soundcard seems not to have been detected.  Running alsamixer tells me "No mixer elems found".  The relevant portions of my lspci output and the kernel config file are appended below.

```

00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Azalia

        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device ff0a

        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-

        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=slow >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-

        Latency: 64, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes

        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10

        Region 0: Memory at f8600000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]

        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=55mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)

                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

```

```

CONFIG_SOUND=y

CONFIG_SND=y

CONFIG_SND_TIMER=y

CONFIG_SND_PCM=y

CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=y

CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y

CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=y

CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=y

CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS_PLUGINS=y

CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER_OSS=y

CONFIG_SND_RTCTIMER=y

CONFIG_SND_SEQ_RTCTIMER_DEFAULT=y

CONFIG_SND_SUPPORT_OLD_API=y

CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PROCFS=y

CONFIG_SND_AC97_CODEC=y

CONFIG_SND_ATIIXP=y

CONFIG_SND_AC97_POWER_SAVE=y

```

Any suggestions/tips would be appreciated

Thanks,

Shanth

----------

## eccerr0r

Did your soundcard get reported in the kernel ring buffer while booting (i.e., dmesg)?  Grep for your sound card perhaps? Any clues from there?

Might also want to try the Intel HDA (SND_HDA_INTEL) driver just to see if it would work...

----------

## installer_swan

Hi eccerr0r,

Thanks for the tip, you're right.  I did try snd_hda_intel yesterday, and it's now picking up my soundcard.  I was using atiixp which was the wrong driver.  However I am still having problems.  I still get no sound from my speakers.  When I run alsamixer alsamixer, it doesn't show me the Master and PCM volume controls at all.  It just shows me "Caller I" and "Off-hook" as two options.  At this stage if I unload and reload the modules, ie. # /etc/init.d/alsasound restart, it starts showing me a control for Master volume, but still no PCM control.  At this stage if I try to play something (mplayer, aplay) then after the program exits, I get the PCM volume control option as well in alsamixer, but still no sound.

Any tips on what I should do?

Thanks a lot in advance

----------

## installer_swan

Here's the relevant part of my dmesg output:

```

hda_intel: azx_get_response timeout, switching to polling mode...

hda_intel: azx_get_response timeout, switching to single_cmd mode...

hda_codec: invalid dep_range_val 0:7fff

hda_codec: invalid dep_range_val 0:7fff

hda_codec: invalid dep_range_val 0:7fff

hda_codec: invalid dep_range_val 0:7fff

hda_codec: invalid dep_range_val 0:7fff

hda_codec: invalid dep_range_val 0:7fff

hda_codec: invalid dep_range_val 0:7fff

.

. (several thousand times)

.

hda_codec: invalid dep_range_val 0:7fff

hda_codec: invalid dep_range_val 0:7fff

si3054: cannot initialize. EXT MID = 0000

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:05.0[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:14.2[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16

si3054: cannot initialize. EXT MID = 0000

hda-intel: Invalid position buffer, using LPIB read method instead.

```

What are all those errors?

----------

## skunk

look at this

googling always helps  :Wink: 

----------

## installer_swan

Thanks skunk,

That was pretty helpful, but my problem's not yet solved.  Now, I am having decent behaviour from alsamixer, it shows me "Headphone", "PCM", and "Front" channels, but among these the PCM channel doesn't have a mute/unmute option at all ... I suppose that's the problem, but I don't know why it's there.

My amixer output is:

```

Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0

  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch

  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right

  Limits: Playback 0 - 64

  Mono:

  Front Left: Playback 57 [89%] [-7.00dB] [on]

  Front Right: Playback 57 [89%] [-7.00dB] [on]

Simple mixer control 'PCM',0

  Capabilities: pvolume

  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right

  Limits: Playback 0 - 255

  Mono:

  Front Left: Playback 239 [94%] [-3.20dB]

  Front Right: Playback 239 [94%] [-3.20dB]

Simple mixer control 'Front',0

  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch

  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right

  Limits: Playback 0 - 64

  Mono:

  Front Left: Playback 60 [94%] [-4.00dB] [on]

  Front Right: Playback 60 [94%] [-4.00dB] [on]

Simple mixer control 'Front Mic Boost',0

  Capabilities: volume

  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right

  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right

  Limits: 0 - 2

  Front Left: 2 [100%]

  Front Right: 2 [100%]

Simple mixer control 'Capture',0

  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch

  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right

  Limits: Capture 0 - 31

  Front Left: Capture 1 [3%] [-15.00dB] [on]

  Front Right: Capture 1 [3%] [-15.00dB] [on]

Simple mixer control 'Capture',1

  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch

  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right

  Limits: Capture 0 - 31

  Front Left: Capture 1 [3%] [-15.00dB] [on]

  Front Right: Capture 1 [3%] [-15.00dB] [on]

Simple mixer control 'Caller ID',0

  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined

  Playback channels: Mono

  Mono: Playback [off]

Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0

  Capabilities: enum

  Items: 'Front Mic'

  Item0: 'Front Mic'

Simple mixer control 'Input Source',1

  Capabilities: enum

  Items: 'Front Mic'

  Item0: 'Front Mic'

Simple mixer control 'Off-hook',0

  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined

  Playback channels: Mono

  Mono: Playback [off]

```

Why is it that in the capabilities of PCM there's only pvolume, and no pswitch??  Could that be the problem?

PS: My bad about not getting that on google, but thanks for the link anyway

----------

## skunk

i'm using the same driver but with a sigmatel chip and i also don't have a pswitch on master and pcm but i get sound out of it...

if it's the laptop internal speakers that stays mute try with externals to test if you can hear something, i had this issue with kernel's alsa modules, but emerging ver. 1.0.15_rc2 solved it.

----------

## installer_swan

I just tried with external speakers (headphones) but still no sound.

My dmesg looks somewhat interesting now:

```

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2442: autoconfig: line_outs=1 (0x14/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2446:    speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2450:    hp_outs=1 (0x15/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2458:    inputs: mic=0x0, fmic=0x18, line=0x0, fline=0x0, cd=0x0, aux=0x0

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/../../alsa-kernel/pci/hda/patch_si3054.c:236: si3054: cannot initialize. EXT MID = 0000

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/../../alsa-kernel/pci/hda/patch_si3054.c:248: Link Frame Detect(FDT) is not ready (line status: 0000)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:14.2[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16

hda_codec: Unknown model for ALC268, trying auto-probe from BIOS...

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2442: autoconfig: line_outs=1 (0x14/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2446:    speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2450:    hp_outs=1 (0x15/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2458:    inputs: mic=0x0, fmic=0x18, line=0x0, fline=0x0, cd=0x0, aux=0x0

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/../../alsa-kernel/pci/hda/patch_si3054.c:236: si3054: cannot initialize. EXT MID = 0000

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/../../alsa-kernel/pci/hda/patch_si3054.c:248: Link Frame Detect(FDT) is not ready (line status: 0000)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:14.2[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16

hda_codec: Unknown model for ALC268, trying auto-probe from BIOS...

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2442: autoconfig: line_outs=1 (0x14/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2446:    speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2450:    hp_outs=1 (0x15/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2458:    inputs: mic=0x0, fmic=0x18, line=0x0, fline=0x0, cd=0x0, aux=0x0

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/../../alsa-kernel/pci/hda/patch_si3054.c:236: si3054: cannot initialize. EXT MID = 0000

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/../../alsa-kernel/pci/hda/patch_si3054.c:248: Link Frame Detect(FDT) is not ready (line status: 0000)

hda-intel: Invalid position buffer, using LPIB read method instead.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:14.2[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16

hda_codec: Unknown model for ALC268, trying auto-probe from BIOS...

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2442: autoconfig: line_outs=1 (0x14/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2446:    speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2450:    hp_outs=1 (0x15/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:2458:    inputs: mic=0x0, fmic=0x18, line=0x0, fline=0x0, cd=0x0, aux=0x0

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/../../alsa-kernel/pci/hda/patch_si3054.c:236: si3054: cannot initialize. EXT MID = 0000

ALSA /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/pci/hda/../../alsa-kernel/pci/hda/patch_si3054.c:248: Link Frame Detect(FDT) is not ready (line status: 0000)

APIC error on CPU1: 40(40)

APIC error on CPU0: 40(40)

hda-intel: Invalid position buffer, using LPIB read method instead.

APIC error on CPU1: 40(40)

APIC error on CPU0: 40(40)

APIC error on CPU1: 40(40)

APIC error on CPU0: 40(40)

set_level status: 0

set_level status: 0

set_level status: 0

set_level status: 0

set_level status: 0

```

What does the speaker_outs=0 mean?  Is this the problem maybe?

Thanks for the though,  these forums are a big contribution to reason I love gentoo,

----------

## skunk

no idea, but as last hint i suggest you to give a look at /usr/src/linux/Documentation/sound/alsa/ALSA-Configuration.txt (search for "snd-hda-intel") and play with model (toshiba?) and position_fix options in your /etc/modules.d/alsa (remember to execute update-modules after) and restart alsa's init script.

good luck!

----------

## PaulBredbury

 *installer_swan wrote:*   

> /root/alsa-driver-hg20070804/

 

If you want the latest svn release:

```
emerge =alsa-driver-9999
```

----------

## installer_swan

Thanks a lot skunk and Paul   :Very Happy: 

Finally got sound working on my system.

For others with similar problems:

This thread was quite helpful: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-572981-postdays-0-postorder-asc-start-50.html

The main thing is I think that you need to emerge the latest alsa-driver sources as Paul pointed out, and also add the line

options snd-hda-intel model=toshiba to your /etc/modules.d/alsa.  It's working fine for me now thanks guys.

----------

