# gentoo-sources-2.6.30 and ALSA: no sound

## Joseph K.

I'm not getting any sound after booting 2.6.30-r1.  I can see some warning or error messages regarding alsa_ctl or something during the boot phase, but can't find those messages in /var/log.  How do I make sure such messages are getting logged somewhere?  Thanks, cheers.

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## TheAbu

Did you try the dmesg command ? 

As for the problem, maybe it has to do with the fact that now the modprobe scripts need to have the conf extension (not totally sure but I think I saw a warning in the latest 2.6.29 releases

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## Joseph K.

Yeah, there was nothing interesting in the dmesg output, it lists the correct card: Intel ICH6 with AD1981B at irq 21.

Hmmm, OK, I renamed all my files in /etc/modprobe.d/ to have a .conf extension but to no avail.  And on additional inspection, the error is something about "invalid hardware" and a syntax error in /etc/init.d/alsasound.  Seems like something weird is going on.

If someone can explain to me how to make sure those errors go through syslog, I'd sure appreciate it.  Thanks, cheers.

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## Autie

re-run alsaconf can fix alot  :Smile: 

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## Timbers2k

I have the same issue. 2.6.30-r1 has no sound. All the modules are loaded, mixer levels are up, but no sound at all. Same config with 2.6.29 works fine. I'm on amd64.

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## Binkerton

I too have the same problem, run amd64, I think it might be the audio chipset a nvidia hda 262 I think

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## Timbers2k

no, I'm on an old motherboard with the via82xx driver, so I think it is something other than the specific driver. I haven't noticed any warnings during the boot, and nothing shows up in dmesg or /var/log. All the modules are loading correctly as far as I can tell.

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## Binkerton

could it have something to do with a symlink to the newer kernel?

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## Jorgo

Same here. There ist only a crippled noise when playing some music or video.

Booting kernel 2.6.29 is working fine. Seems to be a specific kernel-2.6.30 problem.

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## platojones

Sounds like this could be a specific driver regression....I'm running the new kernel with the emu_10k1 drivers and no issues...amd64 platform.

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## doctork

 *platojones wrote:*   

> Sounds like this could be a specific driver regression....I'm running the new kernel with the emu_10k1 drivers and no issues...amd64 platform.

 

Same for me.  I have no problem with the HDA-Intel drivers or usbsound headphones on an amd64 platform.

--

doc

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## Fest

I got same issue, after upgrade to 2.6.30 sound gone and all i heard was noise (i used hda-intel driver). But in my case answer was pretty simple - upgrade somehow turned off pcm output. So check alsamixer maybe it help.

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## Timbers2k

I found my problem. In  alsamixer are a few new controls, in mine they are called VIA DXS, VIA DXS 1, VIA DXS 2, and VIA DXS 3. These were all turned down all the way and turning them up brought up sound for different things. The DXS made my system sounds work and the DXS 2 made sound in Wine work. I have no idea what the DXS stands for, I'll need to look it up.

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## Jorgo

Solved for me. PCM was totally disabled and didn't show up in control panel.

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## bastibasti

Make sure you do not enable PCSPKR under generic alsa drivers, as it will be loaded as your first "soundcard"

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## Joseph K.

Hmmm, after fixing the expected warning messages about ".conf" extension, sound worked on my desktop with Intel HDA without having to fiddle with any mixer settings.  Now to see if I can magically get my laptop to work...

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## Joseph K.

 *Autie wrote:*   

> re-run alsaconf can fix alot 

 

My feeling is that alsaconf works only if you compiled ALSA as modules, right?  Because I just tried it on two machines and on both it reported 

 *Quote:*   

> ERROR: modinfo: could not find module snd

 

and couldn't find the sound card.

The good news is that sound is working on my laptop; similar to Jorgo, the PCM volume was down at zero, which for me I presume is related to the errors that appear when alsasound loads at boot.  Actually, I'm going to check that out...

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## krinn

 *Joseph K. wrote:*   

> How do I make sure such messages are getting logged somewhere?

 

despite the warning "you are stopping a boot service"  "/etc/init.d/alsasound restart" will allow you to see the message without need to log them.

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## Joseph K.

 *krinn wrote:*   

>  *Joseph K. wrote:*   How do I make sure such messages are getting logged somewhere? 
> 
> despite the warning "you are stopping a boot service"  "/etc/init.d/alsasound restart" will allow you to see the message without need to log them.

 

That's what I thought!  But strangely enough, the errors don't occur when I restart it afterwards.  Puzzling.  So I inserted a pause in the alsasound script to see the error.  It's something about unrecognised "ICH4" hardware, which is clearly wrong, because it's an ICH6 chipset.  So then it tries to guess the mixer settings via /usr/share/alsa/init/default and that causes CTL syntax errors, blah blah blah.

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## dpaking

Had the same problem on 2.6.29-gentoo-r5. No errors on /etc/init.d/alsasound. aplay would play a file, but Banshee or Rhythmbox would not.

Solved by: rename /etc/modules.d/alsa /etc/modules.d/alsa.conf

I'm going to check if there is anything filed in bugs to change output of alsaconf to alsa.conf for versions >=2.6.29.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

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## robak

same problem here on i686 with 2.6.30-r1 kernel and hda-intel driver build into kernel.

sound works, all controlles show up in alsamixer but no microphones are working. i tried to recompile alsa-utils alsa-tools alsa-headers alsa-plugins alsa-oss alsa-lib without success.

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## Joseph K.

Here are the errors when alsasound starts at boot for 2.6.30*:

```
* Restoring Mixer Levels...

Unknown hardware: "ICH4" "Analog Devices AD1981B" "AC97a:41445374" "0x103c" "0x0934"

Hardware is initialized using a guess method

/usr/share/alsa/init/default:51: control element not found

/usr/share/alsa/init/default:52: missing close brace for format

/usr/share/alsa/init/default:52: error parsing CTL attribute

/usr/share/alsa/init/default:52: invalid rule

* Errors while restoring defaults, ignoring                                                                                        [ ok ]

```

As I mentioned earlier, it's actually an ICH6 chipset, so I'm not surprised that "ICH4" is causing a problem.  But why is this happening in 2.6.30?  And is there a separate bug in the guess method file?

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## rahulthewall

 *Joseph K. wrote:*   

> Here are the errors when alsasound starts at boot for 2.6.30*:
> 
> ```
> * Restoring Mixer Levels...
> 
> ...

 

These errors are due to the fact that your /var/lib/alsa/asound.state does not comply with your new settings. 

First, check the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf and check the module settings for alsa.

Then, run update-modules, remove /var/lib/alsa/asound.state.

Then, reboot - you will still get errors.

Then, Configure sound settings with alsamixer or something similar - this is the setting that you will get at startup.

Then, run /etc/init.d/alsasound save and then reboot.

It should work now.

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## mv

 *Joseph K. wrote:*   

> Here are the errors when alsasound starts at boot for 2.6.30*:
> 
> ```
> * Restoring Mixer Levels...
> 
> ...

 

I have the same message, only with another hardware shown (in my case the correct one, but also "unknown hardware"). It seems that something in the hardware recognition part of snd-intel is broken in 2.6.30 (in 2.6.29 it worked smoothly). Of course, once falling back to the "guess method", I think things can only go wrong...

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## imeridian

Add me to the list of users with broken sound also, similar error messages on boot about unknown hardware and "guessing" wrongly, of course.

I tried rahulthewall's instructions, but unfortunately they did not help me regain sound.  The error message is gone, and I now get an annoying "pop" from my speakers when it comes to loading the alsa settings, but still no sound in Gnome.

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## Joseph K.

OK, amazing, I fixed it!  It was relatively easy but not simple, I hope it works for the rest of you.

Looks like Autie was correct all along, but I had foolishly avoided going to the trouble to test it.  Because I build ALSA into the kernel, running alsaconf does not work straight off.  So, I just had to reconfigure the kernel to build ALSA as modules, tweaked /etc/conf.d/alsasound to load modules, reboot and run alsaconf.  I chose to then reconfigure ALSA back into the kernel, which works fine, but that's up to you (and made the necessary config changes).

So, for me anyway, the key really was to run alsaconf!

Hope this helps, cheers.

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## imeridian

Interesting, I just returned to post that I fixed mine also.  I didn't run alsaconf though, but discovered that the PCM and FRONT volume controls now behave very differently than before.  Unless the mixer levels are maxed out, it'll be as if they're muted.

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## mv

I had posted before I had read rahulthewall's hint. Indeed, he was right: Removing /var/lib/alsa/asound.state removed the false detection (although I do not understand the reason, since this file did not contain the strings which were printed).

After this false detection has vanished, I manually restored my previous settings (using alsamixer) and since then everything works as it should.

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## Joseph K.

 *imeridian wrote:*   

> Interesting, I just returned to post that I fixed mine also.  I didn't run alsaconf though, but discovered that the PCM and FRONT volume controls now behave very differently than before.  Unless the mixer levels are maxed out, it'll be as if they're muted.

 

Weird.  Maybe you *should* run alsaconf?   :Smile:   Or delete the asound.state that mv refers to.

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## imeridian

Oh, I did delete the state file, as part of following rahulthewall's instructions.  If it weren't for the levels weirdness I'd probably have been able to call it a success after that.  In any case, I'm going to leave it well enough alone at this point, but wanted to post the update in case anyone else encounters that problem.

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## Joseph K.

Just wanted to add that removing /var/lib/alsa/asound.state on my desktop (on which the output was working fine) has also fixed the 'no microphone' problem.  Hallelujah!  What would we do without each other?   :Smile:   Thanks again everyone.

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