Bug#366680: linux-image: snd_intel8x0 module randomly fails to initialize sound hardware
Since I didn't get copied on this reply (I just saw it after searching
the BTS), I didn't get a chance to follow up to it earlier. I'd
appreciate being CCd in the future, thanks.
Cesare Leonardi <celeonar@tiscali.it> wrote:
> Benjamin A. Okopnik wrote:
> > The frequency of how often this happens varies: sometimes, it's every
> > single boot until I remove the laptop battery; at other times, it's only
> > about one boot out of every five. It seems to be related to IRQ problems
> > (booting the laptop without its battery, and inserting it after the
> > boot, results in the problem nearly disappearing - it only happens in ~1
> > of every 20 boots.)
>
> I think you are excluding an hardware problem because on the same
> machine you also run Wind0ws (or something else) and it sounds good, right?
This machine initially came with Wind0ws, and I used it that way for a
two-week long road trip, until I could get to a high-speed connection.
The sound worked fine during that time.
> The sporadic nature of the problem seems suspicious, in particular
> because your machine has a very common (and tested) chipset. As you can
> see on http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/acer.html, people using your
> laptop seems to have audio that just works.
> I have a Sony laptop with a i855 chipset that works too.
>
> Have you tried to upgrade your Acer BIOS?
Yes - that was one of the first things I looked for when I discovered
this problem.
> And, do the problem comes indifferently (and with similar probability)
> after a reboot or a complete poweroff?
At this point, rebooting or cold-booting produces a problem about 80% of
the time. The only "cure" (works ~99% of the time) is to remove the
battery and disconnect the adapter from the machine for a few seconds.
> Have you tryed with some linux live CD (Ubuntu, Knoppix) to see if
> something behaves differently? But i suspect it is not a
> kernel/distibution problem...
If you believe that this would give you usable data, I'll be happy to
download a few of these and try them out. Since I have a relatively slow
connection, I'll have to get to a fast one somewhere which is a bit of a
hassle, so I'm a bit reluctant to just do so without an explicit
request.
> Have you contacted the Acer support or visited their website to see if
> there are some broken model or some known problem?
Acer's tech support's brains instantly freeze up solid as soon as I
mention Linux. I have not found any definite reports of similar
behavior, but I suspect that this is due to a) the vague definition of
what constitutes this problem (i.e., it's hard to come up with a
definitive set of strings to describe the problem uniquely for a Web
search) and b) the low numbers of these laptops out there. What little I
have found in this regard pointed in the general direction of ACPI
problems; I got an ACPI data compiler, fixed the errors in the ACPI
data, and recompiled it, but this does not appear to have helped.
Incidentally, I have recently run 'lspci' with the sound hardware both
working and not working; here's the diff:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
r !diff /tmp/lspci_sound /tmp/lspci_no_sound
109c109
< Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
---
> Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
111d110
< Latency: 0
119c118
< Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
---
> Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME+
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Here it is with a '-p' added for more context:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
*** /tmp/lspci_sound 2006-08-29 22:19:28.000000000 -0400
--- /tmp/lspci_no_sound 2006-08-29 18:15:08.000000000 -0400
***************
*** 106,114 ****
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 0061
! Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
- Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 21
Region 0: I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
Region 1: I/O ports at e100 [size=64]
--- 106,113 ----
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 0061
! Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 21
Region 0: I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
Region 1: I/O ports at e100 [size=64]
***************
*** 116,122 ****
Region 3: Memory at f0000600 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
! Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Generic])
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 0061
--- 115,121 ----
Region 3: Memory at f0000600 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
! Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME+
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Generic])
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 0061
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Regards,
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *
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