Help, sound isn't working
Hi all,
I've been running Sarge for a couple of weeks on a laptop, but I can't
get sound to work. Actually, some days ago I installed the alsa-base
package and played an mp3 file with mpg321, and then it did work fine;
but yesterday (after a few "apt-get dist-upgrade" and some reboots) I
tried again, and the machine was completely mute, and has always been
since (but it isn't a hardware problem, because I tried with Windows and
it works).
mpg321 seems to believe it's playing correctly and runs until completion
in perfect silence, while alsamixer exits immediately with a message of
"No mixer elems found". So I suppose that alsa isn't running correctly
any more. (I tried to "/etc/init.d/alsa restart", but to no effect.)
After some googling I found this page:
http://www.linuxmafia.com/faq/Debian/alsa.html
and tried to follow its suggestions, but to no effect:
- there is no /etc/modules/alsa file, and there can't be
since /etc/modules is a regular file, not a directory. I couldn't find
what the correct pathname is, if that file exists at all.
- there is no /etc/discover.conf either, but there
are /etc/discover-v1.conf and /etc/discover-modprobe.conf. The former
already contained a "skip i810-tco" line, and indeed, that module isn't
loaded, according to lsmod. So OSS isn't running -- or is it?
- then I tried to remove the snd-intel8x0m as suggested, but no matter
what I wrote in /etc/hotplug/blacklist, it always gets loaded when I
reboot. I tried removing it manually with rmmod, but that didn't cure
the problem, I only get different errors: alsamixer says "alsamixer:
function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device", while mpg321
now fails with an error message of "Can't find a suitable libao driver.
(Is device in use?)".
So at this point I am totally lost. Can anyone help me?
The laptop is a Dell Latitude C640, and I'm running Sarge with the
2.6.8-1-686 kernel. I'm attaching the output of lsmod and lspci.
I may also mention that I tried running the Gnome Volume Control applet,
and it shows four different mixer tabs labelled "Silicon Laboratory
Si3036/8 rev [OSS Mixer]", "Cirrus Logic CS4205 rev 3 [OSS Mixer]",
"Intel 82801CA-ICH3 Modem [Alsa Mixer]", and "Intel 82801CA-ICH3 [Alsa
Mixer]". The first and third tabs however are empty.
Thank you
Gerardo Ballabio
P.S. please Cc: me since I'm not subscribed.
Module Size Used by
snd_intel8x0m 20264 0
radeon 132452 2
orinoco_cs 9320 1
orinoco 44012 1 orinoco_cs
hermes 8640 2 orinoco_cs,orinoco
ds 18756 7 orinoco_cs
thermal 12656 0
fan 3980 0
button 6296 0
processor 17264 1 thermal
ac 4812 0
battery 9388 0
ipv6 264612 10
af_packet 22600 2
snd_intel8x0 36460 0
gameport 4704 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_mpu401_uart 7968 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_rawmidi 25156 1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device 8200 1 snd_rawmidi
uhci_hcd 33136 0
pci_hotplug 34640 0
intel_agp 22816 1
floppy 61200 0
parport_pc 36900 0
parport 41832 1 parport_pc
irtty_sir 9152 0
sir_dev 19244 1 irtty_sir
irda 197120 2 irtty_sir,sir_dev
crc_ccitt 2144 1 irda
rtc 12760 0
pcspkr 3592 0
mousedev 10476 2
tsdev 7392 0
psmouse 20360 0
evdev 9600 0
agpgart 34696 2 intel_agp
snd_ac97_codec 70020 2 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0
snd_pcm_oss 55048 0
snd_mixer_oss 20096 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 98728 3 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 25668 1 snd_pcm
snd 57156 10 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 10336 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 11752 3 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
yenta_socket 21728 1
pcmcia_core 70900 3 orinoco_cs,ds,yenta_socket
3c59x 39368 0
capability 4520 0
commoncap 7232 1 capability
spca50x 283576 0
usbcore 119012 4 uhci_hcd,spca50x
videodev 10016 1 spca50x
ide_cd 42656 0
cdrom 40732 1 ide_cd
ext2 71848 0
ext3 127240 2
jbd 62616 1 ext3
mbcache 9348 2 ext2,ext3
ide_generic 1408 0
ide_disk 19296 4
piix 13440 1
ide_core 139908 4 ide_cd,ide_generic,ide_disk,piix
unix 28692 491
font 8320 0
vesafb 6656 0
cfbcopyarea 3840 1 vesafb
cfbimgblt 3040 1 vesafb
cfbfillrect 3776 1 vesafb
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset Host Bridge (rev 04)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 04)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #1) (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #2) (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #3) (rev 02)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 42)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801CAM ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801CAM IDE U100 (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 02)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]
0000:02:00.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 78)
0000:02:01.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1420
0000:02:01.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1420
0000:02:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
0000:02:08.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 78)
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