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Re: Sound and Video Problems still with my T3985 Desktop PC



On Monday 11 July 2005 22:31, Xeno Campanoli wrote:
> Am I perhaps reading this amixer output wrong?  It
> looks like it's unresponsive.
>

Yes, I think you might be -- the output below shows that 
amixer _has_ responded to your command. Look at the 
bottom 2 lines of each response -- for example 
Headphone said "Front Left: Playback 50 [79%] [on]" 

indicating that it has responded to your command by 
setting volume to 50 and switching sound ON (un-muting 
it, in other words).

Try amixer set Headphone 10 mute

and compare the two outputs line by line to see the 
difference. Then put it back as you have it below as 
that's more sensible!

OK the settings are being changed -- I don't know why 
you are not hearing sound now. The other possibility is 
I note your card appears to have 3D sound capabilities 
-- the documentation for the intel8x0 ALSA driver does 
mention that this famous "Quirk" can result in the 
swapping of Headphone and Master (which doesn't appear 
to be happening in your case) OR MASTER AND SURROUND 
settings. Try unmuting and setting volume for your 3D 
sound settings.

Failing that, try IEC958 Playback AC97-SPSA (I don't 
know what this is, it's time to fiddle now) or External 
Amp. In each case -- amixer set <mixer setting> 
<number> unmute. If neither of these work just work 
down your list you got with amixer | grep 'Simple' and 
keep trying aplay after each change and see if you get 
something.

The fact you are not getting error messages (actually 
have a look at the end of /var/log/messages [ do 
tail /ver/log/messages] to make sure that's true, as 
well as the output of dmesg), it doesn't seem to be 
complaining about the device in /dev, and aplay thinks 
it's playing, it's almost GOT to be a mixer setting...

I assume your PC speakers are switched on, and plugged 
in at the wall and into the PC -- right? ;-)

> Xeno Campanoli wrote:
> > Okay, I booted it up in the distribution version of
> > Windows and got to the sound test, and the
> > sound test worked.  So, hardware is okay and my
> > connections are okay. Also, I tried amixer
> > suggestions you made in the other post to Mr.
> > Green.  Here are my results after going back and
> > doing these things again from the Debian boot:
> >
> > joehill:~# amixer set Headphone 50 unmute
> > Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
> >  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
> >  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
> >  Limits: Playback 0 - 63
> >  Front Left: Playback 50 [79%] [on]
> >  Front Right: Playback 50 [79%] [on]
> > joehill:~# amixer set PCM 100
> > Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
> >  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
> >  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
> >  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
> >  Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [off]
> >  Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [off]
> >
> > I then ran aplayer as follows (with no resulting
> > sound):
> >
> > joehill:~# aplay
> > /usr/share/apps/kbattleship/sounds/ship-player1-sho
> >ot.mp3 Playing raw data
> > '/usr/share/apps/kbattleship/sounds/ship-player1-sh
> >oot.mp3' : Unsigned 8 bit, Rate 8000 Hz, Mono
> > joehill:~# aplay
> > /usr/share/apps/kbattleship/sounds/ship-sink.mp3
> > Playing raw data
> > '/usr/share/apps/kbattleship/sounds/ship-sink.mp3'
> > : Unsigned 8 bit, Rate 8000 Hz, Mono
> >
> > My Amixer list you suggested was:
> >
> > joehill:~# amixer | grep 'Simple mixer'
> > Simple mixer control 'Master',0
> > Simple mixer control 'Master Mono',0
> > Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
> > Simple mixer control '3D Control - Center',0
> > Simple mixer control '3D Control - Depth',0
> > Simple mixer control '3D Control - Switch',0
> > Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
> > Simple mixer control 'Line',0
> > Simple mixer control 'CD',0
> > Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
> > Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost (+20dB)',0
> > Simple mixer control 'Mic Select',0
> > Simple mixer control 'Video',0
> > Simple mixer control 'Phone',0
> > Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
> > Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Playback AC97-SPSA',0
> > Simple mixer control 'PC Speaker',0
> > Simple mixer control 'Aux',0
> > Simple mixer control 'Mono Output Select',0
> > Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
> > Simple mixer control 'Mix',0
> > Simple mixer control 'Mix Mono',0
> > Simple mixer control 'External Amplifier',0
> >
> > I did the command:
> >
> > joehill:~# amixer set Master 50
> > Simple mixer control 'Master',0
> >  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
> >  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
> >  Limits: Playback 0 - 63
> >  Front Left: Playback 50 [79%] [on]
> >  Front Right: Playback 50 [79%] [on]
> > joehill:~# amixer | grep 'Simple mixer'
> > Simple mixer control 'Master',0
> > ...
> >
> > I guess it looks like something won't let the
> > settings change.  Is there a thing to turn on
> > that allows writing to settings?
> >
> > Thanks once again for any feedback.  At this point,
> > since with help I've proved my hardware
> > works, I'm not in quite so much of a hurry, but it
> > would be nice to get this going this week.
> >
> > sincerely, Xeno
> >
> > So you can see, it seems to have no effect.
> >
> > Mark Fletcher wrote:
> >> On Sunday 10 July 2005 06:44, Xeno Campanoli wrote:
> >>> Okay, it has been over a week since I had time to
> >>> work on this.  Please accept my apologies, but
> >>> I've been busy.  The previous title was:
> >>>
> >>> Re: [Fwd: Re: Sound problem:  apparently I don't
> >>> have the alsa modules       up yet after all
> >>>
> >>> among others.
> >>>
> >>> I'm going to systematically recapitulate for
> >>> myself, and sharing, the settings I have achieved
> >>> so far for sound (the video problem is one of
> >>> blurring digits, and I'll get to that later if I
> >>> have time).
> >>>
> >>> joehill:~# lspci
> >>> 0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82865G/PE/P
> >>> DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 02)
> >>> 0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel
> >>> Corp. 82865G Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
> >>> 0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp.
> >>> 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #1 (rev 02)
> >>> 0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp.
> >>> 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #2 (rev 02)
> >>> 0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp.
> >>> 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #3 (rev 02)
> >>> 0000:00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corp.
> >>> 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #4 (rev 02)
> >>> 0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp.
> >>> 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev
> >>> 02) 0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801
> >>> PCI Bridge (rev c2) 0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge:
> >>> Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Bridge
> >>> (rev 02) 0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp.
> >>> 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) Ultra ATA 100 Storage
> >>> Controller (rev 02) 0000:00:1f.2 IDE interface:
> >>> Intel Corp. 82801EB (ICH5) Serial ATA 150 Storage
> >>> Controller (rev 02) 0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel
> >>> Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller
> >>> (rev 02) 0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio
> >>> controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R)
> >>> AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02) 0000:01:02.0
> >>> Communication controller: Conexant: Unknown
> >>> device 2f20 0000:01:08.0 Ethernet controller:
> >>> Intel Corp. 82562EZ 10/100 Ethernet Controller
> >>> (rev 02) joehill:~# lsmod
> >>> Module                  Size  Used by    Not
> >>> tainted snd-intel8x0           19584   1
> >>> snd-ac97-codec         59576   0  [snd-intel8x0]
> >>> snd-pcm-oss            38176   0
> >>> snd-mixer-oss          13432   1  [snd-pcm-oss]
> >>> snd-pcm                59272   0  [snd-intel8x0
> >>> snd-ac97-codec snd-pcm-oss] snd-timer            
> >>> 14148   0  [snd-pcm] snd                    34276
> >>>   0  [snd-intel8x0 snd-ac97-codec snd-pcm-oss
> >>> snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm snd-timer] soundcore       
> >>>        3940   4  [snd] snd-page-alloc         
> >>> 4936   0  [snd-intel8x0 snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm
> >>> snd-timer snd] input                 3648   0
> >>> (autoclean) i830                  68476   1
> >>> agpgart                46244  10  (autoclean) apm
> >>>                     9964   0  (autoclean)
> >>> parport_pc             23880   1  (autoclean) lp 
> >>>                     6724   0  (autoclean) parport
> >>>                26504   1  (autoclean) [parport_pc
> >>> lp] af_packet              13000   1 (autoclean)
> >>> usb-storage            65088   0 (unused) e100   
> >>>                50036   1
> >>> ehci-hcd               18412   0  (unused)
> >>> usb-uhci               23344   0  (unused)
> >>> usbcore                62924   1  [usb-storage
> >>> ehci-hcd usb-uhci] sd_mod                 11756  
> >>> 0 (unused) scsi_mod               95108   2 
> >>> [usb-storage sd_mod] ide-cd                 31296
> >>>   0 cdrom                  29828   0  [ide-cd]
> >>> rtc                     6440   0  (autoclean)
> >>> ext3                   81068   5  (autoclean) jbd
> >>>                    42468   5  (autoclean) [ext3]
> >>> ide-detect               288   0  (autoclean)
> >>> (unused) piix                    9096   2
> >>> (autoclean) ide-disk               16800   6
> >>> (autoclean) ide-core 108568   6 (autoclean)
> >>> [usb-storage ide-cd ide-detect piix ide-disk]
> >>> unix                   14960 218 (autoclean)
> >>>
> >>> Okay, as before the symptom is I can play the
> >>> songs on a Duke Ellington CD, but the tracks show
> >>> playing with no actual sound coming out.  The
> >>> program I'm using is CD Player under Multimedia
> >>> under the Applications pulldown.  We determined
> >>> previously that no cables were obviously
> >>> connected badly (I have a green sound cable going
> >>> into the appropriately labeled "line out" green
> >>> plug in the back of the machine, and you'll see
> >>> by the specs on the net
> >>> (http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:9PkH8iJNtvQJ:
> >>>www.
> >>> cyberscholar.com/eMachines/doc/spring05_3985_SF.p
> >>>df+T3 985+Desktop+PC+&hl=en) that the thing has
> >>> on-board sound and the bios has this enabled
> >>> (just checke again).  My friend Bill Warner
> >>> suggested these problems may happen from some
> >>> kind of conflict with the video driver, and that
> >>> my problems might be best solved if I install Sid
> >>> (test) instead of sarge, but I'd like to have
> >>> sarge going because I want to use the system to
> >>> help QA web stuff from my work.
> >>>
> >>> Finally, I will review below as I go through my
> >>> setup steps from this instruct- ions page
> >>> (http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Debian/alsa.html#sarge
> >>>stoc k) I immediately see that I do not have an
> >>> /etc/modules directory, so that must have changed
> >>> in mid-sarge, presumably.  I see the string
> >>> "snd-intel8x0" in modules.conf.  The file has all
> >>> the stuff listed in step 3 of the above
> >>> referenced instructions, and it also has a bunch
> >>> of stuff that says "oss" on it, like:
> >>>
> >>> above sound-slot-0 snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss
> >>> snd-seq-oss .
> >>> .
> >>> .
> >>> above sound-slot-7 snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss
> >>> snd-seq-oss alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
> >>> .
> >>> .
> >>> .
> >>> alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
> >>>
> >>> and I wonder if I need to delete these or comment
> >>> them out...?
> >>>
> >>> There is a whole mess of different discover files
> >>> and directories in here too, including a
> >>> /etc/default/discover, /etc/init.d.discover,
> >>> discover.d, and discover.conf.d, and
> >>> discover-v1.conf, and discover.conf-2.6 and
> >>> discover-modprobe.conf.  I wonder if I just
> >>> deleted all those things if it might somehow
> >>> improve the state of politics in the world.
> >>>
> >>> Anyhow, if anybody out there could get me a
> >>> little further with this additional information,
> >>> I'd sure appeciate it.  I'd like to know I can
> >>> really use this machine before the takeback time
> >>> (next Friday is the last day) comes due.
> >>>
> >>> Sincerely, Xeno Campanoli
> >>
> >> Please see the post I just posted a few minutes
> >> ago trying to help Trace Green with a problem with
> >> the same driver.
> >>
> >> My suggestions are you've either not unmuted the
> >> sound settings or you've got the dreaded "AC97
> >> Quirk" and need to be focusing on Headphone volume
> >> to control actual master volume.
> >>
> >> If you have Linux kernel source installed, check
> >> out <linux kernel source
> >> dir>/Documenation/sound/ALSA Configuration.txt for
> >> info on the "quirk".
> >> If you haven't got amixer on your machine, apt-get
> >> alsa-utils to get it then use amixer to check and
> >> if necessary modify the mute state and volume of
> >> your Master, PCM, and other settings. If this
> >> succeeds and doesn't help try modifying your
> >> Headphone settings (unmute and set vol) as you may
> >> have the "quirk". If you do you have the option of
> >> trying to get the driver to work around it or just
> >> living with it (which is what I'm doing so far).
> >>
> >> For the rest of the detail, see the post I just
> >> posted before this.
> >>
> >> Mark
> >>
> >> PS your lspci and lsmod output look healthy, at
> >> least to my no-better-than-mediocrely-tutored eye.
> >> But if you haven't set volume and mute settings on
> >> your mixer since switching to the ALSA driver,
> >> they'll be muted, dollars to doughnuts...
>
> --
> Xeno Campanoli, xeno@eskimo.com,
> http://www.eskimo.com/~xeno Pride before justice     
> equals destabilization. Power before truth       
> equals destruction. Profit before environment equals
> death.



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