Re: CMI8738 sound card - cannot hear sound in Lenny - SOLVED
On Sat, 2009-01-17 at 00:07 +0100, Nigel Henry wrote:
> On Friday 16 January 2009 22:04, Robert Canner wrote:
> > I've unmuted the Synth control in alsamixer, but I still can't hear any
> > sound :-(
> >
> > Alsamixer now shows:
> > Master = 100,100 (but no mute/unmute box is shown)
> > 3D Control = unmuted
> > PCM, Synth, Line, CD, Aux = 100,100, unmuted
> > Line-In = Rear Output
> > Mic = 0, muted
> > Mic Boost = muted
> > Phone, PC Speaker = 100, unmuted
> > IEC958 {5V, Copyright, In Monitor,
> > In Phase Inverse, In Select, In Valid, Loop,
> > Mix Analog, Output} = unmuted
> > Exchange DAC, Four Channel Mode = unmuted
> >
> > By the way, alsamixer is not displaying any mute/unmute box for the
> > Master control. Should I worry about this?
>
> No. My alsamixer on lenny shows no mute/unmute box, but it's a different
> soundcard (Audigy2 soundblaster), and my alsamixer version shows as 1.0.16.
> My alsa-utils package is 1.0.16-2, and that provides alsamixer, and other
> stuff.
> >
> > (By comparison, the Wikipedia screenshot
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alsamixer.png shows a mute/unmute box
> > for the Master control. My Lenny box is using alsamixer v1.0.13.)
>
> That .png for alsamixer on the wiki is for a different soundcard than yours,
> and all alsamixer controls are different, depending on your soundcard, so I'd
> ignore that.
>
> It doesn't help that I'm unfamiliar with your C media soundcard, so I'm a bit
> in the dark. Are there any switches showing on your alsamixer? For example on
> mine for the audigy2 soundblaster card there is a switch to change from
> analogue to digital output. If this is set to digital, I get no sound, but
> toggling it to analog brings the sounds up.
>
> Perhaps you could post the output from running amixer on the CLI, just to see
> what controls you have available.
>
> Someone else who is also using a C media card on Lenny, may also have some
> suggestions, that may resolve your problem.
>
> Alternatively, there is the alsa-user mailing list, and someone there may have
> specific knowledge of known problems, and fixes for your card.
>
> All the best.
>
> Nigel.
Thanks Nigel, your clue about switches in alsamixer has done the trick.
I tried the following changes, testing each with speaker-test:
mute '3D Control' -- still no sound
change 'Line-In Mode' to 'Line In' -- still no sound
mute 'Exchange DAC' -- pink noise heard on earphones :-)
At this stage, CD playback was audible, but highly distorted. Curious
about 'Exchange DAC', I Googled and found
https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/c-media-cmi8738-chipset-no-sound-267807/
which also mentioned deselecting 'IEC958 Output'. So in alsamixer I
tried muting 'IEC958 Output', which removed the distortion. Brilliant!
For the record, here's my amixer output after fixing the problem:
==
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
Capabilities: pvolume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 31 [100%]
Front Right: Playback 31 [100%]
Simple mixer control '3D Control - Switch',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 30 [97%] [on] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 30 [97%] [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Synth',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [on] Capture [on]
Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [on] Capture [on]
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [on] Capture [on]
Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [on] Capture [on]
Simple mixer control 'Line-In Mode',0
Capabilities: enum
Items: 'Line-In' 'Rear Output'
Item0: 'Rear Output'
Simple mixer control 'CD',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [on] Capture [on]
Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [on] Capture [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined cvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
cswitch cswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Capture channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 31 Capture 0 - 7
Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture 0 [0%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Capture channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off] Capture [on]
Simple mixer control 'Phone',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 7
Mono: Playback 7 [100%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 5V',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Copyright',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Monitor',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Phase Inverse',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Select',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Valid',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Loop',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Mix Analog',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Output',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'PC Speaker',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 3
Mono: Playback 3 [100%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Aux',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 15
Front Left: Playback 15 [100%] [on] Capture [on]
Front Right: Playback 15 [100%] [on] Capture [on]
Simple mixer control 'Exchange DAC',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Four Channel Mode',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
==
Once again, many thanks,
Robert
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