[Lancaster] Problem recording sound

[Ken Hough]

Hi Guys!

I thought that I'd report on latest progress wrt getting sound and recording 
working on my desktop PC with the new motherboard (ASUS P5Q SE2).

The problem with this board is that the on board HD sound system (VIA 
VT17805S) isn't supported under out of the box versions of SUSE or Debian.

To begin with, I managed to locate info and downloads which provided a very 
easy solution under SUSE Linux v11.1. This involved installing a modified 
(patched?) kernel and updates to the various alsa packages. The reference for 
this can be found at:
<http://forums.opensuse.org/hardware/laptop/421388-no-sound-asus-x5dij.html>

I have given this link before, but I include it here for the sake of 
completeness.

This did work, but the updated kernel resulted in one or two things not 
behaving quite as they should, but it is sort of OK.

Next, I got to wondering if I could get Debian Lenny to work with this sound 
system. I had established that a driver for the VT17805S is included in 
kernel version 2.6..31 and that alsa packages v1.0.21 are needed. As Lenny is 
supplied with kernel v2.6.26-2 and alsa v1.0.12, this clearly wasn't going to 
work. So, after ensuring that I had a couple of reliable/tested system 
backups, I decided to try to update my Debian system.

First of all I downloaded the source code for the latest stable version of the 
kernel (2.6.32.5) and set about building and installing a new kernel, making 
sure that all of the drivers that I needed were included. I was pleasantly 
surprised how well this went. The only problem that I had was that most of 
the documentation concerning setting up an initrd file refered to 
using 'mkinitrd'.

'mkinitrd' has been replaced by 'mkinitramfs'. No problem once I discovered 
this, but it took me a while......   :-(

Then I had only to add a few lines of text to /boot/grub/menu.lst and I was in 
business! Debian Lenny now runs under kernel 2.6.32.5 with no problems at 
all.

At this stage, 'lsmod' showed that all of the necessary drivers were being 
correctly loaded, but there was still no sound output.

Next, I had to attend to alsa, etc. I tried to install a recent update for 
alsa-driver from a .deb package, but this complained that it conflicted with 
an already installed earlier version of libasound2. Now came a problem! If I 
tried to delete the existing libasound2 package via Synaptic, the system was 
insisting on also removing a whole lot of other stuff that I wanted to keep.

I guess that there should be a way around this, but I couldn't figure it out. 
I'm not a geek. So, I decided to go for compiling/installing from source 
code. (alsa-lib 1.0.22, alsa-driver 1.0.22.1, alsa-utils 1.0.22). Refer:
<http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page>

All went well until I used ./configure for alsa-utils. I eventually discovered 
a description of the problem and a fix at:
<http://monespaceperso.org/blog-en/2009/08/31/upgrade-alsa-1-0-21-on-ubuntu-jaunty-9-04/>

(I don't like Ubuntu much, but I'm not proud   ;-) )

A few soft links must be set. After doing this, alsa-utils compiled and 
installed OK.

At this stage, I took a close look at my working SUSE system (it's on a second 
hard drive) and compared the relevant files on the two systems. The only 
significant difference was under /etc/modprobe.d. SUSE included a file 
named 'sound' which contained the following lines:
"
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
# u1Nb.1RpZgx7+PID:82801JI (ICH0 Family) HD Audio Controller
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
"

so I copied this file onto the Debian system. I don't know yet if this is 
necessary, but after re-booting, the VIA sound system was 
working !!!!!    :-)

Under KMix, some of the controls don't yet seem to function as expected, but I 
am able to play sound from CDs and from my WIn TV Nova digital TV/radio card 
and can record sound via Audacity.

Phew! Quite an adventure! But worthwhile!

So it looks like I will be staying with Debian after all.  :-)


Ken Hough

 





On Thursday 14 January 2010 16:04:49 Ken Hough wrote:
> Wayne, et al,
>
> WRT my problem with an on-board sound card:
>
> After a lot of testing and playing with the various channels on KMix, I'm
> now fairly sure that the sound card is duff! I have attached an image file
> of an attempt to record sound via this card using Audacity.
>
> You will see that no sound is recorded on the lower channel. That on the
> upper channel is nothing but noise. Also, you will see that there is a
> positive 'DC' (?) offset on both channels which switches on and off as I
> enable/disable the corresponding Capture channel on KMix.
>
> As I stated previously, this problem is happening under Debian on my main
> desktop PC. I have similar problems when running under Win XP.
>
> I've now run Kmix/Audicity on an old Athlon box under Debian with a
> Sounblaster Live PCI card. This works just fine, so I don't think that I'm
> missing anything relating to Debian, KMix and Audacity.
>
> I have a spare PCI sound card, but my problem mobo (ASUS P5K SE/EPU) has
> only two PCI slots which are taken up with a PCI parallel port card (no
> on-board parallel port) and a Hauppauge Win TV digital TV card.
>
> I could buy a PCI Express sound card (3 spare PCI e slots), but this
> wouldn't be cheap.
>
> SO.......I've decided to go for a replacement mobo (ASUS P5Q SE2) which
> will cost about the same as a PCI e sound card. This mobo has 3 ordinary
> PCI slots and an on-board sound card. Should the on board sound card fail,
> I would still have room for a plug-in card in the third PCI slot.
>
> Ho hum!  That's life!
>
> Ken Hough
>
> On Tuesday 12 January 2010 17:36:30 Wayne Ward wrote:
> > Yes i had the same problem and had to switch it in on the kmix -.
> > recording side another  quick test
> >
> > alsamixer from a terminal you can see if line in volumes are up and see
> > if its un-muted
> >
> > what sound card are you using..
> >
> > also did anyone find any cheap speakers for andys demo or shal we just
> > line it into a laptop ..
> >
> > regards
> > wayne
> >
> > On 12 Jan 2010, at 16:42, andy baxter wrote:
> > > Ken Hough wrote:
> > >> I hope that one  (or more?) of you guys can help me with a problem
> > >> that I'm having with my desktop Debian Lenny setup.
> > >>
> > >> I have no problems in playing wave files via the likes of 'audacity',
> > >> streaming sound off the Internet (eg Classic FM) via
> > >> Konqueror/Mplayer, and playing CDs/DVDs and digital Radio/TV via
> > >> Kaffeine.
> > >>
> > >> However,  I cannot get audacity or anything else to pick up and record
> > >> sound from any of these sound sources. I use KMix and have played with
> > >> all of the available channels.
> > >>
> > >> My old Thinkpad T42 laptop running SUSE v11.1 has no trouble in doing
> > >> this.
> > >>
> > >> What am I missing?
> > >
> > > Have you looked at the switches as well as the channel volumes in
> > > alsamixer or kmix? I know some sound cards have a switch for turning
> > > the internal mic on and off, so this might be what is missing.
> > >
> > > also, look at you /dev/snd . Mine looks like this:
> > >
> > > andy at monkey:~$ ls /dev/snd
> > > by-path  controlC0  hwC0D0  pcmC0D0c  pcmC0D0p  pcmC0D1p  seq  timer
> > >
> > > if there is an entry starting 'pcm' and ending 'c' (for capture), then
> > > you should be able to record sound from that device.
> > >
> > > andy
> > >
> > >