[Lancaster] Problem recording sound

Tue Jan 26 20:14:43 UTC 2010

Hi ken,

I think you deserve a medal for that! Good you got it working. :)

andy

Ken Hough wrote:
> 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 'mkinitrd' has been replaced by 'mkinitramfs'.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
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>         
>
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