Arch Linux

ocram

Member

Registered: 2004-09-27

Posts: 14

thinkpad t61 /proc/acpi/ibm/volume and audio issues

hello everybody,

some month ago I bought a thinkpad t61 and after a very busy period I finally have some time to configure archlinux. I've noticed that with this laptop there are many little (or big) issues to solve and now I'm stuck with a problem with the audio.

The audio itself works (I'm using xmms right now) but I've noticed two things: the first one is that, running alsamixer, there's no "master" level. This means that in order to change the volume I've to use the "pcm" level loosing audio quality as I raise the volume (this is really annoying especially with low volume movies or mp3s..) . The second thing is that in /proc/acpi/ibm/volume there's a volume level but changing it doesn't affect the volume (I can only set/unset the mute option)..

At this point I don't know if there two facts (the absence of the "master" level and the presence of the /proc/..volume) are related to each other or not.

So what I ask you is if someone has my same problem or if there is any way to solve it. I tried to look in thinkwiki and in other wikis but I didn't find anything useful.. someone talks about an alsa patch to apply but I think this solves a problem related to the absence of audio and not with its quality..

thank you in advance!

p.s. another question: is there anyone here using the "thinkpad" modules (useful with the tpctl package)? I would like to use them but they are built for an older version of the kernel.. so before trying to compile them I would like to know if they work or not.. thank you again

mb

matt_man22

Member

From: Boston, MA

Registered: 2007-04-28

Posts: 54

Re: thinkpad t61 /proc/acpi/ibm/volume and audio issues

I am not certain, but I believe the volume of the T61 is set through the hardware only.  Therefore, you can only change the volume by using the buttons on the laptop.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that is why changing it has no effect.

ocram

Member

Registered: 2004-09-27

Posts: 14

Re: thinkpad t61 /proc/acpi/ibm/volume and audio issues

no I think you are wrong. The only hardware key is the mute one. In fact it works without any kind of configuration and I cannot map it to another function. About the volume keys I think they were hardware only in earlier models of thinkpad (I have an old a21p with archlinux and they don't need to be configured) but in the T61 they are just keys like the other ones.

matt_man22

Member

From: Boston, MA

Registered: 2007-04-28

Posts: 54

Re: thinkpad t61 /proc/acpi/ibm/volume and audio issues

Ok then, sorry.  I have a T60, and it is hardware keys, so I assumed it was similar for the T61.

print

Member

Registered: 2007-02-27

Posts: 174

Re: thinkpad t61 /proc/acpi/ibm/volume and audio issues

ocram:

I have a t61 and while my issues are mostly confined to sleep/resume, I can tell you that the rexima mixer has master and PCM channels.

http://rus.members.beeb.net/rexima.html

Give it a shot

print

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% whereis whatis whence which whoami whois who

ocram

Member

Registered: 2004-09-27

Posts: 14

Re: thinkpad t61 /proc/acpi/ibm/volume and audio issues

I have only the pcm channel in rexima...

are you using an archlinux kernel or you have made some custom configuration? (patch or so..)
and what lspci says about your audio? I've got this

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)

maybe your is different..

print

Member

Registered: 2007-02-27

Posts: 174

Re: thinkpad t61 /proc/acpi/ibm/volume and audio issues

Actually, I lied.  I have two PCMs:

                                    rexima

                 min  .    .    .    .    :    .    .    .    .  max
 -> Pcm      <- [=============|-------------------------------------]   26%
    Mic         [|--------------------------------------------------]    0%
    Pcm2        [==================================================|]  100%
    IGain       [|--------------------------------------------------]    0%

$ uname -a
Linux esq 2.6.22-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Sep 26 20:57:40 CEST 2007 i686 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     T7500  @ 2.20GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Sound quality is fine here.

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% whereis whatis whence which whoami whois who