ALSA and ca0106 - only right channel plays

dante4d · 2009-06-27 23:33:43

Hello,

I need some help with my 00:04.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev a2). I was unable to get my old SB Live! 24bit running, so I dumped it and enabled my onboard audio chip.

However, I hear sound only from right channel (in my headphones) of front jack (the green one...) and none of the other jacks works at all (not any kind of sound/noise generated there).

I tried to google for solutions, but I wasn't very lucky. I didn't find anything specific for my problem and how to solve it. Look's like the hardware get's detected all fine, modules are loaded and usuall files in /proc are present. I wonder if it's hardware error or just matter of configuration.

I of course tried playing with mixer, alsaconf, playing some sounds using aplay... How can I find out what's going on with ALSA and why it plays sound just in the right channel?

Here's some system info:

$ lspci 
00:00.0 Memory controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Memory Controller (rev a3)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 ISA Bridge (rev a3)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation CK804 SMBus (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a2)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:04.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev a2)
00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 IDE (rev f2)
00:07.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller (rev f3)
00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller (rev f3)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:0a.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0d.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 9500 GT (rev a1)
05:06.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. Atheros AR5001X+ Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

$ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
dm_mod                 61124  2 
ipv6                  277908  10 
usbhid                 40576  0 
hid                    42560  1 usbhid
ppdev                   7720  0 
nvidia               9548740  0 
agpgart                32756  1 nvidia
analog                 10656  0 
lp                      9700  0 
parport_pc             36868  1 
parport                34476  3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
ns558                   4548  0 
gameport               11280  3 analog,ns558
sg                     27896  0 
snd_intel8x0           30592  2 
asus_atk0110            8420  0 
ohci_hcd               24148  0 
i2c_nforce2             6920  0 
i2c_core               22776  2 nvidia,i2c_nforce2
ehci_hcd               35856  0 
k8temp                  4356  0 
pcspkr                  2404  0 
usbcore               149968  4 usbhid,ohci_hcd,ehci_hcd
thermal                13888  0 
evdev                  10176  6 
processor              35864  0 
fan                     4392  0 
button                  5588  0 
battery                10984  0 
ac                      4360  0 
fuse                   61088  0 
snd_ac97_codec        106088  1 snd_intel8x0
snd_rawmidi            21824  0 
snd_seq_dummy           2696  0 
snd_seq_oss            31168  0 
snd_seq_midi_event      7012  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                53744  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          6768  4 snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            40352  0 
snd_pcm                73768  4 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer              21068  3 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc          8844  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
snd_mixer_oss          17540  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd                    58404  12 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mixer_oss
soundcore               6784  1 snd
ac97_bus                1540  1 snd_ac97_codec
arc4                    1732  2 
ecb                     2788  2 
ath5k                 121160  0 
mac80211              182880  1 ath5k
led_class               3976  1 ath5k
cfg80211               67300  2 ath5k,mac80211
slhc                    5732  0 
forcedeth              56464  0 
rtc_cmos               11244  0 
rtc_core               18048  1 rtc_cmos
rtc_lib                 2500  1 rtc_core
reiserfs              247304  2 
sd_mod                 27808  5 
sr_mod                 16676  0 
cdrom                  36032  1 sr_mod
floppy                 55780  0 
sata_nv                23564  4 
ata_generic             4680  0 
pata_amd               11592  0 
pata_acpi               4228  0 
libata                168460  4 sata_nv,ata_generic,pata_amd,pata_acpi
scsi_mod              110580  4 sg,sd_mod,sr_mod,libata

$ aplay -L
default:CARD=CK804
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804 - IEC958
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)

$ aplay -D default:CARD=CK804 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav 
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono

$ aplay -D front:CARD=CK804,DEV=0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav 
aplay: main:608: audio open error: Device or resource busy

Last edited by dante4d (2009-07-05 20:24:35)

whoops · 2009-06-29 23:14:51

I don't know how to do that systematically, but as noone offered a good way yet: maybe the channels are mapped wrong for some reason?

You could try to test the surround71 pcm with 8 channels (" aplay -D surround71 -c8 -twav" or something like that). If that gives you a clue on where the channels go (if they go anywhere), you can try to reroute them the right way (asound.conf reroute table).

Also if you play a bit with asound.conf, you might be able to figure out a better way to "debug" this. Other than some german ubuntu wiki entry, I didn't find any half decent documentation on ALSA that is significantly less complicated or long than the source code

good luck!

dante4d · 2009-07-05 20:22:47

whoops wrote:

I don't know how to do that systematically, but as noone offered a good way yet: maybe the channels are mapped wrong for some reason?
You could try to test the surround71 pcm with 8 channels (" aplay -D surround71 -c8 -twav" or something like that). If that gives you a clue on where the channels go (if they go anywhere), you can try to reroute them the right way (asound.conf reroute table).
Also if you play a bit with asound.conf, you might be able to figure out a better way to "debug" this. Other than some german ubuntu wiki entry, I didn't find any half decent documentation on ALSA that is significantly less complicated or long than the source code
good luck!

Hello,

I sloved the problem by using differnet device. It's Lexicon Omega external USB sound card, which is meant mainly for home recording (guitar and vocals). It works perfectly, I just plug it in and play stuff...

This is the only sound device so far that has worked for me out of the box. Since I've been using linux (2-3 years). I'm quite happy with it. I give up on all other hardware, because I don't have time to google and tweak things all evening long to get it somehow working, if at all.

Anyway, I was thinking of similar procedure like you describe. I didn't have enough patience to google up and try all the things, as I couldn't find anything useful gathered in one place to read it quickly.

So yea, thanks for the advice!

Regards,
David

Arch Linux

#1 2009-06-27 23:33:43

ALSA and ca0106 - only right channel plays

#2 2009-06-29 23:14:51

Re: ALSA and ca0106 - only right channel plays

#3 2009-07-05 20:22:47

Re: ALSA and ca0106 - only right channel plays

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