[SOLVED] Sound From Headset But None From Speakers

mrunion · 2010-02-23 16:03:48

I am using ALSA. My sound card (HDA NVidia, Realtek ALC888) is detected and the drivers are loaded at boot. The headphones work just fine -- I hear sound, etc. I cannot get the front, internal speakers to emit sound, however. I've tried various combinations of muting and unmuting things in alsamixer, etc.

I switched to OSS to test things and both the internal speakres AND the headset work just fine. But I prefer ALSA. I am trying to get things to work with ALSA.

What I've tried:
- alsamixer settings
- various model=xxx lines in /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf
- aplay -l and aplay -L (all channels seem present. The "default" channel is the headphones, and "front" is the speakers -- I think)

I downloaded and ran HDA Analyzer and noticed that pin 0x16 was labeled as an input AND output, but that the output was MUTED. This should be my front speakers, right? (See the "Output Amplifier" in these screenshots: http://www.dadburn.com/linuxscreenshots … lyzer1.png and http://www.dadburn.com/linuxscreenshots … lyzer2.png)

Now, the best my small brain can figure is that if I can get this thing UNMUTED, the front speakers should work. Seems logical. But how? I don't know enough about sending EAPD commands it seems. See http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/ … one_output for the section that I think applies to me.

Can anyone shed any light on this? Again, OSS works fine -- so I don't *think* it's a hardware problem. Even ALSA works -- except for the front speakers. I don't know where to go from here.

Machine (if it matters): MSi Wind Top AE2220-66SUS http://www.msicomputer.com/msiaio/specs … aspx?id=15

Last edited by mrunion (2010-02-24 15:51:22)

mrunion · 2010-02-24 15:50:53

OK, I solved it -- sort of.

I can get sound from my headset and my front speakers, but in alsamixer, the "headset" channel has no volume -- it just allows that channel to be muted or not. Also, the "headset" channel actually controls the fron speakers. The "front" channel controls both the volume and mute/unmute for the headset. That's acceptable for now, but I may keep messing with it or go back to OSS4.

In the end, it seemed to me that the problem was being caused by the /etc/asound.state file hanging around. (I know that's weird, but it seemed to be the issue!) Here's what I did:

+ I stopped ALSA from running at boot (removed "alsa" from the DAEMONS line in rc.conf)
+ I backed up and deleted the existing /etc/asound.state
+ I backed up /etc/modules.p/sound.conf, then made a new one with only:

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel

+ I added a '3' to the end of my boot line in GRUB so I would only boot to a root prompt (not necessary, but I did this for speed)

I then started trying models from the ALSA list ro get sound going. I tried a few before settling on "clevo-m540r". I still haven't tried all of them, and maybe another model will fix the "reversed" headset/front issue. If not, maybe a modified asound.state will. But for right now, I'm happy enough.

To "lock" in that change I made sure to run:
+ alsactl store (as root)
+ Added the correct "options" line to /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf:

options snd-hda-intel model=clevo-m540r
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel

+ Add "alsa" back to the DAEMONS line
+ remove the '3' from grub's menu.lst

Really, the only drawback is that KDE doesn't show the "headset" channel in KMIX, so to mute/unmute the front speakers I have to run alsamixer from a command prompt.

Anyway, I'm still open to suggestions, but I hope this helps others.

Last edited by mrunion (2010-02-24 15:52:48)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-02-23 16:03:48

[SOLVED] Sound From Headset But None From Speakers

#2 2010-02-24 15:50:53

Re: [SOLVED] Sound From Headset But None From Speakers

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