[gobolinux-users] bemoaning the lack of sound

[Michael Homer]

On Nov 23, 2007 6:15 PM, Isaac Dupree <isaacdupree at charter.net> wrote:
> Michael Homer wrote:
> > root at wispamok ~]dmesg|grep ALSA
> > root at wispamok ~]
> > So I think that's normal behaviour. Sound works for me with the same
> > config as you.
>
> okay
>
> Note especially snd_hda_intel in this gobo list:
They all look normal to me, so that puts that theory to rest.
> > Also, since Ubuntu is working, you can piggyback on its hardware
> > detection by running `lsmod` on it and enabling the same modules on
> > Gobo while I watched the logs. The snd_* modules are most of what you
> > want, there may be dependencies on a few others which should be loaded
> > automatically. Google suggests Macbooks have integrated Intel sound,
> > same as me, so you're probably looking for either snd_hda_intel or
> > snd_intel_8x0, both of which work pretty well in my experience.
>
> there were lots of snd_ modules... probably mostly unnecessary... I
> could have another look.  Then I have to figure out how to reverse
> lookup where they are in kernel config, I guess.  What's snd_intel8x0?
> anyway I tried removing snd_hda_intel and adding it, and also tried
> snd_intel8x0m, and still couldn't make sound.
snd_indel8x0 is for a different chipset (i810-915), I just didn't know
which you had. I have had both of those on different systems, although
the snd_hda_intel one was fairly old even at the time. You can find
them in the kernel config file just by grepping their name
(upper-case), and they're in menuconfig in the same order.

Since it clearly isn't working as is, the next thing to try is pulling
all the sound config from the kernel and install the external drivers,
like Daniele suggests. You get extra debugging abilities that way too,
since you can unload the whole setup.
> > You also need to have OSS emulation enabled for the Gobo KDE packages
> > to work, as I recall. And the ALSA volume defaults to zero, so you
> > need to turn that up to something reasonable. Those two wasted a fair
> > bit of time for me when I was setting things up before I figured them
> > out.
>
> OSS emulation is enabled.  And I don't use KDE.  And, though `alsamixer`
> is very confusing, it looks like the volume is up (not defaulting to 0),
> and I haven't had any luck changing it (luck = sound comes out when it
> should).  Why can't there be a decent text/command-line control and
> display of sound stuff like most of Unix, or have I just not found it??
You may want to try `amixer`, but it really isn't easier. You can also
edit /etc/asound.state and run `alsactl restore`, with the same issue.
alsamixer can be confusing and strangely-behaved in how it detects
different devices; you want to unmute probably at least whichever of
'Master', 'PCM', 'Line', 'Line Out' you have.
-Michael