ALSA configuration for Intel HD Audio

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tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

ALSA configuration for Intel HD Audio

#1 Post by tempestuous »

The Intel High Definition Audio codec is found on many audio devices, mostly motherboard Southbridge chipsets.
The ALSA snd-hda-intel audio driver must accommodate many variations of this device, so there are several module parameters that can be used to configure the driver.
In Puppy 3.00's version of ALSA (v1.0.15rc2) the parameters available for this module can be obtained by running "modinfo snd-hda-intel".
An important parameter is "model". This allows the driver to deal with the nuances of the many different types of audio hardware available.

When Puppy's alsa configution detects the snd-hda-intel module for your device, it will add this entry to the end of /etc/modprobe.conf

Code: Select all

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
To add extra configuration parameters, open modprobe.conf in Geany, and add another line -

Code: Select all

options snd-hda-intel model=xxx
Then reboot, or reload the snd-hda-intel module.

To find out exactly what hardware you have, run this command -

Code: Select all

cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#* | grep Codec
An example of a result would be "Codec: Realtek ALC260"

Now refer to this list of valid parameters for "model" (from ALSA documentation):

Model name Description
---------- -----------
ALC880
3stack 3-jack in back and a headphone out
3stack-digout 3-jack in back, a HP out and a SPDIF out
5stack 5-jack in back, 2-jack in front
5stack-digout 5-jack in back, 2-jack in front, a SPDIF out
6stack 6-jack in back, 2-jack in front
6stack-digout 6-jack with a SPDIF out
w810 3-jack
z71v 3-jack (HP shared SPDIF)
asus 3-jack (ASUS Mobo)
asus-w1v ASUS W1V
asus-dig ASUS with SPDIF out
asus-dig2 ASUS with SPDIF out (using GPIO2)
uniwill 3-jack
fujitsu Fujitsu Laptops (Pi1536)
F1734 2-jack
lg LG laptop (m1 express dual)
lg-lw LG LW20/LW25 laptop
tcl TCL S700
clevo Clevo laptops (m520G, m665n)
test for testing/debugging purpose, almost all controls can be
adjusted. Appearing only when compiled with
$CONFIG_SND_DEBUG=y
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)

ALC260
hp HP machines
hp-3013 HP machines (3013-variant)
fujitsu Fujitsu S7020
acer Acer TravelMate
will Will laptops (PB V7900)
replacer Replacer 672V
basic fixed pin assignment (old default model)
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)

ALC262
fujitsu Fujitsu Laptop
hp-bpc HP xw4400/6400/8400/9400 laptops
hp-bpc-d7000 HP BPC D7000
benq Benq ED8
benq-t31 Benq T31
hippo Hippo (ATI) with jack detection, Sony UX-90s
hippo_1 Hippo (Benq) with jack detection
sony-assamd Sony ASSAMD
basic fixed pin assignment w/o SPDIF
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)

ALC268
3stack 3-stack model
toshiba Toshiba A205
acer Acer laptops
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)

ALC662
3stack-dig 3-stack (2-channel) with SPDIF
3stack-6ch 3-stack (6-channel)
3stack-6ch-dig 3-stack (6-channel) with SPDIF
6stack-dig 6-stack with SPDIF
lenovo-101e Lenovo laptop
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)

ALC882/885
3stack-dig 3-jack with SPDIF I/O
6stack-dig 6-jack digital with SPDIF I/O
arima Arima W820Di1
targa Targa T8, MSI-1049 T8
asus-a7j ASUS A7J
asus-a7m ASUS A7M
macpro MacPro support
mbp3 Macbook Pro rev3
imac24 iMac 24'' with jack detection
w2jc ASUS W2JC
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)

ALC883/888
3stack-dig 3-jack with SPDIF I/O
6stack-dig 6-jack digital with SPDIF I/O
3stack-6ch 3-jack 6-channel
3stack-6ch-dig 3-jack 6-channel with SPDIF I/O
6stack-dig-demo 6-jack digital for Intel demo board
acer Acer laptops (Travelmate 3012WTMi, Aspire 5600, etc)
acer-aspire Acer Aspire 9810
medion Medion Laptops
medion-md2 Medion MD2
targa-dig Targa/MSI
targa-2ch-dig Targs/MSI with 2-channel
laptop-eapd 3-jack with SPDIF I/O and EAPD (Clevo M540JE, M550JE)
lenovo-101e Lenovo 101E
lenovo-nb0763 Lenovo NB0763
lenovo-ms7195-dig Lenovo MS7195
haier-w66 Haier W66
6stack-hp HP machines with 6stack (Nettle boards)
3stack-hp HP machines with 3stack (Lucknow, Samba boards)
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)

ALC861/660
3stack 3-jack
3stack-dig 3-jack with SPDIF I/O
6stack-dig 6-jack with SPDIF I/O
3stack-660 3-jack (for ALC660)
uniwill-m31 Uniwill M31 laptop
toshiba Toshiba laptop support
asus Asus laptop support
asus-laptop ASUS F2/F3 laptops
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)

ALC861VD/660VD
3stack 3-jack
3stack-dig 3-jack with SPDIF OUT
6stack-dig 6-jack with SPDIF OUT
3stack-660 3-jack (for ALC660VD)
3stack-660-digout 3-jack with SPDIF OUT (for ALC660VD)
lenovo Lenovo 3000 C200
dallas Dallas laptops
hp HP TX1000
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)

CMI9880
minimal 3-jack in back
min_fp 3-jack in back, 2-jack in front
full 6-jack in back, 2-jack in front
full_dig 6-jack in back, 2-jack in front, SPDIF I/O
allout 5-jack in back, 2-jack in front, SPDIF out
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)

AD1882
3stack 3-stack mode (default)
6stack 6-stack mode

AD1884
N/A

AD1981
basic 3-jack (default)
hp HP nx6320
thinkpad Lenovo Thinkpad T60/X60/Z60
toshiba Toshiba U205

AD1983
N/A

AD1984
basic default configuration
thinkpad Lenovo Thinkpad T61/X61

AD1986A
6stack 6-jack, separate surrounds (default)
3stack 3-stack, shared surrounds
laptop 2-channel only (FSC V2060, Samsung M50)
laptop-eapd 2-channel with EAPD (Samsung R65, ASUS A6J)
laptop-automute 2-channel with EAPD and HP-automute (Lenovo N100)
ultra 2-channel with EAPD (Samsung Ultra tablet PC)

AD1988
6stack 6-jack
6stack-dig ditto with SPDIF
3stack 3-jack
3stack-dig ditto with SPDIF
laptop 3-jack with hp-jack automute
laptop-dig ditto with SPDIF
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)

Conexant 5045
laptop Laptop config
test for testing/debugging purpose, almost all controls
can be adjusted. Appearing only when compiled with
$CONFIG_SND_DEBUG=y

Conexant 5047
laptop Basic Laptop config
laptop-hp Laptop config for some HP models (subdevice 30A5)
laptop-eapd Laptop config with EAPD support
test for testing/debugging purpose, almost all controls
can be adjusted. Appearing only when compiled with
$CONFIG_SND_DEBUG=y

STAC9200
ref Reference board
dell-d21 Dell (unknown)
dell-d22 Dell (unknown)
dell-d23 Dell (unknown)
dell-m21 Dell Inspiron 630m, Dell Inspiron 640m
dell-m22 Dell Latitude D620, Dell Latitude D820
dell-m23 Dell XPS M1710, Dell Precision M90
dell-m24 Dell Latitude 120L
dell-m25 Dell Inspiron E1505n
dell-m26 Dell Inspiron 1501
dell-m27 Dell Inspiron E1705/9400

STAC9205/9254
ref Reference board
dell-m42 Dell (unknown)
dell-m43 Dell Precision
dell-m44 Dell Inspiron

STAC9220/9221
ref Reference board
3stack D945 3stack
5stack D945 5stack + SPDIF
intel-mac-v1 Intel Mac Type 1
intel-mac-v2 Intel Mac Type 2
intel-mac-v3 Intel Mac Type 3
intel-mac-v4 Intel Mac Type 4
intel-mac-v5 Intel Mac Type 5
macmini Intel Mac Mini (equivalent with type 3)
macbook Intel Mac Book (eq. type 5)
macbook-pro-v1 Intel Mac Book Pro 1st generation (eq. type 3)
macbook-pro Intel Mac Book Pro 2nd generation (eq. type 3)
imac-intel Intel iMac (eq. type 2)
imac-intel-20 Intel iMac (newer version) (eq. type 3)
dell-d81 Dell (unknown)
dell-d82 Dell (unknown)
dell-m81 Dell (unknown)
dell-m82 Dell XPS M1210

STAC9202/9250/9251
ref Reference board, base config
m2-2 Some Gateway MX series laptops
m6 Some Gateway NX series laptops
pa6 Gateway NX860 series

STAC9227/9228/9229/927x
ref Reference board
3stack D965 3stack
5stack D965 5stack + SPDIF
dell-3stack Dell Dimension E520

STAC9872
vaio Setup for VAIO FE550G/SZ110
vaio-ar Setup for VAIO AR
Last edited by tempestuous on Sun 01 Mar 2009, 10:56, edited 2 times in total.

richwa4sxz
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon 17 Sep 2007, 23:50
Location: Fort Walton Beach, Florida

Alsa configuration

#2 Post by richwa4sxz »

Thanks for all the info, I got lucky and found that by doing a clean install and dumping my older pup_save's my HDA Intel (AC861V) started working. Now only have to wait for ALSA group to fix the Audigy2 ZS mic level bug to have everything I need.

Now I have a fully functional Puppy!

Many thanks for the help.

asburylad
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed 17 Oct 2007, 20:24

Can't get a peep out of the Puppy

#3 Post by asburylad »

Hi, I'm new to Puppy Linux and to Linux itself.

I have been playing with the Puppy for a few weeks and
got it to recognize my video, network, cd and hard drives.

No matter how many configs I try I can't seem to get the sound to work. When i read the posting by tempestuous I thought my problems were solved. I have a Dell XPS410 with a integrated Sigmatel card. I used tempestuous's "cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#* | grep Codec" command line entry to determine that I have a Sigmatel STAC9227 card. I edited the modprobe.conf file to add the "options snd-hda-intel model=STAC9227" after the ALSA generated "alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel" line, but no sound. I have sound when running WinXP and Ubuntu. In Puppy Linux I moved the volume slider to max and maxed out the mixer sliders and have input amplification to max.

I went to the ALSA site and found that ALSA has a later version of the their sound card configurator available with support for the STAC9227, but I haven't a clue as to how I can apply it to the Puppy.
This may or may not solve my problem.

Can someone please help me out here ?

Asburylad

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#4 Post by tempestuous »

"STAC9227" is just a class heading.
The parameter will be either "ref", "3stack", "5stack" or "dell-3stack".
Example

Code: Select all

options snd-hda-intel model=ref
Also make sure that the master volume is not muted in alsamixer. Press "m" to mute/unmute.

asburylad
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed 17 Oct 2007, 20:24

#5 Post by asburylad »

Thank you tempestuous for providing me with the proper parameters for my Sigmatel 9227.

I tried each of the four possible parameters you listed for my sound card: "ref", "3stack", "5stack", and "dell-3stack".

I also checked the mixer setting. My Puppy distro came with Puppy mixer instead if the Alsa mixer.

All sliders were at 100 and the mute button was off, but I still can't seem to hear a peep come out of the puppy.

Asburylad

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#6 Post by tempestuous »

Try a more low-level fix; boot with the "pci=biosirq" boot option.
You could also try "acpi=off" but this is quite severe, it disables your ACPI subsystem. "pci=biosirq" achieves a similar end-result.

And check the manufacturer's website for a bios upgrade. This can sometimes solve hardware resource allocation problems.
Last edited by tempestuous on Sat 29 Dec 2007, 01:15, edited 1 time in total.

picatrix
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri 10 Mar 2006, 17:01

#7 Post by picatrix »

...if this could be helpful for someone, here how I solved my intel hd audio problem on vt1708 chip from via cx700m chipset (ebox 4853):

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... =424226376

(VT1708 hda-intel sound problem solved!!!)

Best Regards

Picatrix

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#8 Post by tempestuous »

If still no sound, a good form of diagnosis is to install XMMS, available here -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=23682
When you play a sound file in XMMS there is a visual display which indicates whether audio is working at the software level.
If you see the display working, then you know that the problem is either getting the mixer settings right (with alsamixer) or hardware connections. One of the problems with the snd-hda-intel driver is sending the audio output to the correct physical pin outs on the motherboard, because there are many different motherboard manufacturers who use the Intel HD codec. Because of this problem, the snd-hda-intel driver has been known to send the audio output to the WRONG connection - like the mic input, for example.

asburylad
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed 17 Oct 2007, 20:24

XMMS sound bars but no sound

#9 Post by asburylad »

I have Intel HD Audio integrated audio on my PCs motherboard.
I have tried to get sound working based on suggestions from this board (see previous posts to this thread), but no joy.

I tried running the XMMS as was suggested just above and I do see the bouncing bars on the display when I play a song, but no sound comes from the speakers.

I guess this means that the input is getting to the XMMS player but not getting out correctly. I tried changing the output module from OSS to ALSA and also played with checking the and unchecking the PCM box in the XMMS preferences. The mixer settings are at max and not muted.

Does anyone have any other suggestions ?

Curiously, although I can't get sound using Puppy Linux 3.01, or the previous version, or Muppy Linux 08, Pizzapup 3.01 (which I believe is based on an earlier version of Puppy Linux) plays sound fine right "out of the box".

Asburylad

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#10 Post by tempestuous »

Intel HDA-based audio devices are problematic under Linux. Success will ultimately depend on the version of ALSA being used. Barry reports that his laptop's HDA audio started working with ALSA v1.0.15, and this version of ALSA can be found in the current Puppy4alpha.
And Pup214R is soon to get an ALSA upgrade.

But I just noticed something in your earlier post -
asburylad wrote:My Puppy distro came with Puppy mixer instead if the Alsa mixer.
All versions of Puppy should have alsamixer, it's a core utility. You need to run it from an rxvt console.

nic2109
Posts: 405
Joined: Mon 01 Jan 2007, 20:24
Location: Hayslope, near Middlemarch, Midlands, England

#11 Post by nic2109 »

tempestuous wrote:Intel HDA-based audio devices are problematic under Linux. Success will ultimately depend on the version of ALSA being used. Barry reports that his laptop's HDA audio started working with ALSA v1.0.15, and this version of ALSA can be found in the current Puppy4alpha.
Indeed; Puppy 3.01 and derivatives have all been "mute" for me, but Puppy has found his voice again in 4.0a3. Hurrah! :D

User avatar
inged
Posts: 22
Joined: Fri 13 Jul 2007, 05:03

Intel HD Audio

#12 Post by inged »

I also was suffering the problem of the Intel HD audio in my laptop (Puppy 3.01), most of the times was sound-less. From one Ubuntu forum, somebody mentioned that booting from the Knoppix CD and later booting the machine worked.

Appears to me that Knoppix flushed something, and the next boot I was able to get sound on Puppy. I did it for some time to get sound, mostly after using WinXP.

Later I discovered, when crashing Puppy, that if I abruptly power off the machine (when Puppy is up or when is still booting), the next time I will get sound without using Knoppix. Again, something is flushed for that audio card.

Rough approach but it had worked every time I need. I still hope somebody come up with a nicer solution to the memory flushing for this audio card.

jcagle
Posts: 637
Joined: Thu 29 Sep 2005, 20:34

#13 Post by jcagle »

I'm borrowing a friend's laptop computer. It's a Gateway W340UI. So, this is what doing that cat command gave me...
# cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#* | grep Codec
Codec: SigmaTel STAC9200
Codec: Generic 11c1 ID 1040
I see a STAC9200 section in this, but I'm confused about how this reference thing is supposed to work exactly. What should I put in place of xxx in my case?

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#14 Post by tempestuous »

The Gateway notebooks are a special case, requiring a patch to the snd-hda-intel driver.
I provided this driver compatible with Puppy3.x here -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=22245
I'm not sure if this driver will work with the Gateway W-series, but it's worth trying.

Puppy4 has a recent version of ALSA (v1.0.15) so Gateways might be supported out of the box.

jcagle
Posts: 637
Joined: Thu 29 Sep 2005, 20:34

#15 Post by jcagle »

Actually I downloaded the alpha of Puppy 4 and got the sound working. Thanks. :-)

Wireless on this laptop is kind of iffy, depending on the network, but I know about the problems with that...

solxyz
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri 07 Mar 2008, 20:58

#16 Post by solxyz »

If you happen to be using a Realtek ALC268, you should use "acer" as your model.

jcagle
Posts: 637
Joined: Thu 29 Sep 2005, 20:34

#17 Post by jcagle »

It's a Realtek 8185.

I can only get it to connect to one wireless network so far, the one at Yaks Koffee Shop, which I don't need a key for. It fails to connect to any network that I need a wireless key for.

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#18 Post by tempestuous »

solxyz and jcagle, you are talking at cross purposes.

Realtek ALC268 is an audio chipset, based on the Intel HDA specification.
Realtek 8185 is a wifi chipset.
solxyz wrote:If you happen to be using a Realtek ALC268, you should use "acer" as your model.
jcagle's audio chipset is not Realtek ALC268, it's SigmaTel STAC9200.
jcagle wrote:It fails to connect to any network that I need a wireless key for.
Then you probably need to manually load the relevant encryption module.
For WEP encryption -

Code: Select all

modprobe ieee80211_crypt_wep-rtl
For WPA -

Code: Select all

modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip-rtl
For WPA2 -

Code: Select all

modprobe ieee80211_crypt_ccmp-rtl
This is explained in more detail in "How to configure wifi from the commandline"
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 339#159339
"PART 4: Troubleshooting, encryption problems"

jcagle
Posts: 637
Joined: Thu 29 Sep 2005, 20:34

#19 Post by jcagle »

From what it tells me, the Linux driver for the wireless on the Gateway laptop doesn't support WPA.

Anyway, I'm not even trying to connect to a WPA encrypted network, it's all WEP. I think I'll give it a try.

jcagle
Posts: 637
Joined: Thu 29 Sep 2005, 20:34

#20 Post by jcagle »

FATAL: Module ieee80211_crypt_wep-rt1 not found.

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