Sound Not Working (ALSA, Debian Etch, Dell Inspiron 3500, NeoMagic NM256AV)

[swoboda]

Hi,

I'm having trouble getting sound to work on my laptop. It's an old Dell Inspiron 3500, and I'm running the latest Debian Etch, fully upgraded, kernel 2.6.18, with ALSA. Unfortunately, this particular laptop uses the NeoMagic NM256AV chipset (rev 20) for audio and video, and I see that this card is troublesome for many people. I have never been able to get music going on this machine.

I've already been all over the internet forums and HOWTO's, followed all the guides step-by-step, and nothing yet works. Maybe one of y'all could help? I'm stuck. This is where I am now:

When I run beep the PC speaker beeps. If I plug in some headphones and run beep the headphones beep. But when I run aplay sine.wav I get no sound and this console output:
Playing WAVE 'sine.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
aplay: pcm_write:1268: write error: Input/output error

If I run cat Iceweasel_wallpaper.png > /dev/dsp I also get no sound and this console output:
cat: write error: Input/output error

alsamixer runs just fine, and I used it to turn up all the levels and unmute/enable everything.

cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound gives:
alias snd-card-0 snd-nm256
options snd-nm256 index=0 force_ac97=1

lsmod | grep snd returns this:
snd_opl3_lib 9920 0
snd_hwdep 8836 1 snd_opl3_lib
snd_cs4231_lib 23232 0
snd_mpu401_uart 8064 0
snd_seq_dummy 3844 0
snd_seq_oss 28768 0
snd_seq_midi 8192 0
snd_seq_midi_event 7008 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 45680 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_mid i_event
snd_nm256 67680 0
snd_ac97_codec 83104 1 snd_nm256
snd_ac97_bus 2400 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss 38368 0
snd_mixer_oss 15200 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_rawmidi 22560 2 snd_mpu401_uart,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_device 7820 6 snd_opl3_lib,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_mid i,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
snd_pcm 68676 4 snd_cs4231_lib,snd_nm256,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_ oss
snd_timer 20996 4 snd_opl3_lib,snd_cs4231_lib,snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 9640 2 snd_cs4231_lib,snd_pcm
snd 47012 14 snd_opl3_lib,snd_hwdep,snd_cs4231_lib,snd_mpu401_u art,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_nm256,snd_ac97_codec,s nd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_devic e,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 9248 1 snd

lspci | grep Neomagic gives this:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2200 [MagicGraph 256AV] (rev 20)
01:00.1 Multimedia audio controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2200 [MagicMedia 256AV Audio] (rev 20)

lspci -v for those two entries is this:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2200 [MagicGraph 256AV] (rev 20) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Dell Unknown device 008f
Flags: bus master, fast Back2Back, medium devsel, latency 128, IRQ 9
Memory at fd000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at fe800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
Memory at fec00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
Capabilities: <access denied>

01:00.1 Multimedia audio controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2200 [MagicMedia 256AV Audio] (rev 20)
Subsystem: Dell MagicMedia 256AV Audio Device on Colorado Inspiron
Flags: fast Back2Back, medium devsel, IRQ 11
Memory at fe000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=4M]
Memory at fe700000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
Capabilities: <access denied>

Here's the weird part (I knew y'all were waitin' for it!)...

cat /proc/interrupts:
CPU0
0: 744261 XT-PIC timer
1: 7504 XT-PIC i8042
2: 0 XT-PIC cascade
8: 1 XT-PIC rtc
9: 1437 XT-PIC acpi
10: 13834 XT-PIC uhci_hcd:usb1
11: 134096 XT-PIC yenta, yenta, wifi0
12: 96992 XT-PIC i8042
14: 12430 XT-PIC ide0
15: 33224 XT-PIC ide1
NMI: 0
LOC: 0
ERR: 0
MIS: 0

cat /proc/asound/cards:
0 [NM256AV ]: NM256AV - NeoMagic NM256AV
NeoMagic NM256AV at 0xfe2709a0 & 0xfe700000, irq -1

cat /dev/sndstat:
Sound Driver:3.8.1a-980706 (ALSA v1.0.12rc1 emulation code)
Kernel: ###removed by swoboda###
Config options: 0

Installed drivers:
Type 10: ALSA emulation

Card config:
NeoMagic NM256AV at 0xfe2709a0 & 0xfe700000, irq -1

Audio devices:
0: (DUPLEX)

Synth devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Midi devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Timers:
7: system timer

Mixers:
0: SigmaTel STAC9721,23

Okay, so the weird thing is that irq -1 stuff. It looks like that's the number that the driver uses before it gets the correct irq. So, any ideas? I'm stuck at this point.

Thanks for any help you can provide!


~Swoboda

[asprakash]

I dont know which version of ALSA u have. You try with latest alsa version alsa-driver-1.0.15rc3.tar.bz2. Hope your problem will solve...

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Prakash
electronica - Open Source portal for learners and beginners