ESS ES1983S Maestro-3i soundcard problems

[Jamess]

I've just installed Debian Lenny 5.0.0 on my old Dell Latitude CPT S500GT. Unfortunately there's no sound. Double-clicking on the Volume icon gives me:

"no volume control gstreamer plugins and/or devices found"

and

"The volume control did not find any elements and/or devices to control. This means that you don't have the right GStreamer plug-ins installed, or that you don't have a soundcard configured."

It looks like the soundcard is not configured properly (no driver..?) as lshw says it is "UNCLAIMED".

I saw a post somewhere which suggests trying the manufacturers website and running alsaconf both of which I have done. The Dell website does not provide a linux driver and I can find no third party alternatives.

Can anyone help with this?


*-multimedia UNCLAIMED
description: Multimedia audio controller
product: ES1983S Maestro-3i PCI Audio Accelerator
vendor: ESS Technology
physical id: 8
bus info: pci@0000:00:08.0
version: 10
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm cap_list
configuration: latency=32 maxlatency=24 mingnt=2
*-communication UNCLAIMED
description: Communication controller
product: ES1983S Maestro-3i PCI Modem Accelerator
vendor: ESS Technology
physical id: 8.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:08.1
version: 10
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0

[rokytnji]

I don't know if my reply will be of any help, but I just got through using AntiX control Panel to configure my ES Alegro 1988 Sound Card. The Linux Named driver in Device Manager identifies that made it work is called Maestro 3.

I'm running a icewm Desktop by the way so I can't be of more specific help to you. Sorry. AntiX is a Debian Based Distro, so the driver should be available to you also. Just a uneducated guess though. Hope that helps. Other forum members are way more proficient than me when it comes to Linux. so just be patient. Good Luck.

[Jamess]

Thanks for the reply. I googled a bit more and found some drivers called Maestro3 but I think they were for FreeBSD or something. Anyway, I've no idea now to install them! Thet are maestro3.c, maestro3_reg.h, maestro3_dsp.h, and a makefile. install makefile generates an error.

Any other ideas?

[Jamess]

Got it! Found the drivers here:

GDS - http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/alsa/firmware/

info on the problem and instructions on how to compile:

#464191 - Sound broken with linux-image-2.6.24-1-686 - Debian Bug report logs

[rokytnji]

Got it! Found the drivers here:

GDS - http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/alsa/firmware/

info on the problem and instructions on how to compile:

#464191 - Sound broken with linux-image-2.6.24-1-686 - Debian Bug report logs

Cool Glad you got it and posted back on how you got it solved. It will benefit other Lenny users with this sound card on How you fixed it. Kudos Dude.

[Deach]

Got it! Found the drivers here:

GDS - http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/alsa/firmware/

info on the problem and instructions on how to compile:

#464191 - Sound broken with linux-image-2.6.24-1-686 - Debian Bug report logs

Which set of drivers did you use? There's 38 downloads on that page. Just curious I'd love to have my sound back too on my old laptop.
Thanks

[rokytnji]

Here is whats said in the bug report

the right one is just "alsa-firmware"

So pick the latest one or pick one that is a year or 2 newer than when your box was made.

[Deach]

Ok thanks, I'll look into that. I've been fighting a Latitude C600 for some time now with the newer kernels. That's the first response I've seen that might actually be of some help. I'll keep you posted.