No sound-card detected on Compaq Armada 7800

[Augustin]

Hello,
as I said already in the title I have laptop Compaq Armada 7800, the series 6300/T/8000/V/0/3 and I tried several Linux distributions (BeaFanatIX, Debris, DSL, GoblinX, Puppy, Wolvix, Arch Linux) on it and I have got no sound although there is a working integrated sound-card on that laptop.

I tried:

amixer:
Mixer attach default error: No such device

similar answer with alsamixer

I also tried to search for any sound-card and it found none.

My questions are:
Q0: Where is the problem: am I missing drivers, some kernel modules, or what?

Q1: I guess that I am missing some drivers but I have no idea where to get them from. Is there such place? And what drivers should I install?

Q2: Is there some sort of "universal driver" which can solve this problem?

Q3: Extreme solution: The sound used to work when Windows was on that laptop. Can I get the sound working somehow through the WINE?

[Augustin]

I found solution to simillar problem on
Sound Drivers for Compaq Armada 7800 - LinuxQuestions.org

I will go and try it.

[Augustin]

I tried several things, but the thing is still not working.
Some more technical details:

augustin@wolvix ~ $ lcpci
bash: lcpci: command not found

augustin@wolvix ~ $ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
ipv6                  259744  10 
sg                     32040  0 
capability              7436  0 
commoncap               9344  1 capability
fuse                   44564  1 
agpgart                33352  0 
lp                     14120  0 
psmouse                40096  0 
xirc2ps_cs             20636  1 
serial_cs              24460  1 
pcmcia                 35756  2 xirc2ps_cs,serial_cs
evdev                  12288  4 
yenta_socket           28444  5 
rsrc_nonstatic         15244  1 yenta_socket
shpchp                 34336  0 
pcmcia_core            38716  5 xirc2ps_cs,serial_cs,pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
ata_generic             9480  0 
pata_triflex            8964  0 
irtty_sir               9476  0 
sir_dev                14980  1 irtty_sir
parport_pc             28772  1 
parport                35144  2 lp,parport_pc
ns558                   8704  0 
irda                  117176  1 sir_dev
crc_ccitt               6016  1 irda
pcspkr                  6656  0 
gameport               15624  2 ns558
serio_raw               9476  0

augustin@wolvix ~ $ amixer   
amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such device
augustin@wolvix ~ $ alsamixer

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device

augustin@wolvix ~ $ aplay            
ALSA lib confmisc.c:769:(parse_card) cannot find card ''
ALSA lib conf.c:3510:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_driver returned error: No such device
ALSA lib confmisc.c:392:(snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings
ALSA lib conf.c:3510:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat returned error: No such device
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1251:(snd_func_refer) error evaluating name
ALSA lib conf.c:3510:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such device
ALSA lib conf.c:3982:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such device
ALSA lib pcm.c:2144:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default
aplay: main:545: audio open error: No such device

augustin@wolvix ~ $ /sbin/lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Compaq Computer Corporation Northstar (rev 01)
00:00.1 PCI bridge: Compaq Computer Corporation Northstar (rev 01)
00:0c.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1250 (rev 02)
00:0c.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1250 (rev 02)
00:0e.0 ISA bridge: Compaq Computer Corporation CETUS-L (rev 03)
00:0e.1 IDE interface: Compaq Computer Corporation Triflex Dual EIDE Controller (rev 01)
00:0e.2 USB Controller: Compaq Computer Corporation ZFMicro Chipset USB (rev 11)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: S3 Inc. ViRGE/MX (rev 06)

Any idea?

[kejava]

Augustin,

I'm working my way through a stack of Compaq laptops that I'm trying to refurbish for an NPO in Philly. I have 5 of the Armada 7800. That link you posted earlier had some really useful info from Peacedog. One thing is for sure, the sound card uses the ISA bus and I'm fairly certain it's an ESS1879. That means it should use the snd-es18xx module for ALSA. If you were thinking of using an OSS module, forget it. From what I can see, it doesn't exist. That's probably why DamnSmall didn't work for you (what I'm using for this project). I will have to install ALSA to get the modules I need.

I'm still learning how to deal with ISA PnP/non-PnP sound cards in Linux. From what I've learned so far you basically need to add a few parameters when loading the kernel module(s). Since they're ISA-based, the main parameters of interest will be things like port, irq, dma1, dma2, mpu_port, etc. Do a 'modinfo snd-es18xx' so all the parameteres. You should be read those parameters from the BIOS, if you can even acces it.

I won't be able to get physical access to the laptops again for about another week. I just wanted to let you know I'm working on it too and I'll let you know if I get anywhere.

[Augustin]

Hi,
thanks for reply

I tried the ALSA driver but it didn't work for me. I do not know why...

Augustin

[kejava]

I tried the ALSA driver but it didn't work for me. I do not know why... Augustin

Have you tried passing any parameters to the module when it loads? If so, what ones?

Are you able to see any kind of sound card settings in the BIOS (irq, dma, io, etc.) ? I won't be able to look around mine until I make a RomPaq floppy. I'm hoping the settings are visible so I'll know what to use as module parameters.

[Augustin]

No I haven't. I just did:

modprobe snd-es18xx

[kejava]

Hey, I just tried the OSS sound blaster module (sb) under DSL and got a loud screeching noise. I can't test it any further tonight because everyone is asleep. But I believe all I have to do is turn down the mic before loading the module and everything should be fine. I got the idea from this link. btw, i did not pass it any parameters.

[kejava]

I was able to do more testing today. Just wanted to let you know, the OSS sb module is certainly the winner with the Armada 7800. I also found that I had to pass the the irq parameter, in my case irq=5. So loading the module looked like this:

sudo modprobe sb irq=5

I can't test it using ALSA yet. If you give either one a try, let me know how it goes. I have about 8 more of this same model to configure later. btw, you may want to plug in headphones for testing, at least until you can must mute the mic. The feedback noise is intense.

[NoWayBill]

I too was having trouble with the sound on an Armada 7800 (es1879).
Found the solution on the Compaq/HP website.
The snd-es18xx mod is looking for a pnp expansion card that doesn't exist because it's onboard.
Use snd-es1688.
Go here, Compaq Armada 7800 Notebook PC series and select your model.
On the resulting page go down to >Resources>>Manuals.
About 11 links down will be a .pdf for Linux installation although it is dated.