A little help please--Sound Card

[daacosta]

I already posted in another area but forgot where exactly regarding configuring my sound card with ALSA...

I followed the following steps:

alsaconf

Here is the console of what it looked like...

daacosta@XANFZH4QJ51:~$ su
Password:
XANFZH4QJ51:/home/daacosta# alsaconf
Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: snd-maestro3 snd-ac97-codec snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm snd-timer snd-page-alloc.
Building card database...


Running update-modules...
Loading driver...
Setting default volumes...

OK?

After that I proceeded to answer YES to the following question prompted by the window [ was that wrong? ]

Do you want to modify /etc/modprobe.d/sound │
│ (and /etc/modprobe.conf if present)?

Then I got this:

OK, sound driver is configured. │
│ │
│ ALSA CONFIGURATOR │
│ │
│ will prepare the card for playing now. │
│ │
│ Now I will load the ALSA sound driver and use │
│ amixer to raise the default volumes. │
│ You can change the volume later via a mixer

Right?

I then proceeded to run alsamixer and put an M in all entries [ Those are: MASTER, MASTER M, 3D CONTR, 3D CONTR, PCM, LINE, CD AND MIC ]

Very well... Using the Control Center I also did the following:

Control Center -> Sound & Multimedia -> Sound System -> Hardware

At the Select audio device I chose: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture

I opened the CD Player and I configured it unchecking the digital playback option...

The result? No sound yet

What else did I do?

Control Center -> Sound & Multimedia -> Sound System -> General

And tested sound and midi...

The result? Nothing... No sound...

Ah! One more thing: After running alsaconf all applications that require sound were closed [ i.e., Firefox and the sound mixer that comes on the desktop disappeared ]

What am I missing?

Before running to the store to get another soundcard I would like to see if I can solve this issue. In the meantime, I have learned a lot and have gained confidence with the console...

Can somebody help me please?

Control Center -> Hardware -> System -> Sound

Gives as a result:

SOUND DRIVER: 3.8.1 a-980706 (ALSA v1.0.9rc2 emulation code)

KERNEL: Linux 2.6.11-x1 #1

CONFIG OPTIONS: 0

INSTALLED DRIVERS:
Type 10:ALSA emulation

CARD CONFIGURATION:
ESS-Allegro PCI at 0x1000, irq 5

Synth and Midi devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

AUDIO DEVICES: 0: Allegro (DUPLEX)

MIXERS: ESS Technology ESS1988



I am going to try making this work the hard (and fun) way...


Ah! This also happened to me back in the days when I used Win ME and decided to switch to Win 2000 PRO. I simply had to find the suitable driver and install it [Finding the suitable driver proved difficult and even afterwards I had the sensation that I never solved that problem...]

[bryansmith]

If alsaconf recognized the card you should be fine. I think you may have muted the channels when they were actually unmuted. Try going back to alsamixer and unmuting the channels if they are muted.

Bryan

[daacosta]

From your reply I can feel that I am almost there... Am I?

I opened alsamixer with the console and all the channels were in MM but... there were other channels I didn't see before:

MIC (no volume), Phone (no volume), PC Speak (no volume), CAPTURE (no volume)

Very well... I will raise the volume in those and see what happens...

Nothing happened...

In the Alsamixer window there is this:

Card: ESS Allegro PCI │
│ Chip: ESS Technology ESS1988 │
│ View: Playback │
│ Item: Master Mono [Off]

That would be for the Master Mono... The remaining items are exactly the same and all of these have their volume raised...

Is that the way things are supposed to be?

After testing sound with the control center it didn't work...

[bryansmith]

Did you test the sound right after alsamixer? Run:

alsactl store

after to store all your settings.

Okay, alsa recognized your sound card. So something is weird with alsamixer. Is your PCM channel unmuted?

Bryan

[daacosta]

A channel is muted when MM is shown or when 00 is shown.

The channels from alsamixer are like this:

Master, Master M, PCM, CD, MIC --> show a 00

Phone, PC speak, Line, MIC Boss, External ---> show a MM

Right after I ran alsamixer I tried to play a CD and no sound...

[bryansmith]

I'm going out on a guess here but is there more than one device for your audio? If there is, try using one of them.

Bryan

[daacosta]

I am about to conclude that my soundcard is busted [As was my modem... Yes, it happened to me when I has Windows on my computer and I had no Internet for a long time...] This was my last session playing with ALSA:

daacosta@XANJGBN5R18:~$ alsaconf
bash: alsaconf: command not found
daacosta@XANJGBN5R18:~$ su
Password:
XANJGBN5R18:/home/daacosta# alsaconf
Terminating processes: 10436 14897.
Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: snd-maestro3 snd-ac97-codec snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm snd-timer snd-page-alloc.
Building card database...


Running update-modules...
Loading driver...
Setting default volumes...


================================================== =============================

Now ALSA is ready to use.
For adjustment of volumes, use your favorite mixer.

Have a lot of fun!


XANJGBN5R18:/home/daacosta# alsamixer

XANJGBN5R18:/home/daacosta# alsactl store
XANJGBN5R18:/home/daacosta#

I couldn't play a CD, test a sound How do I know for sure that my soundcard is not damaged?

[PenGUiN_6_1]

Would that also be concerning the ESS-1969-Solo PCI card? From what I understand, an Open Source or OSS driver might help.

[variant]

setting everything to M as you said the first time basicaly means muting all channels..

[daacosta]

The channels end up with a 00 at the alsamixer (all of them...) In that case they are on, aren't they?