[CentOS] Acer 5920 audio chip does not work in CentOS 5.2?

Thu Jul 3 01:54:07 UTC 2008
William L. Maltby <CentOS4Bill at triad.rr.com>

On Thu, 2008-07-03 at 10:22 +1000, hce wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 9:36 PM, William L. Maltby
> <CentOS4Bill at triad.rr.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, 2008-07-02 at 16:52 +1000, hce wrote:
> >> On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 7:20 PM, William L. Maltby
> >> <CentOS4Bill at triad.rr.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > On Mon, 2008-06-30 at 23:51 -0500, Alex White wrote:
> >> > hce wrote:
> >> >> Hi,
> >> >>
> >> >> I've installed CentOS 5.2 to a laptop Acer 5920 for dual boot, the
> >> >> audio works in Window Vista, but does not work in CentOS 5.2. Does
> >> >> CentOS 5.2 support following audio chip or not?
> >> >>
> >> >> Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio
> >> >> Controller (rev 03)
> >> >>
> >> >> Thank you.
> >> >>
> >> >> Kind Regards,
> >> >>
> >> >> Jim
> >> >>
> >> > When you say it doesn't work, are you getting an error message
> >> > saying that there's no sound device?
> >>
> >> No.
> >>
> >> >> Does lspci list your soundcard? If you have a super long list and
> >> >> can't locate it easily, you can try (but I can't promise this will
> >> >> work for you, it does for me however) lspci | grep audio
> >>
> >> Please see following lspci information for the audio, seems ok.
> >>
> >> 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio
> >> Controller (rev 03)
> >>         Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 0121
> >>         Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 66
> >>         Memory at f0500000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
> >>         Capabilities: <access denied>

Hmmm... Since I know very little about this stuff, I thought I would
look (and maybe learn something too). I have a different chip set, but
some things should be in common. My hope is something visual will jump
out at you or someone who is knowledgeable will spot something.

# lspci -v  # Snipped non-related stuff out
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc.
VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
        Subsystem: EPoX Computer Co., Ltd. Unknown device 300c
        Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 201
        I/O ports at eb00 [size=256]
        Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

Note that my capabilities are listed while yours are "access denied".
Were you root when you ran lspci? I don't know if that is significant.

> >>
> >> ><snip>
> >
> > I'm certainly not expert on this, but I can think of a few things to
> > examine that might give a clue.
> >
> > First, under 5.1, do an lsmod and note the driver(s) loaded for the
> > audio. Might want to examine the modprobe.conf file too.
> 
> Please see following results from modproble.conf and lsmod. I can see
> that the soundcore was loaded, I guess the audio module was loaded,
> right?
> 
> $ cat /etc/modprobe.conf
> alias eth0 tg3
> alias scsi_hostadapter ata_piix
> alias scsi_hostadapter1 ahci
> alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
> options snd-card-0 index=0
> options snd-hda-intel index=0
> remove snd-hda-intel { /usr/sbin/alsactl store 0 >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
> ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-hda-intel
> 

# Pertinent portion of my modprobe.conf

alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
options snd-card-0 index=0  
options snd-via82xx index=0  
remove snd-via82xx { /usr/sbin/alsactl store 0 >/dev/null 2>&1
|| : ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-via82xx

Looks OK to me.

> 
> $ /sbin/lsmod
> Module                  Size  Used by
> <snip unrelated stuff>

> snd_hda_intel          24793  1
> snd_hda_codec         210881  1 snd_hda_intel
> snd_seq_dummy           7877  0
> snd_seq_oss            32577  0
> snd_seq_midi_event     11073  1 snd_seq_oss
> snd_seq                49585  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
> snd_seq_device         11725  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
> snd_pcm_oss            42945  0
> snd_mixer_oss          19009  1 snd_pcm_oss
> snd_pcm                72005  3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
> snd_timer              24517  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
> snd                    52421  11
> snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
> soundcore              11553  1 snd
> sg                     36189  0
> ide_cd                 40033  0
> snd_page_alloc         14281  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

<snip unrelated stuff>

Here is the relevant stuff from my unit.

# Snipped out irrelevant stuff, edited long lines
Module                  Size  Used by
snd_via82xx            30041  1 
gameport               18633  1 snd_via82xx
snd_ac97_codec         93025  1 snd_via82xx
ac97_bus                6337  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_seq_dummy           7877  0 
snd_seq_oss            32577  0 
snd_seq_midi_event     11073  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                49585  5
snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm_oss            42945  0 
snd_mixer_oss          19009  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                72005  3 snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer              24517  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc         14281  2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
snd_mpu401_uart        12097  1 snd_via82xx
snd_rawmidi            26561  1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device         11725  4
snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
snd                    52421  13 snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,\
   snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,\
   snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
soundcore              11553  1 snd

Again, looks OK to my ignorant eyes.

> <snip>

> > Check (5.1 and 5.2) /var/log/dmesg and /var/log/messages for anything
> > related to the sound. If the device was found, there should be something
> > there.
> 
> I've checked dmesg and messages, but could not find any word to Audio,
> or audio, or sound. But again, I checked dmesg and messages from my
> desktop which installed FC7 and I could not find anything to audio and
> sound as well.
> 
> The only suspecious I could find was following boot message, but I am
> not sure it was related or not, and not sure how could fix following.
> 
> PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq".  If it helps, post a report
> PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 7 of bridge 0000:00:1c.0
> PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 8 of bridge 0000:00:1c.0
> PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 9 of bridge 0000:00:1c.0
> PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 7 of bridge 0000:00:1c.3
> PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 8 of bridge 0000:00:1c.3
> PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 9 of bridge 0000:00:1c.3
> PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 7 of bridge 0000:00:1c.5
> PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 8 of bridge 0000:00:1c.5
> PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 9 of bridge 0000:00:1c.5

Except for the first line, I don't know if the above lines hold any
hope. But I think the first line might be useful suggestion?

Mine has that first line too

# I thought this might be useful, unsure though.
PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq".  If it helps, post a
report

> <snip>

> What is the name of the audio module and driver from lsmod? I can only
> found soundcore as above.

Mine is the snd_via82xx. Yours s/b snd-hda-intel.

> 
> Thank you so much.
> 
> Kind Regards,
> 
> Jim
> <snip>

AFAICT, your stuff looks OK. We need more knowledgeable help.

A useful command is modinfo. Do a "man modinfo" for details. It is
useful in investigating this stuff. Note useful lines below, like
"depends" and "parm". E.g 

# modinfo snd_via82xx
filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.18-92.1.6.el5/kernel/sound/pci/snd-via82xx.ko
license:        GPL
description:    VIA VT82xx audio
author:         Jaroslav Kysela <perex at suse.cz>
srcversion:     E4EB4562EAA5912A94BAAB7
alias:          pci:v00001106d00003059sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00001106d00003058sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
depends:
snd-ac97-codec,snd-pcm,snd-page-alloc,snd-mpu401-uart,snd,gameport
vermagic:       2.6.18-92.1.6.el5 SMP mod_unload 686 REGPARM 4KSTACKS
gcc-4.1
parm:           index:Index value for VIA 82xx bridge. (int)
parm:           id:ID string for VIA 82xx bridge. (charp)
parm:           mpu_port:MPU-401 port. (VT82C686x only) (long)
parm:           joystick:Enable joystick. (VT82C686x only) (bool)
parm:           ac97_clock:AC'97 codec clock (default 48000Hz). (int)
parm:           ac97_quirk:AC'97 workaround for strange hardware.
(charp)
parm:           dxs_support:Support for DXS channels (0 = auto, 1 =
enable, 2 = disable, 3 = 48k only, 4 = no VRA, 5 = enable any sample
rate) (int)
parm:           enable:bool
module_sig:     <snip a very long module sig line>

Maybe that "pci=routeirq" suggestion above will help?

Since it was a new install, I have to ask: did you have to dink with the
hardware at all. Maybe open the case or move it? If so, maybe a cable
got knocked loose or the speaker wires disconnected?

Other than that, lets hope someone else knows something.

HTH
-- 
Bill