Sound not working with laptop speakers,only with external

Nazgulled · Guru Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 485

Can anyone tell me why I have sound working on my laptop but only working when I plug in some external speakers to the earphones jack? How can I make it work, also with the internal speakers?

th0th696 · Apprentice Joined: 08 Dec 2004 Posts: 185

Try running

alsamixer

in a terminal. There should be a level for your internal speaker, that is either muted or turned down. Otherwise you might need to recompile your kernel. But since the headphone jack is working it should be good.
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Nazgulled · Guru Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 485

in alsamixer, there's only 2 volume bars that I can mute/unmute, and they are already unmuted and at 100%.

should I recompile the kernel with which changes?

th0th696 · Apprentice Joined: 08 Dec 2004 Posts: 185

try

lspci

look for your audio hardware, then hit up menuconfig for your kernel and make sure your chipset is being compiled in (static or module however you like). I am no expert, but it sounds as if alsa is using your card in some generic mode and once you get the proper module in there you'll be able to access the rest of the features.

Nazgulled · Guru Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 485

but i'm using the alsa-driveres package and not compiling them in the kernel or module...

th0th696 · Apprentice Joined: 08 Dec 2004 Posts: 185

Maybe you mean alsa-drivers?

In which case I'm sure you still need to compile in the necessary kernel stuff.

Follow this guide:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml

and also from the handbook for kernel recompilation:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=7

(EDIT: upon looking at the alsa guide I am fairly certain you meant alsa-drivers, which as you'll notice the author of the guide almost certainly seems to recommend the other method of making the choice using make menuconfig. And I've always compiled mine in static, as sound is pretty much something I've never had to unload.)

Nazgulled · Guru Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 485

th0th696 · Apprentice Joined: 08 Dec 2004 Posts: 185

Ya I figured that out once I looked over the guide again (notice my post-edit). But I also understand it's still not working for you? In which case I would take another route. I mean it's possible you are forgetting to set up something, but it seems more likely that alsa-drivers does not support your card fully for some reason or another. And the only solution I can think of is to recompile support for your card directly into the kernel. You might post what chipset you are using as well, as someone might have had the same problems as you.

Nazgulled · Guru Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 485

Nazgulled · Guru Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 485

nope, the same thing happened... the sound only played with earbuds/external speaker plugged in...

evillase · n00b Joined: 20 Nov 2005 Posts: 12

I am having the same problem, my laptop sound works when i plug in my headphones, when i unplug them i hear nothing.

my laptop speakers do work, they are not muted, and i am using the kernel audio drivers.

for the intel ac'97 audio.

also it worked before in gentoo. now it does not. ( i recently reformatted the harddrive and reinstalled windows and gentoo on it)

this is my sound card:
Multimidia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)

are there any solutions to this?

evillase · n00b Joined: 20 Nov 2005 Posts: 12

fixed it by turning on acpid

dont ask why, i do not know.

Nazgulled · Guru Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 485

what did you do exactly? what's acpid? what should I do to try what you did to see if it works on mine?

Nazgulled · Guru Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 485

well, I've read about ti and I believe it's already installed... at least cat /proc/acpi/info outputed it's version so I believe it's enabled in the knerle? (2.6)

Anyway, I tried to add it to the default runlevel, reboot and it didn't work... what did you do exactly?

Nazgulled · Guru Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 485

does anyone knows/understands what evillase did?

brucebertrand · Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:41 pm Post subject:

That doesn't make sense.

Most (all??) laptops use the same physical analog circuit for the internal speakers and headphone jack. The jack has a feature that physically disconnects the path to the speakers when headphones (or external speakers) are plugged in.

If you get sound from one but not the other it indicates a hardware problem, and has nothing to do with software.

acpid is the ACPI daemon. ACPI stands for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface. It is a standardized method of allowing Linux talk to the computer's hardware. It usually deals with batterys, fans, thermal sensors, and other vital system stuff. It does not deal with sound.

JeliJami · Veteran Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 1086 Location: Belgium

maybe he did:

brucebertrand · Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 4:07 pm Post subject:

Nazgulled · Guru Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 485

I don't think it's faulty hardware cause a friend of mine has the same exact model has I have and the same problem exists. But I have installed ubuntu on her laptop not gentoo as I'm running on mine. Either way, the sound only plays with something plugged in to the earphone jack.

I guess I'll just have to deal with it..

brucebertrand · Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 6:12 pm Post subject:

1)What make and model laptop do you have?
2)Do you have windows installed? If so, does it work properly in Windows?
3)Please post the output of lspci, lsusb, and lsmod.

Nazgulled · Guru Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 485

1) It's an LG LW-65 Express (Website Link)

2) Yes, it works just fine on windows

3)

lspci

brucebertrand · Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 5:49 am Post subject:

See this:
http://www.enterprisetoday.net/lg/lg-ls70express-suse10.html

It looks like the hda-intel alsa module is undergoing lots of revision and improvement.
There were quite a few fixes between alsa 1.0.10 and 1.0.11

First off, make sure you're using the latest version of ALSA. This might mean using emerge alsa blah blah... with the ~x86 flag rather than the kernel drivers.
You might have to just wait for the problem to be fixed in the alsa driver (perhaps file a bug report if one doesn't already exist).

Also, as stated earlier in this thread, I doubt that acpi has anything to do with it (but, as it seems I was wrong about the connector...), you certainly should set up th ACPI kernel modules and daemon.
http://gentoo-wiki.com/ACPI

Nazgulled · Guru Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 485

I guess I'll just have to wait for better alsa drivers then... and yes I already have ACPI compiled in the kernel.

Roi · n00b Joined: 06 Oct 2005 Posts: 49

Nazgulled,

I have LG LS70 Express and I have the exact same problem that you have.
My "Via-Deloroza" is discribed here : https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-425427.html

So I've checked the live CD of Kanoppix (ver. 4) and it gave me full sound functionality.
With Kanoppix Live CD ver.5 I have the same problem - only sound through the HP jack - wired.

Kannoppix ver.4 uses alsa-driver-1.0.9b and (I think) Kernel-2.6.12, so I downgraded both. No joy.
Still the same problem, but I do remember that in my first gentoo install - that was with the built-in alsa modules -
with kernel 2.6.12, I did have an output from my speakers.

Can someone please advise on this??

Nazgulled · Guru Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 485

Anyone has any updates on this?