No luck with ALSA and nVidia HDA

shuuhen · n00b Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 49

I've been trying to get audio working on my laptop (one of the last few things that I need to get working - wireless is next). I've tried the in kernel ALSA, both compiled as part of the kernel and as kernel modules for both the 2.6.20-gentoo-r7 and 2.6.21-gentoo kernels (neither way worked). I also tried leaving ALSA out of my kernel config and emerging alsa-driver with the 2.6.21-gentoo kernel (and a few earlier ones).

The best results I've had so far are from the 2.6.20-gentoo-r7 kernel with them built as modules. I get both the Headphone and Speaker entries in alsamixer (but no PCM). I checked /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/status and it says 'closed'. At one point I did manage to enable the PCM device in alsamixer, but the best I could get was static from aplay. Not even static from madplay.

Here's the entry from 'lspci | grep Audio'

00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)

Here's the output from lsmod

jburns · Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 4:03 am Post subject:

google for alsa nvidia mcp51 gentoo

The works/fails status seems to depend on the laptop model.

shuuhen · n00b Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 49

Hmm... with some of the suggestions from one of the sites I managed to get PCM to show up again. Unfortunately it still is not working correctly. From what some of the sites said and from what I saw as the device information in alsamixer, it looks like it's not getting recognized correctly.

I know it's possible to get sound working, because I can play music when I boot from my Knoppix flash drive. The trick seemse to be getting it to be recognized as the correct device. Maybe I can figure out a little more with the configuration in Knoppix.

hcintra · n00b Joined: 27 Jan 2005 Posts: 51

According to the Alsa-Project Soundcard Matrix you should be using intel8X0 for driver:
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/index.php?vendor=vendor-Nvidia#matrix

I have a nVidia based onboard card (other chipset) working with that driver.

shuuhen · n00b Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 49

I tried that for one of the first kernels I tested with no luck. What chipset do you have? My Knoppix flash drive loads the snd-hda-intel driver and sound works there. Seems odd that my sound doesn't even work with the version of ALSA that the Knoppix drive has when I install that in Gentoo.

Monkeh · Veteran Joined: 06 Aug 2005 Posts: 1656 Location: England

shuuhen · n00b Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 49

The laptop is a HP Pavilion dv6000 CTO.

Monkeh · Veteran Joined: 06 Aug 2005 Posts: 1656 Location: England

shuuhen · n00b Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 49

1.0.14_rc3 was a no go. I also tried to install the latest stable (1.0.14_rc2) and the testing (1.0.14_rc3) alsa from the portage tree with the latest stable vanilla-sources kernel (2.6.20.6). With the vanilla kernel, alsaconf didn't even detect the soundcard (both versions tested).

DaggyStyle · Watchman Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5941

got the same card, works perfectly with gentoo-sources-2.6.20-r7, latest stable alsa-driver.

what system are you running?

try the alsa-guide in gentoo.org
dont forget to enable kernel builtin support.

return here if you've still got an problem.
_________________
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former - Albert Einstein

shuuhen · n00b Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 49

Still appears to be a no go. Tried both in kernel and out of kernel versions of alsa. I'm running a multilib AMD64 install. I don't seem to be able to get a PCM device to show up in alsamixer. I get the feeling that I'm missing something simple...

DaggyStyle · Watchman Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5941

updated to latest unstable alsa, it works well, did you tried the gentoo-sources
_________________
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former - Albert Einstein

shuuhen · n00b Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 49

Yep, I'm using the gentoo-sources. I also tried with vanilla-sources, but the card wasn't even recognized by alsaconf.

DaggyStyle · Watchman Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5941

did you used the guide? any strange message under dmesg?
_________________
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former - Albert Einstein

shuuhen · n00b Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 49

Yep. I used the guide.

The dmesg did have

ynema · Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 11:36 am Post subject:

I have a related problem I have the same chipset and it shows up in alsamixer as HDA NVidia using the HDA-Intel module for alsa-driver but alas no sound

shuuhen · n00b Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 49

Anyone have ideas? If your audio is working, does alsamixer say you have a Conexant chip?

Shoikan · n00b Joined: 06 Jul 2004 Posts: 8

The issue with the alsa hda-intel driver seems to be that while the (for instance) NVidia chipset is listed as the multimedia pci device, there's actually another chip doing the grunt work. This may be a realtek chip (for instance the ALC880, or ALC882 or 3, etc.) or one of another manufacturer (whoever was cheaper :lol:

). So, what happens on a driver level is this: hda-intel is the main driver section, but underneath there are several 'subdrivers' at work, depending on what chip is used. When you compile the alsa drivers (either through the kernel included version or the emerged version), the hda-driver is compiled, and a bunch of patches are tossed onto the hda-intel driver that make sure the various sub-drivers are compiled in. When the hda-intel driver is loaded it will try to work out what subdriver will actually be used.

This is where the brown stuff usually hits the proverbial fan (especially if you are using a laptop with a realtek chip). The realtek chip can be connected to just about anything and everything in various dubious or useful ways (depending on the whim of the laptop designer, if he had a good drink, evening with the missus, a fine on the way to work, or whatever :roll:

). This means that there are about as many variations in the internal driver 'wiring' as there are laptops out there, each coming with their own 'model' type that you have to give along in the module config.

So, where does this leave you? It leaves you manually loading the hda-intel driver a couple of times, reading the logs to see if the driver seems to succesfully identify what chip you have, and then what model that goes with the chip. Usually id-ing the chip works fine, but it goes wrong with the 'model'. If it does not seem to work, go into the <alsa-driver source root>/alsa-kernel/pci/hda-intel directory and dig through the appropriate <chipvendor>.c file and see what flavors of 'model' it knows and try them out. If you're lucky, you'll get it to work. I am stuck waiting for the developpers to succesfully incorporate my model of ALC882 still :cry:

krlloyd · n00b Joined: 30 May 2006 Posts: 44

I am having the same difficulties as you with this chipset. I am not sure what driver i should be using. I tried the snd-hda-intel and the snd-intel8x0 driver. When i run alsamixer i cannot adjust the headset volume and i get no sounds. This happens with both drivers. alsaconf reports: