Intel 8x0, ALSA and 2.6 Kernel SOLVED!

Celtis · l33t Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 737

I've installed the 2.6 kernel (worth the effort if you ask me) and the only thing holding me back from using it fully is some minor(-ish) problems with sound.

I've got an Intel 8x0 chipset (AC '97), and have ALSA compiled as a module. I can run ALSAPlayer, mp3blaster and XMMS all OK but the problem is that as soon as I run anything else (even emerge sync) the sound stutters and crackles until you pause or stop it. If you start it again it works fine until the next time the system is busy.

Normally I'd say that I need to upgrade my PC but it's a 2.7gHz P4 with 1Gb ram so I'm not convinced that it's hardware based.

If anyone has any suggestions, thinks that I should post a specific file or ANYTHING I would appreciate it as I'm getting desperate now.

Thanks,

Celtis

Redson · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 15 Apr 2003 Posts: 137

I've got an i810 card and am also running the 2.6 kernel.

With the test5 version of the devel kernel, I had problems with xmms skipping when the system was busy, but these problems were fixed with the test6 release which was in portage early yesterday morning.

I might mention that my hardware is a bit more modest than yours, with a 1GHz P3 and 256mb memory.

So I would try test6 if you haven't. If you have, we'll go from there.
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Redson · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 15 Apr 2003 Posts: 137

It's probably also worth mentioning that I have also compiled into the kernel, not as a module. I don't think that this would make a difference, but I thought you might like to know
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Celtis · l33t Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 737

D'Oh! I knew that there was something that I forgot to mention - I'm using the test5 kernel and I've had the same problem with ALSA compiled into the kernel and then as modules and I get the same thing with both.

I'll give Test6 a try and let you know if I have any more success!

Thanks again,

Celtis

koala · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2003 5:49 pm Post subject:

I think I experience the same problem. It's a rather annoying sound corruption. If I use artsd it happens less than with esd, and using the OSS driver removes the problem IIRC.

Do you use ACPI?

Celtis · l33t Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 737

Yes I do have ACPI enabled, I wonder if it's worth trying with it disabled.

I've upgraded to the Test6 kernel with ALSA and the drivers built in and still have the same problem. ARGH!!! This is driving me insane!

Redson: Can you remember exactly what you did after you compiled the kernel (e.g. emerge alsa-drivers, etc) so that I can give that a try too.

Thanks again,

Celtis

Zoltan · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2003 7:49 pm Post subject:

My experience (intel8x0 alsa driver with 2.6.0-test5-bk8 kernel, acpi enabled) is directly the opposite. Xmms playing through alsa is quite stable on the load, but when I try arts output (not sure which driver arts usees, probably alsa oss) I get a lot more sound breaks. Especially when burning CDs, SUIDed cdrecord runs with RT priority and while not wasting any CPU it definitely slows down any desktop responsiveness. With arts when burning CDs I got the same problem like you have, sound didn't restore until xmms was paused/resumed.

Btw I run all my emerge tasks with nice -n 19. Emerge sync is quite CPU and disk intensive.
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Celtis · l33t Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 737

I'll give the other sound servers a try and see how much success I have there.

I know that emerge sync is quite intensive but in 2.4 I can run emerge sync, VMWare and some text editors and still listen to music with no problem. I think that I must have missed something when I've set it up

Redson · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 15 Apr 2003 Posts: 137

Since I have alsa built into the kernel you don't have to emerge alsa-driver ever again. So I haven't done that.

I don't have ACPI stuff in my kernel at all. I don't know if that would cause a problem or not.

I normally don't use kde, so I haven't tried artsd with it yet. When I get home, I'll try that out and see if that's causing the problem.
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cyclocross · Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2003 12:09 am Post subject:

I'm also running 2.6.0-test6 with AC97 and sound seems to work fine. I've compiled into the kernel as well. One thing though my settings aren't being saved after logging out. Anyone know how to get that to work?

lurid · Guru Joined: 12 Mar 2003 Posts: 595 Location: Florida

As far as I can tell, using OSS emulation works better than Alsa itself. I don't know if its a problem with the Alsa plugins for various programs (since the version in the kernel is newer) or what, but I find that if I select OSS in most apps things work better. Also, I find that using a sound server like ESD/Arts works well too because they buffer sound.. so if there is a 'skip' some where, you don't hear it since its reading from a buffer.
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Celtis · l33t Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 737

lurid · Guru Joined: 12 Mar 2003 Posts: 595 Location: Florida

Actually the alsasound script doesn't work correctly with the 2.6 kernels. To save your settings use alsamixer in a console or terminal (as root) to set your volume levels, then type 'alsactl store'. Stick 'alsactl restore' in /etc/conf.d/local.start to restore your sound settings on boot.
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monicajae · Guru Joined: 03 Sep 2003 Posts: 363 Location: Dorset, VT

did you guys emerge alsa-drivers with the beta kernels? because i have the test5-bk8 kernel and after not using gentoo for about a month because i was pissed about the gcc upgrade, switching to slack, coming back to gentoo and starting off freshly with the beta kernel, i remembered what a developer had told me about what i thought was a bug once with alsa and that was to remove the drivers with the beta kernel because i couldn't get sound at all. so, would someone please shed some light for me? thanks
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lurid · Guru Joined: 12 Mar 2003 Posts: 595 Location: Florida

Holy run-on sentence, Batman!

Anyway, yeah.. you don't need alsa-driver at all. Why? Because that package contains all that Alsa drivers for various sound cards. Makes sense, eh? Right. Well, in the new kernel, all those drivers in the alsa-driver package are actually in the kernel itself. No extra download. When you compile your kernel, build the alsa modules you need for your card and you're done.
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Celtis · l33t Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 737

monicajae · Guru Joined: 03 Sep 2003 Posts: 363 Location: Dorset, VT

Air-Op · n00b Joined: 02 Apr 2003 Posts: 52

I'm using:
kernel-2.6.0-test11
nforce1 mobo
athlon-xp 1700+
512 ram
7200 RPM disk
always compiling something or doing something very cpu intensive

I built my kernel with genkernel
The first time I didn't inlcude the alsa-oss emulation stuff into the kernel... sound did not work at all.

Then I enabled it, and it worked.

Then I went in and enabled some security options.
It started skipping

oh, the software:
kle 3.1.4
artsd

xmms xine .. everything studders... and I'm listening to the Matrix Reloaded sound track right now... maybe it's deja vu?? and the matrix is resetting every couple a 10's of seconds?

either that or God is playing me like I played Max Payne... go arround a corner save, go arround corner save....

hdparam /dev/hdc5

/dev/hdc5:
multcount = 0 (off)
IO_support = 1 (32-bit)
unmaskirq = 1 (on)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
geometry = 65535/16/63, sectors = 40965687, start = 4353678

lurid · Guru Joined: 12 Mar 2003 Posts: 595 Location: Florida