Revision 26 as of 2007-05-09 03:51:34

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Booting

If your boot hangs on loading the module for snd-hda-intel, try disabling the card in your BIOS. It is called "HD Audio Controller", "Azalia Audio" or similar. Then try solving the problem using the instructions below.

Identify the problem

Most cards seem to work as of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS using the stock kernel. However, the following problems might occur on some setups:

  • No sound at all
  • Low volume output
  • High pitched noise
  • Poor sound quality
  • Sound disappears when touching volume controls
  • Sound works at random after each reboot (possibly flavour 'm2-2' below)

  • Only the system sounds does not work

Muted system sounds

If you application sounds works, but your system sounds does not (login, logout, error sounds...) try removing the .asoundrc* files from your own directory: 

rm .asoundrc*

It should make the system sounds work without a reboot.

Possible easy fix

The following command seems to fix some problems (specifically volume/sound quality) but may need to be run after each reboot (see bug #92171, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.20/+bug/92171)

kill $(lsof -t /dev/dsp* /dev/audio* /dev/mixer* /dev/snd/*) ; sudo modprobe -r $(lsmod |grep ^snd |awk '{print $1}') && sudo modprobe snd-hda-codec && sudo modprobe snd-hda-intel model=auto

Update to the latest version of alsa

(i) These instructions do not interfere with the Ubuntu package structure or other kernel modules - in other words, the changes seem drastic however they are simply adding greater functionality to an existing kernel module

  • Install the required tools 

sudo apt-get install build-essential ncurses-dev
  • Install your kernel headers 

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

sudo mkdir -p /usr/src/alsa
cd /usr/src/alsa
sudo cp /home/naaman/installers/alsa/* .
sudo tar xjf alsa-driver-1.0.14rc1.tar.bz2
sudo tar xjf alsa-lib-1.0.14rc1.tar.bz2
sudo tar xjf alsa-utils-1.0.14rc1.tar.bz2
  • Compile and install alsa-driver 

cd alsa-driver-1.0.14rc1
sudo ./configure --with-cards=hda-intel
sudo make
sudo make install
  • Compile and install alsa-lib 

cd ../alsa-lib-1.0.14rc1
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install
  • Compile and install alsa-utils 

cd ../alsa-utils-1.0.14rc1
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install
  • Reboot

Manually specify which flavor you are using

If your sound still doesn't work after installing the latest alsa, it is likely that it was unable to autodetect your flavour.

  • Edit the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base 

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
  • Add the following line to the file, replacing '3stack' with your flavor (see below) 

options snd-hda-intel model=3stack
  • Reboot

Choosing your flavour

You can try some flavours which have a good chanche of working with your setup. '3stack' works for many motherboard integrated chips with shared surrounds. Other models include '5stack', '6stack', 'laptop' and 'laptop-eapd'.

Sometimes it is also possible to use the more generic 'ref' flavour, which the hda driver uses to load manufacturer specfic presets (SigmaTel, Realtek, etc.).

Flavour m2-2

If your sound sometimes just doesn't work when you boot up, but works again after a reboot (or 2 or 3), you may have the 'm2-2' flavour.

More flavours

The full list of flavours is available in ALSA-Configuration.txt in the driver tarball under alsa-kernel/Documentation/. If one of those worked but was not autodetected, you can help the alsa developers by sending them the output of lspci -nv and the model you used on [http://bugtrack.alsa-project.org Alsa BTS].

Extra hints to get sound working

Wrong mixer in use: Sometimes the volume control chooses the OSS mixer if the compatibility module is loaded. You may need to right click on the volume control applet in your gnome-panel and go to the preferences and change the device to the one called Alsa Mixer. The same applies to the gnome volume control program.

Mixer doesn't seem to work: The HD Audio standard has many output channels. As a result, the correct volume sliders might not be visible. Enable the volume sliders through Edit->Preferences in gnome volume control.

CategoryHardware