Revision 33 as of 2007-07-31 09:37:50

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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
  • No mic working

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 gettext
  • Install your kernel headers 

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

sudo mkdir -p /usr/src/alsa
cd /usr/src/alsa
sudo cp ~/downloads/alsa* .
sudo tar xjf alsa-driver-1.0.14.tar.bz2
sudo tar xjf alsa-lib-1.0.14a.tar.bz2
sudo tar xjf alsa-utils-1.0.14.tar.bz2
  • Compile and install alsa-driver 

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

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

cd ../alsa-utils-1.0.14
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install

Note that you must have the curses library installed to be able to compile alsa-utils. You can install it with this command from a terminal: sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev

  • Reboot

Manually Specify Module Parameters

If your sound still doesn't work after installing the latest alsa, it is likely that alsa was unable to autodetect your model. To solve this:

  • 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 model (see below for a complete list) 

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

Another possible option is the 'probe_mask' parameter, which has been known to fix sound issues characterized by the occurrence of "azx_get_response timeout" messages reported with 'dmesg'. Try either "probe_mask=1" or "probe_mask=8" by adding a line like: 

options snd-hda-intel probe_mask=1

Choosing your model

The full list of models is available in ALSA-Configuration.txt in the subdirectory /alsa-kernel/Documentation/ of the alsa-driver-1.0.14 directory you created. Note that this list is ordered on modules and codec chips. To find your codec use this command from a terminal: 

cat /proc/asound/card0/codec\#*

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