Audio OK on 8.10 but bad on 8.04: how to fix 8.04?

[Quaxo76]

Hello,
My main system now is Kubuntu 8.04, which I installed a few months ago.
Some time ago I upgraded my motherboard. Now it's an ASUS M3N-HD/HDMI with Realtek ALC1200 HD audio chip.
Since the upgrade, sound on 8.04 has been totally useless - the sound comes out all "crackling", stuttering, and full of a noise that sounds like static.
lspci returns, for the audio, the following:

Audio device: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0774 (rev a1)

Now I tried booting the live-cd of 8.10 beta, and there the audio works perfectly.
So working drivers for my chipset definitely exist. How can I make it work in 8.04 too? I really need audio, and I don't know when I will upgrade to 8.10...

Thanks
Cristian

[dibl]

Re: Audio OK on 8.10 but bad on 8.04: how to fix 8.04?

lspci returns, for the audio, the following:

Audio device: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0774 (rev a1)

Bummer! That says the 8.04 system is not picking up your audio chip, from BIOS or however it is supposed to read it.

Try booting an 8.04 Live CD, and see if it finds the audio and works. If "YES", then (if you want audio on 8.04) you're stuck reinstalling 8.04, but you know you'll have audio when you're done. If "No", then that means 8.04 can't work with your chip, and you're done.

[Quaxo76]

Re: Audio OK on 8.10 but bad on 8.04: how to fix 8.04?

Ouch. Not the solution I was hoping.
I'm not at my home pc now so I can't try this... But anyway... I thought that with Linux every component can be updated? I mean, if 8.10 detects my audio chip correctly, can't I install the relevant component in 8.04 too?
Reinstalling 8.04 from scratch is something I'd like to avoid now - 8.10 final is approaching fast, and I'll install that not long after it's out (just the time needed to "iron out" the first bugs), and I don't want to reinstall the system twice...

I'll try the 8.04 live cd as soon as I get back home, and I'll report back.

Cristian

[Quaxo76]

Re: Audio OK on 8.10 but bad on 8.04: how to fix 8.04?

Two steps I just tried...
- I installed the latest version of ALSA - no change.
- I ran

sudo update-pciids

Now lspci detects the card correctly:

00:07.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation Realtek ALC1200 8-Channel High Definition Audio Codec (rev a1)

But after a reboot, the sound is still totally crappy! What's going on? Now the system knows the card... And if I plug in another older soundcard, the sound is OK. So? I know that ALSA can support the card because in 8.10 it works...

Cristian

[dibl]

Re: Audio OK on 8.10 but bad on 8.04: how to fix 8.04?

Excellent -- nice job! I never heard of "pciids" -- nice to know!

OK, you're ready to start the official sound troubleshooting process then:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205449

[Quaxo76]

Re: Audio OK on 8.10 but bad on 8.04: how to fix 8.04?

Hmmm... I hit a "dead spot"...
With lspci the soundcard is correctly detected as an ALC1200. But with aplay -l it's detected as an ALC883.
So I don't know where to follow that guide. By the way I already compiled and installed the latest version of alsa...
In the compatibility list the brand "realtek" is totally missing - unless I overlooked something obvious - but it must be supported, as some older realtek cards work perfectly in 8.04.

So? Why does aplay see the card as an ALC883 while it is an ALC1200 (and lspci reports it correctly)?

[dibl]

Re: Audio OK on 8.10 but bad on 8.04: how to fix 8.04?

I'm stretching here, but I think the "nvidia" part of your lspci output may be significant. A check of the ALSA project site indicates it might be the nvidia HDA referred to here:

http://www.alsa-project.org/main/ind...:Vendor-Nvidia

Which, when you click on "Details", leads to this:

http://www.alsa-project.org/main/ind...dule-hda-intel

which indicates you will use the same driver that my Intel motherboard uses, the snd-hda-intel module.

So

sudo modprobe snd-hda-intel

and you should have the driver installed. You also want to put that module on the list in /etc/modules.

Other modules that you might want, if they turn out not to be on the list when you run

lsmod

would be:

snd-pcm-oss; snd-mixer-oss; and snd-seq-oss

If you're not hearing sound afterward, you might install alsamixergui and use that to look at your levels. And of course open kmix and make sure the "front" and "PCM" sliders are up and the channels unmuted.

Good luck!

[Quaxo76]

Re: Audio OK on 8.10 but bad on 8.04: how to fix 8.04?

Hm. Thanks for the suggestions, but... No luck.
I loaded that module, and I also added it on /etc/modules and rebooted... still nothing. All the modules you mentioned are shown in lsmod.
It's not that I can't hear sound... the sound is there, but totally corrupted - extremely crackly and with weird loops everytime the cpu is doing something (anything). I would suspect a bad card if it weren't working perfectly in 8.10...
Next ideas?

Thanks,
Cristian

[dibl]

Re: Audio OK on 8.10 but bad on 8.04: how to fix 8.04?

OK, now officially scraping the bottom of the idea barrel ....

Try adding "model=alc1200" to the line you put in /etc/modules, so it reads:

snd-hda-intel model=alc1200

and restart the system. Then, if still no joy, try:

sudo modprobe soundcore

and if that doesn't work .... do you have a TV to listen to? :P

[Quaxo76]

Re: Audio OK on 8.10 but bad on 8.04: how to fix 8.04?

Tried both...
I guess I'll have to buy some sort of iPod and docking station. It still crackles like mad.
Or I'll just have to rush things and install 8.10 beta, even though I don't like installing betas.

I just don't like to give up on problems though... I mean, if 8.10 can handle my chip, there MUST be a way to use it with 8.04! Or not? Can it be a kernel problem? Should I compile the latest kernel? I've never done that, but I might try if it's not too complicated...

Cristian

[Quaxo76]

Re: Audio OK on 8.10 but bad on 8.04: how to fix 8.04?

Mmm... Google is your friend, as they say.
It's a "data coherence" problem affecting all newer nVidia HDA chips. There's a small kernel patch to fix it. Check it here:
http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/8/4/110
Now I have to find a way to install it...

Cristian

[dibl]

Re: Audio OK on 8.10 but bad on 8.04: how to fix 8.04?

Good find!

Hmmm, well, given a choice between patching my 8.04 kernel and install the latest daily build of 8.10 ....

I dunno -- you might just want to dive in to Intrepid Ibex!

Here is the daily build, if you're so inclined:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/

[Quaxo76]

Re: Audio OK on 8.10 but bad on 8.04: how to fix 8.04?

Hmmm... I decided to try (I don't like to give up) and I patched the Kernel following this guide:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...66#post5898266
There were a couple of problems, and I had to patch the file by hand, plus a couple more glitches, but at the end I had a bootable new kernel - but it doesn't see my network card (lspci sees it but not knetworkmanager), and the sound isn't working at all ("xine can't find something or other").
Of course I could install 8.10 now (if I install a pre-final version, when it goes final, will I get an "official final" version through the updates?)... but I still can't see why I can't just fix the problem! Shouldn't fixing problems be what Linux is all about?

Cristian