Easiest Solution to Onboard Sound Problems

[Guest mattfreeland]

I have been searching the boards for months trying to figure out how to get my via82c686 sound chip to work in mandrake. The solutions I found would temporarily work or would work untill I had to reinstall linux, at which point, I could never remember how I did it before. I finally found a way to make it work without any help from me at boot. Follow these instructions and enjoy!

 

(open a terminal)

1: Create a script called sound

- type: vi /usr/local/bin/sound

2: write 2 lines

- type: i [for insert]

- type: modprobe -r snd-via686

- press enter, type: modprobe via82cxxx_audio

- press escape, type: ":wq"

- type: chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/sound

3: place in startup folder

- type: cd /etc/rc.d/init.d

- type: mv sound sound.old

- type: cp /usr/local/bin/sound ./sound

 

Note: If you are using a different sound card, replace "snd-via686" with the name of your ALSA driver and replace "via82cxxx_audio" with your OSS driver. These can be found by opening Mandrake Control Center, clicking hardware, clicking hardware list, and then clicking on your sound card in the list. Click run config tool and you will see a message that says you are currently using OSS or ALSA [driver]. If it does not say OSS, press OK and then reopen the config tool. Now, your OSS driver name will be listed in this message, and the ALSA driver name can be found in the drop down box below. Replace these names for the values in my script and then cancel out of these windows.

 

4: reboot your computer and you should have sound!

 

I hope this works for you; it did for me! I'm sorry if it doesn't work for you, but I don't have access to any other machines with this problem, so I can't test it.

 

PS If this does not work, try editing the /etc/modules.conf using your favorite text editor so that the sound portion says:

alias sound-slot-0 via82cxxx_audio (or the name of your oss driver)

#above snd-via686 snd-pcm-oss

[Ixthusdan]

Welcome to mandrakeusers.org!

[Guest ndeb]

mattfreeland,

I have the same via686b on-board audio. Here's my experience:

 

1. Mandrake-9.0 comes with buggy ALSA0.9rc3 driver (snd-via686) which does not work well with esound and may have other problems.

 

2. The OSS/Free driver (via82cxxx_audio version 1.9.1) is actually worse in my case since it continuously gives kernel error messages such as:

via_audio: ignoring drain playback error -11

Once I play a sound app, these (and other) error messages keep on appearing until sound stops working and all sound apps start hanging.

Loading and unloading the via82cxxx_audio module makes no difference and reboot is the only way out to get sound back.

 

However, my experience with ALSA versions 0.9rc4-0.9rc6 have been good as these versions work without trouble with my via686b audio. I would suggest using the latest (0.9rc6 from http://www.alsa-project.org ) since it has a unified sound driver (snd-via82xx) for all types of VIA on-board audio.

[Guest mattfreeland]

I managed to get my sound to work by upgrading the alsa drivers once, but the last time I did it, I got no sound. I have gotten so tired of trying to make alsa work, that I have given up on it and now just use OSS. If you couldn't get it to work, it could be because you just loaded the driver from mandrake control center. The problem with this is that mandrake just seems to emulate OSS using the Alsa driver. I was able to correct this by changing the modules.conf by commenting out the line that says "above ...". This would usually work untill the next reboot, at which time I would have to redo the module switching and the modules.conf editing. So far, I have yet to find any reason to use alsa, since OSS is working fine for me. Perhaps I should edit my previous post and add that one should comment out that line. Thanks for your input!

[Guest ndeb]

The problem with this is that mandrake just seems to emulate OSS using the Alsa driver. I was able to correct this by changing the modules.conf by commenting out the line that says "above ...".

I am using OSS emulation with ALSA drivers without any problems. But that requires configuring and compiling ALSA with OSS emulation enabled.

 

Anyway, this problem has a very simple solution. U don't need to edit any file other than /etc/modules.conf. If u are using the ALSA drivers u should have these lines:

alias sound-slot-0 snd-via686

above snd-via686 snd-pcm-oss

Otherwise, if u want to use the OSS driver, the above two lines should be replaced by this one line:

alias sound-slot-0 via82cxxx_audio

[Guest mattfreeland]

I have tried this, but couldn't get it to work. After modifying the modules.conf in this manner, I would still have to go harddrak and change the driver to alsa and back to oss and then log out and back in and re-edit the modules.conf. This would get me sound, but after a cold reboot, the changes would be lost and I'd have to redo it. This is why I wrote the script. The OSS emulation works on most devices, but for my chip (and several others) mandrake's included alsa driver is very buggy and does not work.

[Guest ndeb]

This may be happenning because u have not disabled the ALSA daemon. So everytime u reboot, the ALSA daemon starts and reconfigures the system. I suggest u go to the mandrake control center -> system -> services and make sure that the ALSA daemon does not start at boot.