[opensuse] Anyone managed to get a MCP79 HD sound card working in openSUSE?

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[opensuse] opensuse 12.1 Can't see...

C

10 Feb 2012 10 Feb '12

12:59

I'm trying to help a friend get a computer set up on openSUSE 12.1 (migrating from Ubuntu 10.10), and everything is working on the openSUSE 12.1 KDE4 LiveCD except sound. On the existing Ubuntu 10.10 setup we found this info: aplay - l **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices **** card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC889A Analog [ALC889A Analog] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: ALC889A Digital [ALC889A Digital] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 lshw -c sound *-multimedia description: Audio device product: MCP79 High Definition Audio vendor: nVidia Corporation physical id: 8 bus info: pci@0000:00:08.0 version: b1 width: 32 bits clock: 66MHz capabilities: bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=HDA Intel latency=0 maxlatency=5 mingnt=2 resources: irq:21 memory:f9e78000-f9e7bfff To "fix" it on Ubuntu, it required that we edit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf and add medion-md2 to the options options snd-hda-intel model=medion-md2 power_save=10 power_save_controller=N So.. that's all nice and works with another distro using Alsa... but this is openSUSE and Pulse. What we tried - Checked all sound volume sliders in KMixer and YaST to make sure volumes were up and not muted. Checked YaST to make sure the card was detected which it is. We stopped at this point to give me time to try and find a little more information. So, has anyone here had any success/experience with this sound card in openSUSE 12.1? Any tips or suggestions? - I'd prefer to keep it on Pulse if I can. Alsa is possible, but.. I'd much rather see it working on the default setup vs removing Pulse - I don't have the luxury of experimenting much since the computer is something like 16,000km away, I kind of hope to have a few answers in hand when we try to do the install this weekend. C. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

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Basil Chupin

11 Feb 11 Feb

03:40

On 10/02/12 23:59, C wrote:

...

I'm trying to help a friend get a computer set up on openSUSE 12.1 (migrating from Ubuntu 10.10), and everything is working on the openSUSE 12.1 KDE4 LiveCD except sound.

On the existing Ubuntu 10.10 setup we found this info:

aplay - l **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices **** card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC889A Analog [ALC889A Analog] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: ALC889A Digital [ALC889A Digital] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

lshw -c sound *-multimedia description: Audio device product: MCP79 High Definition Audio vendor: nVidia Corporation physical id: 8 bus info: pci@0000:00:08.0 version: b1 width: 32 bits clock: 66MHz capabilities: bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=HDA Intel latency=0 maxlatency=5 mingnt=2 resources: irq:21 memory:f9e78000-f9e7bfff

To "fix" it on Ubuntu, it required that we edit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf and add medion-md2 to the options

options snd-hda-intel model=medion-md2 power_save=10 power_save_controller=N

So.. that's all nice and works with another distro using Alsa... but this is openSUSE and Pulse.

What we tried - Checked all sound volume sliders in KMixer and YaST to make sure volumes were up and not muted. Checked YaST to make sure the card was detected which it is. We stopped at this point to give me time to try and find a little more information.

So, has anyone here had any success/experience with this sound card in openSUSE 12.1? Any tips or suggestions?

- I'd prefer to keep it on Pulse if I can. Alsa is possible, but.. I'd much rather see it working on the default setup vs removing Pulse - I don't have the luxury of experimenting much since the computer is something like 16,000km away, I kind of hope to have a few answers in hand when we try to do the install this weekend.

As I just suggested to Duaine, pulse works on top of alsa so you need to get the setup done correctly in alsa first before pulse will work correctly. Use alsamixer and select the audio device using (?)F6, then do the channels. BC -- Aspire to inspire before you expire. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

C

12 Feb 12 Feb

16:52

On Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 04:40, Basil Chupin wrote:

...

On 10/02/12 23:59, C wrote:

...
I'm trying to help a friend get a computer set up on openSUSE 12.1 (migrating from Ubuntu 10.10), and everything is working on the openSUSE 12.1 KDE4 LiveCD except sound.

[snip]

...

As I just suggested to Duaine, pulse works on top of alsa so you need to get the setup done correctly in alsa first before pulse will work correctly. Use alsamixer and select the audio device using (?)F6, then do the channels.

Well, the install was attempted... basically, openSUSE 12.1 works fine with the exception of sound. Immediately post-install with all updates applied, the speakers have no sound at all, but the microphone worked. After much tinkering with Pulse (pavucontrol, changing model in the sound options, etc etc etc), we removed pulse completely and installed Alsa... and nothing changed. Speakers still had no sound at all, and now the microphone stopped working. We dug up some USB speakers and plugged them in.. worked right away (not using the built-in speakers/sound card though), but still no microphone. In the end... things got so mixed up and messed up that we opted to do a complete re-install again... tomorrow sometime. It's a shame that everything works so well except... sound... and I'm at the end of my skills here with setting up the sound. C. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Basil Chupin

13 Feb 13 Feb

01:26

On 13/02/12 03:52, C wrote:

...

On Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 04:40, Basil Chupin wrote:

...
On 10/02/12 23:59, C wrote:

...
I'm trying to help a friend get a computer set up on openSUSE 12.1 (migrating from Ubuntu 10.10), and everything is working on the openSUSE 12.1 KDE4 LiveCD except sound. [snip]

...
As I just suggested to Duaine, pulse works on top of alsa so you need to get the setup done correctly in alsa first before pulse will work correctly. Use alsamixer and select the audio device using (?)F6, then do the channels. Well, the install was attempted... basically, openSUSE 12.1 works fine with the exception of sound. Immediately post-install with all updates applied, the speakers have no sound at all, but the microphone worked. After much tinkering with Pulse (pavucontrol, changing model in the sound options, etc etc etc), we removed pulse completely and installed Alsa... and nothing changed. Speakers still had no sound at all, and now the microphone stopped working. We dug up some USB speakers and plugged them in.. worked right away (not using the built-in speakers/sound card though), but still no microphone.

In the end... things got so mixed up and messed up that we opted to do a complete re-install again... tomorrow sometime.

It's a shame that everything works so well except... sound... and I'm at the end of my skills here with setting up the sound.

C.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding or maybe I have been unclear. Pulse will not work on its own - it needs to have alsa installed, and alsa is installed when you install openSUSE. However, to get pulse to work properly you need to install pavucontrol which controls whatever audio devices you have: audio card or chip, microphone, whatever. But pavucontrol requires that you first set the audio device by installing alsamixer[#]. When you run alsamixer you need to begin by selecting the audio device with the F6 key (and then select/unmute/mute the appropriate channels). Once the correct audio device is selected pavucontrol will then be able to "see" it and configure it. Just out of interest, has the correct audio device been selected in the BIOS? [#] Unless things have drastically changed in recent days, alsamixergui, repeat alsamixergui, will NOT do what you want because pulse stops it from displaying all the channels etc - it will only display about 2 or three parameters to work with. You need to unistal pulse to get the same information to be displayed as in alsamixer; so the easiest thing to do is to install alsamixer and use it in a terminal/console. BC -- Aspire to inspire before you expire. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

C

07:35

On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 02:26, Basil Chupin wrote:

...

...
In the end... things got so mixed up and messed up that we opted to do a complete re-install again... tomorrow sometime.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding or maybe I have been unclear.

Pulse will not work on its own - it needs to have alsa installed, and alsa is installed when you install openSUSE.

Right, agreed. What I meant to say was we disabled/removed PulseAudio and went with 100% alsa. That failed miserably. Not only did the audio out not work, but the microphone which was working stopped.

...

However, to get pulse to work properly you need to install pavucontrol which controls whatever audio devices you have: audio card or chip, microphone, whatever.

But pavucontrol requires that you first set the audio device by installing alsamixer[#]. When you run alsamixer you need to begin by selecting the audio device with the F6 key (and then select/unmute/mute the appropriate channels). Once the correct audio device is selected pavucontrol will then be able to "see" it and configure it.

Did that. Pulled up alsamixer (cli version, I never use the gui version for this stuff). None of the audio channels were muted. All were maximized. This was quadruple checked and more. pavucontrol was zero help either... there, we could see that the microphone was apparently working - start an app that polled for mic input and we could see the signal meter bouncing... but no audio was being sent to test apps (eg Skype, Pidgin voice call etc). To make it more interesting, there was no confg for audio out. It was as if the system only found an audio in on this sound card, and that was all that was presented in pavucontrol and all that was presented in the KDE4 Multimedia > Phonon config as well... there we could set up the mic on a per-app-type basis, but for audio out the only option was PulseAudio Server (instead of the expected device name for audio out). So basically, this sound card, which I know DOES work in Linux (ie it was made to work in Ubuntu 10.10 by simply setting the alsa model option to "medion-md2") refused to work in openSUSE. I think I forgot to mention we attempted to set the model as well in both YaST and in the config file.

...

Just out of interest, has the correct audio device been selected in the BIOS?

...

From what I could dig up, this sound card (an onboard MCP79 HD card in a Medion All-in-one PC) seems to be the same card was is/was using in Apple Macbooks, and nowhere else (at least the only people posing as having issues either had a Medion or a MBP). I can dig up more

Yes, and if we boot to Windows 7 or Ubuntu 10.10, it works fine.. it only booting to openSUSE where it fails to work as expected. In the end a complete reinstall was done - after so much tinkering, things were royally messed up, and a reinstall was faster than undoing the mess. On reinstall the only way to acheive a complete system with working sound was to leave the default autodetected sound as-is where the microphone works, and plug in external Logitech USB speakers (which provide their own sound card)... then using this hybrid of internal sound card and external sound card things... "worked". It's a less than optimal config. details if anyone is interested... C. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Basil Chupin

10:33

On 13/02/12 18:35, C wrote:

...

On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 02:26, Basil Chupin wrote:

...
...
In the end... things got so mixed up and messed up that we opted to do a complete re-install again... tomorrow sometime.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding or maybe I have been unclear.

Pulse will not work on its own - it needs to have alsa installed, and alsa is installed when you install openSUSE. Right, agreed. What I meant to say was we disabled/removed PulseAudio and went with 100% alsa. That failed miserably. Not only did the audio out not work, but the microphone which was working stopped.

...
However, to get pulse to work properly you need to install pavucontrol which controls whatever audio devices you have: audio card or chip, microphone, whatever.

But pavucontrol requires that you first set the audio device by installing alsamixer[#]. When you run alsamixer you need to begin by selecting the audio device with the F6 key (and then select/unmute/mute the appropriate channels). Once the correct audio device is selected pavucontrol will then be able to "see" it and configure it. Did that. Pulled up alsamixer (cli version, I never use the gui version for this stuff). None of the audio channels were muted. All were maximized.

Which just may be part of the problem - having all the channels unmuted :-( . I suggest that you start a device which would produce a sound thru whatever device you want (you mentioned the mic output below) and then go thru each channel and mute it (ie switch it off) and see which one needs to be turned off to make your mic, in this case, work. With my external SoundBlaster card I have to switch off one particular channel otherwise I get no sound. I suspect the same is happening in your case. It's a matter of playing around with the channels I am afraid :-( . BC -- Aspire to inspire before you expire. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

C

10:40

On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 11:33, Basil Chupin wrote:

...

...
Did that. Pulled up alsamixer (cli version, I never use the gui version for this stuff). None of the audio channels were muted. All were maximized.

Which just may be part of the problem - having all the channels unmuted :-(

I suggest that you start a device which would produce a sound thru whatever device you want (you mentioned the mic output below) and then go thru each channel and mute it (ie switch it off) and see which one needs to be turned off to make your mic, in this case, work.

With my external SoundBlaster card I have to switch off one particular channel otherwise I get no sound. I suspect the same is happening in your case. It's a matter of playing around with the channels I am afraid :-( .

Hmmm that hadn't occurred to me. Who would think that muting a channel might free things up in another. I don't know if I can convince my friend to try this though :-) things are working with the hybrid solution, so it may be left this way for now. They go by the mantra.. if it's working don't poke it with a sharp stick.. it might bite back. Thanks for your suggestions. C. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Basil Chupin

11:01

On 13/02/12 21:40, C wrote:

...

On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 11:33, Basil Chupin wrote:

...
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Did that. �Pulled up alsamixer (cli version, I never use the gui version for this stuff). �None of the audio channels were muted. �All were maximized. Which just may be part of the problem - having all the channels unmuted :-(

I suggest that you start a device which would produce a sound thru whatever device you want (you mentioned the mic output below) and then go thru each channel and mute it (ie switch it off) and see which one needs to be turned off to make your mic, in this case, work.

With my external SoundBlaster card I have to switch off one particular channel otherwise I get no sound. I suspect the same is happening in your case. It's a matter of playing around with the channels I am afraid :-( . Hmmm that hadn't occurred to me. Who would think that muting a channel might free things up in another. I don't know if I can convince my friend to try this though :-) things are working with the hybrid solution, so it may be left this way for now. They go by the mantra.. if it's working don't poke it with a sharp stick.. it might bite back.

Thanks for your suggestions.

No problemo. But there is no danger in trying what I suggested: muting a channel is not permanent :-) . But have a look at this documentation from Ubuntu - see part a bit down the text re problems with Microphones. This may give you some clues. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshooting BC -- Aspire to inspire before you expire. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

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