[Alienware Area-51 R2, Creative CA0132, Green Line Out, Rear] No sound at all

[keith lebrun]

Description: Ubuntu 15.04
Release: 15.04

This is a 5.1 surround sound set up. No output from any speaker. Sound settings configuration doesn't show proper options for this card - no channel info except for analog stereo and S/PDIF outputs where I would expect to see information on Front/Rear/Center speaker outputs.

Output from aplay -l:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: CA0132 Analog [CA0132 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: CA0132 Digital [CA0132 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

lspci output:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation C610/X99 series chipset HD Audio Controller (rev 05)
 Subsystem: Dell Device 064c
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 37
 Region 0: Memory at fb310000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel

--
03:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GM204 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
 Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1131
 Physical Slot: 6
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
 Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 38
 Region 0: Memory at fb080000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel

Output from alsa-info.sh can be found at http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=b64f2a2d9aaaa279d19e6a0967202595956db577

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-26.28-lowlatency 3.19.8-ckt4
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-26-lowlatency x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1.3
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: keith 1905 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: keith 1905 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Fri Sep 4 14:24:12 2015
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-09-01 (3 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Studio 15.04 "Vivid Vervet" - Release amd64 (20150422)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Symptom_AlsaPlaybackTest: ALSA playback test through plughw:PCH failed
Symptom_Card: Built-in Audio - HDA Intel PCH
Symptom_DevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: keith 1905 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: keith 1905 F.... pulseaudio
Symptom_Jack: Green Line Out, Rear
Symptom_Type: No sound at all
Title: [Alienware Area-51 R2, Creative CA0132, Green Line Out, Rear] No sound at all
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 07/13/2015
dmi.bios.vendor: Alienware
dmi.bios.version: A03
dmi.board.name: 0XJKKD
dmi.board.vendor: Alienware
dmi.board.version: A01
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Alienware
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAlienware:bvrA03:bd07/13/2015:svnAlienware:pnAlienwareArea-51R2:pvr:rvnAlienware:rn0XJKKD:rvrA01:cvnAlienware:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Alienware Area-51 R2
dmi.sys.vendor: Alienware

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

the driver and firmwarewas designed for chromebook which support stereo only

https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/tiwai/sound.git/commit/sound/pci/hda/patch_ca0132.c?id=fe14f39e88c8ac16d0a051f8444a2294f8cb358c

[keith lebrun (klebrun-5)]

I'm confused. This is an Alienware Area 51 desktop box. It has 3 outputs - Front/Center/Rear. It looks like the referenced patch covers the Alienware 15 LAPTOP with only built-in speakers. Is there no real support for this particular configuration?

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=55541

linux driver need to load firmware which is used for chromebook pixel

do your sound card use different or same firmware in windows

[keith lebrun (klebrun-5)]

I believe it's using a driver which supports ca0132. And, I hate to say it but Windows gives me full 5.1. Any chance at getting that in Linux?

[keith lebrun (klebrun-5)]

@Raymond, interesting that you brought up Bug 55541. I had been reading through that and comparing outputs. It seems to me that most of the issues involved was that the DSP was not running or that output was being directed to a non-existent S/PDIF jack.

My issue is similar, in that output ONLY goes to a S/PDIF jack - and I have 2 of those. There is only 1 HP jack located in the front on this system. I don't have speakers that will accept S/PDIF input in order to see if sound data actually goes there. When selecting the HP, even though it looks as though sound is being routed to that jack, there is also nothing coming out.

keith@keith-linux:~$ lsmod | grep ca0132
snd_hda_codec_ca0132 57344 1
snd_hda_codec 143360 4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller,snd_hda_codec_ca0132
snd 90112 20 snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_ca0132

So it looks like the codec is properly selected.

keith@keith-linux:~$ dmesg | grep ca0132
[ 8.692299] ca0132 DOWNLOAD OK :-) DSP IS RUNNING.

DSP looks good.

keith@keith-linux:~$ dmesg | grep hda
[ 8.000135] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1b.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[ 8.000249] snd_hda_intel 0000:03:00.1: Disabling MSI
[ 8.000264] snd_hda_intel 0000:03:00.1: Handle VGA-switcheroo audio client
[ 8.040884] sound hdaudioC0D0: autoconfig: line_outs=1 (0xb/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0) type:line
[ 8.040886] sound hdaudioC0D0: speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[ 8.040887] sound hdaudioC0D0: hp_outs=2 (0x10/0xf/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[ 8.040887] sound hdaudioC0D0: mono: mono_out=0x0
[ 8.040888] sound hdaudioC0D0: dig-out=0xc/0x0
[ 8.040889] sound hdaudioC0D0: inputs:
[ 8.040890] sound hdaudioC0D0: Mic=0x12
[ 8.040891] sound hdaudioC0D0: Line=0x11

And here's where things start getting confused. My system gives me 2 jacks on the front - Mic and headphones, and 5 jacks in the rear for Front/Center/Rear speakers as well as optical and analog S/PDIF . This doesn't seem to correspond with the hdaudioC0D0 data. Shouldn't speaker_outs be > 0, hp_outs < 2, line_outs == 0, and no entry at all for Line? From looking at the diff for patch_ca0132.c, it doesn't look like that fix matches these symptoms.