no sound on DELL 540

[Peter Frey]

Binary package hint: linux-source-2.6.22

installed 9.04 64-bit. (Sound works in VISTA, not in FEDORA or KNOPPIX)
cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#0 yields:
Codec: Realtek ALC888
Address: 0
Vendor Id: 0x10ec0888
Subsystem Id: 0x102802ac
Revision Id: 0x100202
No Modem Function Group found
Default PCM:
N/A
Default Amp-In caps: N/A
Default Amp-Out caps: N/A
Invalid AFG subtree

Dell 540 contains Realtek ACL888S high def audio
and also ATI Radeon HD3450 (with HDMI sound?)
SOUND PREFERENCES list following Devices:
HDA ATI HDMA (Alsa mixer)
HDA Intel (Alsa mixer)
Realtek ALC888 (OSS Mixer)
Playback: Null Ouput (Pulse Audio Mixer)

I installed Pulse Audio chooser. It shows NO Output devices (other than Null Output)

I read a lot of bug reports and tried out a large number of suggested things. (Even compiled ALSA with the drivers from Realtek site. No dice but: Since I don't really know enough about this I abandoned that and reinstalled 9.04 son I can work with a clean install)

Possibly the sound outputs from the Radeon and the Realtek conflict. I have no easy way of testing the HDMI output.
There are no BIOS options to turn such things off (Dell does not clutter the bios setup with millions of options)

Previously I also tried Ubuntu 8.10 64-bit with no luck.
7.04 (which I use on my old machine (with AC97 sound) does not install, cannot even recognize the cd-rom...)

ALSA information is located at
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=0bba2ca104af126e576f1895b91a4f6e53f8d304

Where do I begin?

[Sergio Zanchetta (primes2h)]

kernel 2.6.22 was the Gutsy one.
Closing.

[Sergio Zanchetta (primes2h)]

Opening linux task.

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

The error you are getting (below) implies there is not sufficient information to configure your card from the BIOS information:

    Invalid AFG subtree

It is worth trying the model parameters (table below) for this codec to see if any of those enable your sound to work. It is worth trying any of these which sound feasable, starting with 6stack-dell as that sounds most similar to your machine:

        ALC883/888
          3stack-dig 3-jack with SPDIF I/O
          6stack-dig 6-jack digital with SPDIF I/O
          3stack-6ch 3-jack 6-channel
          3stack-6ch-dig 3-jack 6-channel with SPDIF I/O
          6stack-dig-demo 6-jack digital for Intel demo board
          acer Acer laptops (Travelmate 3012WTMi, Aspire 5600, etc)
          acer-aspire Acer Aspire 9810
          medion Medion Laptops
          medion-md2 Medion MD2
          targa-dig Targa/MSI
          targa-2ch-dig Targs/MSI with 2-channel
          laptop-eapd 3-jack with SPDIF I/O and EAPD (Clevo M540JE, M550JE)
          lenovo-101e Lenovo 101E
          lenovo-nb0763 Lenovo NB0763
          lenovo-ms7195-dig Lenovo MS7195
          lenovo-sky Lenovo Sky
          haier-w66 Haier W66
          3stack-hp HP machines with 3stack (Lucknow, Samba boards)
          6stack-dell Dell machines with 6stack (Inspiron 530)
          mitac Mitac 8252D
          clevo-m720 Clevo M720 laptop series
          fujitsu-pi2515 Fujitsu AMILO Pi2515
          3stack-6ch-intel Intel DG33* boards

For each you would edit the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf adding a line for the snd_intel_hda at the bottom something like this:

    options snd_hda_intel model=6stack-dell

You then need to reload the module (rebooting may be simplest) and see if sound is detected correctly. If one of these model parameters does work for you then we can look at getting it detected automatically.

[Peter Frey (pjfrey)]

adding ANY options snd-hda-intel xxx
prevents the sound driver from even be loaded, i.e.aplay -l yields no sound cards

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

@Peter -- that is unexpected. Setting parameters for that module is pretty common. Could you try 'sudo modprobe snd-hda-intel' from the command line and report the output. Also can you attach the options file as it appeared with the failing option specified. The option below was tested on my laptop only recently, and cut from my system:

    options snd_hda_intel model=mobile

[Peter Frey (pjfrey)]

Sorry, I must have been a bit careless. If I restart (instead of reloading alsa) the card loads, but still gives me "Invalid AFG subtree"

I have a setup a Fedora installation on the first hard drive. On it there is no sound either but I get a bit more output, which perhaps can offer a clue:

[pjfrey@localhost ~]$ cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#0
Codec: Realtek ALC888
Address: 0
Vendor Id: 0x10ec0888
Subsystem Id: 0x102802ac
Revision Id: 0x100202
No Modem Function Group found
Default PCM:
N/A
Default Amp-In caps: N/A
Default Amp-Out caps: N/A
GPIO: io=255, o=255, i=255, unsolicited=1, wake=1
  IO[0]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[1]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[2]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[3]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[4]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[5]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[6]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[7]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[8]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[9]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[10]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[11]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[12]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[13]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[14]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[15]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[16]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[17]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[18]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[19]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[20]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[21]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[22]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[23]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[24]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[25]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[26]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[27]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[28]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[29]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[30]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[31]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[32]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[33]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[34]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[35]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[36]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[37]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[38]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[39]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[40]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[41]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[42]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[43]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[44]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[45]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[46]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[47]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[48]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[49]: enable=1, dir=1, wake=1, sticky=1, data=1
  IO[50]: e...

[Peter Frey (pjfrey)]

Since this error occurs because the BIOS does not give configuration information; would it make sense to complain to Dell? Has anybody had any success getting BIOS upgrades. Dell installed a new BIOS for me when I could not get the Display to work correctly (although it later turned out to be an ATI software problem).

[Peter Frey (pjfrey)]

From this forum I found the following

options snd-hda-intel probe_mask=1

which worked for several others and also for me, sort of:

Sound is very week, almost inaudible.
Before I continue, I want to re-install as 64-bit. I used 32-bit only because I thought maybe that has more of a chance.

Thank you very much for your efforts; it was very useful to realize that the error occurred because the driver was not even initialized.

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu release http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

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