"no codecs initialized"

[Frederic Lapeyre]

Hi,

on a new computer (samsung all-in-one), and on a live ubuntu disk 12.04 x64, my sound card is not detected.

I have checked many forums for several months and cannot find the fix.

I have two sound cards, motherboard and hdmi. Only the hdmi gets detected by alsa. It is not good as I am only using the motherboard one.

The dmesg shows "no codecs initialized" for the first card.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 12.10
Release: 12.10

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lspci | grep -i audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
01:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Caicos HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6400 Series]

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ dmesg | grep -i hda-intel
[ 97.691334] hda-intel: azx_get_response timeout, switching to polling mode: last cmd=0x000f0000
[ 98.692766] hda-intel: No response from codec, disabling MSI: last cmd=0x000f0000
[ 99.694197] hda-intel: Codec #0 probe error; disabling it...
[ 100.731901] hda-intel: no codecs initialized
[ 100.732057] hda-intel: 0000:01:00.1: Handle VGA-switcheroo audio client

The same happens on other debian linux distributions. Before I change my distribution to ubuntu, I would like to make sure the sound can work on ubuntu.

Happy to help debugging this if necessary.

Many thanks in advance.

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

First, I suggest upgrading your ALSA module (no point in lengthy debugging if it's already been fixed upstream):
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/UpgradingAlsa/DKMS

If, after restarting, that doesn't help, then I would try with probe_mask option in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
Open the file for editing:
gksu gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

Add a line like this to the end of the file:
options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=0 probe_mask=8

Save. Quit. Restart ALSA (You can restart ALSA without restarting your machine with this command):
sudo alsa force-reload

Another idea is a BIOS update, but that's a long shot.

[Frederic Lapeyre (lapeyre-frederic)]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your reply. My understanding is that you suggest 3 steps:
1/ DKMS
2/ options in alsa-base.conf
3/ update BIOS

Regarding the first step, I have just tried but I would need to fully install the ubuntu version. As I indicated, I am using the ubuntu live installation disk only and before repartitionning my computer and reinstall all my data, I would like to know for sure that sound will work. I am still running with a dual boot windows + another linux version (fedora 17). I was using ubuntu on my previous computer but as the sound did not work with ubuntu 12.10, so I installed fedora and I hoped sound could work. Sound works on windows by the way and it does not work with all linux installation disks I have tried so far. All dmesg messages are the same, with "no codecs initialized". So my question is : do I have to create a third partition with ubuntu to try what you said with DKMS or is there a way to test things using the installation disk only ?

Regarding the second steps, I tried this with the ubuntu installation disk. Modules were reloaded after "options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=0 probe_mask=8" but no sound card got detected in the sound setting.

Regarding step three, not sure how to update my BIOS. Sounds like a long shot as you say. By the way, my BIOS does not let me choose any sound card in particular, nor any sound setting at all actually.

To summarize, please let me know if I need to add an ubuntu partition for steps 1 or any other debugging work you would envisage for me, so that I spend the necessary time setting this up, or else if you think I could spare that investment and "debug" purely using the ubuntu installation disk.

I think it is necessary to explain all this so that you know where I am coming from.

Many thanks again.

[Neil Hearn (nhearn)]

Having same issue on upstream kernel.

have tried multiple solutions regarding alsa-base configurations.

Please see attached alsa-report.txt generated by alsa-info.sh from alsa site.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=24052

you have to follow up the up stream bug report

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This issue has sat incomplete for more than 60 days now. I'm going to close it as invalid. Please feel free re-open if this is still an issue for you. Thank you.