[Lucid] saa7134_alsa kernel module for TV cards broken?

[Compizuser01]

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx
kernel 2.6.32-23-generic
kernel module: saa7134_alsa
dmesg: saa7134_alsa: disagrees about version of symbol snd_ctl_add [...]

This is a driver (i.e. kernel module) for the audio part of a saa7134 chip based TV card (like the Lifeview 'FlyTV Platinum35 FM' or the E-Tech tvpi03). It used to work just fine. But now it does not load anymore. I used to load it like this:

   modprobe saa7134_alsa index=1

Used to work just fine. Now I get (output of dmesg):

[ 5473.757080] saa7134_alsa: disagrees about version of symbol snd_ctl_add
[ 5473.757090] saa7134_alsa: Unknown symbol snd_ctl_add
[ 5473.757246] saa7134_alsa: disagrees about version of symbol snd_pcm_new
[ 5473.757249] saa7134_alsa: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_new
[ 5473.757533] saa7134_alsa: disagrees about version of symbol snd_card_register
[ 5473.757537] saa7134_alsa: Unknown symbol snd_card_register
[ 5473.757821] saa7134_alsa: disagrees about version of symbol snd_card_free
[ 5473.757824] saa7134_alsa: Unknown symbol snd_card_free
[ 5473.758111] saa7134_alsa: disagrees about version of symbol snd_pcm_stop
[ 5473.758114] saa7134_alsa: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_stop
[ 5473.758424] saa7134_alsa: disagrees about version of symbol snd_ctl_new1
[ 5473.758427] saa7134_alsa: Unknown symbol snd_ctl_new1
[ 5473.759257] saa7134_alsa: disagrees about version of symbol snd_pcm_lib_ioctl
[ 5473.759260] saa7134_alsa: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_lib_ioctl
[ 5473.759708] saa7134_alsa: disagrees about version of symbol snd_ctl_notify
[ 5473.759711] saa7134_alsa: Unknown symbol snd_ctl_notify
[ 5473.759851] saa7134_alsa: disagrees about version of symbol snd_pcm_set_ops
[ 5473.759854] saa7134_alsa: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_set_ops
[ 5473.760334] saa7134_alsa: disagrees about version of symbol snd_pcm_hw_constraint_integer
[ 5473.760338] saa7134_alsa: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_hw_constraint_integer
[ 5473.761006] saa7134_alsa: disagrees about version of symbol snd_card_create
[ 5473.761009] saa7134_alsa: Unknown symbol snd_card_create
[ 5473.761147] saa7134_alsa: disagrees about version of symbol snd_pcm_period_elapsed
[ 5473.761151] saa7134_alsa: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_period_elapsed
[ 5473.761289] saa7134_alsa: disagrees about version of symbol snd_pcm_hw_constraint_step
[ 5473.761293] saa7134_alsa: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_hw_constraint_step

Additional info: analogue TV (via cable) works, video in via s-vhs works as does the application 'TVtime'. Audio via the direct jack output plug of the card works too. But no audio via Alsa and thus not possible to record audio via alsa. Probably a bug in the kernel module. The old one worked fine!

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

1) Please check that you're actually loading saa7134-alsa and not saa7134_alsa (i e with a hyphen, not an underscore), otherwise you're not running the official version but most probably a mismatched version.

2) If the above does not help, please attach the output of:

find . -name "saa7134*"

Thanks!

[Compizuser01 (meneerjansen00)]

I always thought there was no difference between underscore versions of modules (i.e. saa7134_alsa) and "hyphenated" ones (both make the module appear in lsmod with an underscore). anyway: I tried what you said and I get exactly the same error mess.

Output of 'find . -name "saa7134*"' is nothing (strange, I think that that command looks for anything named saa7134). Output of 'locate saa7134' is:

/lib/modules/2.6.32-23-generic/kernel/drivers/media/video/saa7134
/lib/modules/2.6.32-23-generic/kernel/drivers/media/video/saa7134/saa6752hs.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.32-23-generic/kernel/drivers/media/video/saa7134/saa7134-alsa.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.32-23-generic/kernel/drivers/media/video/saa7134/saa7134-dvb.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.32-23-generic/kernel/drivers/media/video/saa7134/saa7134-empress.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.32-23-generic/kernel/drivers/media/video/saa7134/saa7134.ko
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-23/drivers/media/video/saa7134
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-23/drivers/media/video/saa7134/Kconfig
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-23/drivers/media/video/saa7134/Makefile
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-23-generic/include/config/video/saa7134
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-23-generic/include/config/video/saa7134.h
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-23-generic/include/config/video/saa7134/alsa.h
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-23-generic/include/config/video/saa7134/dvb.h

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

First, you're probably right about the hyphen vs underscore thing.

Second, it should have been 'find / -name "saa7134*"' instead, unless you do "cd /" first.

Anyway, the only way I think this can happen is if the kernel you are actually running is a different
version than the kernel the module was compiled against. I'll post output of "modinfo saa7134-alsa", "modinfo snd-pcm" and the checksum of those two files below, can you do the same and see if they match:

filename: /lib/modules/2.6.32-23-generic/kernel/drivers/media/video/saa7134/saa7134-alsa.ko
author: Ricardo Cerqueira
license: GPL
srcversion: 1914041B3A98C8674FCB1E9
depends: snd-pcm,saa7134,snd,videobuf-dma-sg
vermagic: 2.6.32-23-generic SMP mod_unload modversions
parm: debug:enable debug messages [alsa] (int)
parm: index:Index value for SAA7134 capture interface(s). (array of int)
parm: enable:Enable (or not) the SAA7134 capture interface(s). (array of int)
md5sum: c2c637dd56c6962abc53b40ec1ef2860 /lib/modules/2.6.32-23-generic/kernel/drivers/media/video/saa7134/saa7134-alsa.ko

filename: /lib/modules/2.6.32-23-generic/kernel/sound/core/snd-pcm.ko
license: GPL
description: Midlevel PCM code for ALSA.
author: Jaroslav Kysela <email address hidden>, Abramo Bagnara <email address hidden>
srcversion: 886A9F34FAC109C3E48152E
depends: snd,snd-page-alloc,snd-timer
vermagic: 2.6.32-23-generic SMP mod_unload modversions
parm: preallocate_dma:Preallocate DMA memory when the PCM devices are initialized. (int)
parm: maximum_substreams:Maximum substreams with preallocated DMA memory. (int)
md5sum: 872b10dfa9416672e214d4343f304c65 /lib/modules/2.6.32-23-generic/kernel/sound/core/snd-pcm.ko

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

This is a long shot, but are you running the proposed 2.6.32-24 kernel? I just saw another bug #603826 related to that.

[Compizuser01 (meneerjansen00)]

I don't think the kernel and the module are of different versions, because I think that the TV part of the saa7134 driver wouldn't have worked either.

If you insert the saa7134-alsa kernel module in your kernel do you get an error? Or is it not possible to insert modules if you do not have the hardware that it is written for?

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

I don't get that error when I'm trying to load saa7134-alsa, but I don't have any TV cards either.
Since I'm out of ideas to try, I'm marking this one as "New" and hope that someone else will help out.

[Simos Xenitellis  (simosx)]

I tried the same modprobe command as in OP,
   modprobe saa7134_alsa index=1

[19171.544517] saa7130/34: v4l2 driver version 0.2.15 loaded
[19171.553597] saa7134 ALSA driver for DMA sound loaded
[19171.553601] saa7134 ALSA: no saa7134 cards found

Something is wrong with other modules (probably similar kernel modules which you had to choose one from another?) being loaded at the same time.

[Compizuser01 (meneerjansen00)]

@Simos Xenitellis: I'm baffled. So you don't have any probs. I wonder what could be the prob on my PC then. I removed a lot of pulse audio stuff, but that can't be the problem. When I look at the errors that I get then I see a lot of complaints about the snd_ctl and snd_pcm kernel modules trying to add the saa-alsa module. Could it be my other audio card's module it's having trouble with? I can't seem to remove the modules of the other audio card. Maybe I'll srew open my PC and remove it temporarily tonight.

Thanks for the info! :)

[janusz (sunmake)]

solution (that's work for me):
you need Live CD with 10.04.1
start computer with this Live CD,on first screen pres esc to get options,then F6 to get other option.Here check "nomodeset"/use arrows,then enter to mark,then esc to exit and enter to start boot/ and run Live CD.After boot check at sound preferences if your card with saa7124 chip is present (better is to use alsamixer in terminal).If all is OK you need to do fresh install with "nomodeset" options enabled.Also,after install, I suppose to enable proposed repositories to get latest kernel 2.6.32-25,which works more stable for me (I'm getting also big problem with hda-intel codec).
Good luck!

[Compizuser01 (meneerjansen00)]

Strange thing happened to me. I had reinstall Ubuntu 10.04 'The Lucid Lynx' because of a hard disk crash. I removed pulseaudio again, but this time w/ the aid of this forum topic: http:/www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1313253

Summary:
sudo apt-get purge pulseaudio gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get install alsa-base alsa-tools alsa-tools-gui alsa-utils alsa-oss linux-sound-base alsamixergui
sudo apt-get install esound esound-clients esound-common libesd-alsa0 gnome-alsamixer
reboot

And nos the saa7134-alsa module does load.... Weird isn't it?

[Compizuser01 (meneerjansen00)]

Incidentally, kernel version is now: 2.6.32-25-generic

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

Okay, assuming it is fixed.