Upgrading ALSA

[emi]

I need to upgrade to alsa 1.0.14 because my chipset hda-intel is not fully supported in older versions.

Is this as simple as removing the old alsa packages and building/installing the new ones? Or are some of the drivers built into the kernel, necessitating compiling a new kernel? I'm running VL5.8SOHO.

Thanks.
Elliot

[The Headacher]

Is this as simple as removing the old alsa packages and building/installing the new ones?

Yes. Basically you'll want to get the latest  "alsa-driver" sources, and configure it with

./configure --prefix=/usr --with-cards=hda-intel

I don't think SOHO has an alsa-driver package installed by default, it uses the alsa drivers that come with the kernel IIRC ( I upgraded alsa driver as well, but for another card ).

If you decide to upgrade alsa-lib as well, make sure you remove the old one without dependency tracking, so not all programs using sound get removed as well :

Code:

slapt-get --remove --no-dep alsa-lib

Good luck!

[Joe1962]

Weird, other people, myself included, have used 5.8 SOHO (possibly even Standard) with Intel HDA sound.

[kidd]

I had problems with SOHO  with my Intel HDA too.  I solved it upgrading the kernel from gslapt.
No problems now

[emi]

Joe1962:
The older alsa version sort of worked, but the driver and the hardware clearly had a few disagreements. The main problem was that the volume level (with all mixer channels fully juiced) was about half of what was achievable in windows, really only an issue when listening to music or watching a dvd.

Well, I successfully compiled all the alsa packages but was greeted by this ugly mess:

Code:

# modprobe snd-hda-intel

WARNING: Error inserting snd (/lib/modules/2.6.20.3/kernel/sound/acore/snd.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
WARNING: Error inserting snd_timer (/lib/modules/2.6.20.3/kernel/sound/acore/snd-timer.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
WARNING: Error inserting snd_pcm (/lib/modules/2.6.20.3/kernel/sound/acore/snd-pcm.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
FATAL: Error inserting snd_hda_intel (/lib/modules/2.6.20.3/kernel/sound/pci/hda/snd-hda-intel.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

I spent a while on scroogle and from what I can understand the kernel drivers are different from the alsa-driver package and cannot be used together, meaning I need to recompile the kernel with alsa disabled.

How did you manage to get around having to do that, Headacher?

[Joe1962]

Joe1962:
The older alsa version sort of worked, but the driver and the hardware clearly had a few disagreements. The main problem was that the volume level (with all mixer channels fully juiced) was about half of what was achievable in windows, really only an issue when listening to music or watching a dvd.
you manage to get around having to do that, Headacher?

Hmm... I'll have to research this when I get a chance to reboot over to the SOHO install. Due to current programming tasks in Windows, I have been mostly using VL 5.8 Standard in a vm. Anyway, the times I've tested that SOHO partition, I didn't notice a volume problem. Could be because I simply haven't played many videos in it...

[emi]

I'm happy to report that after recompiling my kernel to disable the kernel alsa drivers and recompiling the (non-kernel) alsa-driver and lib packages, the snd modules now load correctly and the playback volume is where it should be.

It took me a couple of tries becuase the generic sound module needs to be compiled directly into the kernel, it can't be a separate module.

One annoying thing now is that the Master channel on the mixer doesn't do anything, it sounds the same and 100% and 0%. All the mixing needs to be done from the PCM channel. It's annoying but it works so I don't really care.

Thanks guys.
Elliot

[The Headacher]

I spent a while on scroogle and from what I can understand the kernel drivers are different from the alsa-driver package and cannot be used together, meaning I need to recompile the kernel with alsa disabled.

How did you manage to get around having to do that, Headacher?

If I recall correctly, I think alsa-driver's "make install" removes any old alsa modules installed. Even though what you found is still in a lot of HOWTO's about kernel compilation, I haven't found the need for complete kernel recompilation just to get rid of the old stuff.

Good to hear you got it working, though the new problem sounds even more annoying than the old one to me.