How to get laptop speakers to work with alsa

[apock627]

Hi. Using VLSOHO 5.8.6 on a Toshiba Tecra A8. The sound card is a Intel HD audio (driver compiled in kernel).
Sound works fine through headphone jack but I can't figure out how to get sound from the built-in speakers.

In windows sound is automatically routed to the speakers unless something is plugged into the headhpone jack, then the speakers cut out. I'd always assumed this was somehow hard-wired but obviously not.

In alsamixer I have a few controls which are listed but don't have a bar above them. 1 of these is called Headphone, and another is called Speaker. They can be muted/unmuted but I cant figure out how to change them from a level of 00. I eventally figured  out the command line option to adjust these controls using amixer but that didn't work either. The control which adjusts the volume through the headphone jack is called Front.

I have also tried installing the latest alsa and associated utilities from source but no change.

There is a kernel config option for pc speakers. I'm not sure this is the same as getting sound to work through the PC speaker on a desktop, but I enabled this option anyway and it didn't help.

What else should I be looking at?
Thanks

[M0E-lnx]

I'm not sure I have an answer for you, but I'm very interested in this thread, as I too have the same type of sound chip, however my results are the complete oposite of yours.
I have sound coming out of the speakers, but nothing comes out of the headphones jack (or the line-out for that matter). Like you I have tried many things including an alsa upgrade. Nothing seems to work.
It's one of those little annoyances that I just ignore most of the time (because I hardly ever use the headphones jack anyway), but would be nice to get it fixed some time

[lagagnon]

... They can be muted/unmuted but I cant figure out how to change them from a level of 00.

Once you've unmuted them with "m" you just use the up arrow key to move the slider up.

[M0E-lnx]

On mine, no matter what I do, it just wont work...

[apock627]

Once you've unmuted them with "m" you just use the up arrow key to move the slider up.

Sorry wasn't being quite clear. There are three controls which I can adjust normally (with the arrows) and work fine. They have a pair of numbers indicating the current volume, above that a pair of either 00, or MM if muted, and above that a rectangle which contains the slider bar. The other controls (including the PC speaker) are missing the bottom numbers and the rectangle which contains the colour indicator, and the arrows do nothing. Wish i could show you a screenshot but I don't know how to take one or where to post it.

[stoichyu]

You could try using gamix, from my experience it has more options compared to alsamixer. Although, I'm not sure what the problem is. AFAIK, the sound routing is hardwired in the motherboard, for my HP laptop anyway...

[The Headacher]

AFAIK, the sound routing is hardwired in the motherboard, for my HP laptop anyway...

Not on those intel cards, I found a lot of people with similar problems with those intel hda cards on the alsa mailinglist , but little solutions... Most suggestions I read are about trying to pass the "model" parameter when loading the module. There's a lot of different models using the intel chip. It's long, but I'll post it here anyways:

Module parameters
=================

The user can load modules with options. If the module supports more than
one card and you have more than one card of the same type then you can
specify multiple values for the option separated by commas.
-------snip-----------

  Module snd-hda-intel
  --------------------

    Module for Intel HD Audio (ICH6, ICH6M, ESB2, ICH7, ICH8),
      ATI SB450, SB600, RS600,
      VIA VT8251/VT8237A,
      SIS966, ULI M5461

    model   - force the model name
    position_fix - Fix DMA pointer (0 = auto, 1 = none, 2 = POSBUF, 3 = FIFO size)
    probe_mask  - Bitmask to probe codecs (default = -1, meaning all slots)
    single_cmd  - Use single immediate commands to communicate with
      codecs (for debugging only)
    enable_msi   - Enable Message Signaled Interrupt (MSI) (default = off)

    This module supports one card and autoprobe.

    Each codec may have a model table for different configurations.
    If your machine isn't listed there, the default (usually minimal)
    configuration is set up.  You can pass "model=<name>" option to
    specify a certain model in such a case.  There are different
    models depending on the codec chip.

     Model name   Description
     ----------    -----------
   ALC880
     3stack   3-jack in back and a headphone out
     3stack-digout   3-jack in back, a HP out and a SPDIF out
     5stack   5-jack in back, 2-jack in front
     5stack-digout   5-jack in back, 2-jack in front, a SPDIF out
     6stack   6-jack in back, 2-jack in front
     6stack-digout   6-jack with a SPDIF out
     w810      3-jack
     z71v      3-jack (HP shared SPDIF)
     asus      3-jack (ASUS Mobo)
     asus-w1v   ASUS W1V
     asus-dig   ASUS with SPDIF out
     asus-dig2   ASUS with SPDIF out (using GPIO2)
     uniwill   3-jack
     fujitsu   Fujitsu Laptops (Pi1536)
     F1734      2-jack
     lg      LG laptop (m1 express dual)
     lg-lw      LG LW20/LW25 laptop
     tcl      TCL S700
     clevo      Clevo laptops (m520G, m665n)
     test      for testing/debugging purpose, almost all controls can be
         adjusted.  Appearing only when compiled with
         $CONFIG_SND_DEBUG=y
     auto      auto-config reading BIOS (default)

   ALC260
     hp      HP machines
     hp-3013   HP machines (3013-variant)
     fujitsu   Fujitsu S7020
     acer      Acer TravelMate
     basic      fixed pin assignment (old default model)
     auto      auto-config reading BIOS (default)

   ALC262
     fujitsu   Fujitsu Laptop
     hp-bpc   HP xw4400/6400/8400/9400 laptops
     hp-bpc-d7000   HP BPC D7000
     benq      Benq ED8
     hippo      Hippo (ATI) with jack detection, Sony UX-90s
     hippo_1   Hippo (Benq) with jack detection
     basic      fixed pin assignment w/o SPDIF
     auto      auto-config reading BIOS (default)

   ALC882/885
     3stack-dig   3-jack with SPDIF I/O
     6stack-dig   6-jack digital with SPDIF I/O
     arima      Arima W820Di1
     macpro   MacPro support
     w2jc      ASUS W2JC
     auto      auto-config reading BIOS (default)

   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)
     medion   Medion Laptops
     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)
     auto      auto-config reading BIOS (default)

   ALC861/660
     3stack   3-jack
     3stack-dig   3-jack with SPDIF I/O
     6stack-dig   6-jack with SPDIF I/O
     3stack-660   3-jack (for ALC660)
     uniwill-m31   Uniwill M31 laptop
     toshiba   Toshiba laptop support
     asus      Asus laptop support
     asus-laptop   ASUS F2/F3 laptops
     auto      auto-config reading BIOS (default)

   ALC861VD/660VD
     3stack   3-jack
     3stack-dig   3-jack with SPDIF OUT
     6stack-dig   6-jack with SPDIF OUT
     3stack-660   3-jack (for ALC660VD)
     lenovo   Lenovo 3000 C200
     auto      auto-config reading BIOS (default)

   CMI9880
     minimal   3-jack in back
     min_fp   3-jack in back, 2-jack in front
     full      6-jack in back, 2-jack in front
     full_dig   6-jack in back, 2-jack in front, SPDIF I/O
     allout   5-jack in back, 2-jack in front, SPDIF out
     auto      auto-config reading BIOS (default)

   AD1884
     N/A

   AD1981
     basic      3-jack (default)
     hp      HP nx6320
     thinkpad   Lenovo Thinkpad T60/X60/Z60
     toshiba   Toshiba U205

   AD1983
     N/A

   AD1984
     basic      default configuration
     thinkpad   Lenovo Thinkpad T61/X61

   AD1986A
     6stack   6-jack, separate surrounds (default)
     3stack   3-stack, shared surrounds
     laptop   2-channel only (FSC V2060, Samsung M50)
     laptop-eapd   2-channel with EAPD (Samsung R65, ASUS A6J)
     ultra      2-channel with EAPD (Samsung Ultra tablet PC)

   AD1988
     6stack   6-jack
     6stack-dig   ditto with SPDIF
     3stack   3-jack
     3stack-dig   ditto with SPDIF
     laptop   3-jack with hp-jack automute
     laptop-dig   ditto with SPDIF
     auto      auto-config reading BIOS (default)
   
   Conexant 5045
     laptop   Laptop config
     test      for testing/debugging purpose, almost all controls
         can be adjusted.  Appearing only when compiled with
         $CONFIG_SND_DEBUG=y

   Conexant 5047
     laptop   Basic Laptop config
     laptop-hp   Laptop config for some HP models (subdevice 30A5)
     laptop-eapd   Laptop config with EAPD support
     test      for testing/debugging purpose, almost all controls
         can be adjusted.  Appearing only when compiled with
         $CONFIG_SND_DEBUG=y

   STAC9200/9205/9254
     ref      Reference board

   STAC9220/9221
     ref      Reference board
     3stack   D945 3stack
     5stack   D945 5stack + SPDIF
     intel-mac-v1   Intel Mac Type 1
     intel-mac-v2   Intel Mac Type 2
     intel-mac-v3   Intel Mac Type 3
     intel-mac-v4   Intel Mac Type 4
     intel-mac-v5   Intel Mac Type 5
     macmini   Intel Mac Mini (equivalent with type 3)
     macbook   Intel Mac Book (eq. type 5)
     macbook-pro-v1 Intel Mac Book Pro 1st generation (eq. type 3)
     macbook-pro   Intel Mac Book Pro 2nd generation (eq. type 3)
     imac-intel   Intel iMac (eq. type 2)
     imac-intel-20   Intel iMac (newer version) (eq. type 3)

   STAC9202/9250/9251
     ref      Reference board, base config
     m2-2      Some Gateway MX series laptops
     m6      Some Gateway NX series laptops
     pa6      Gateway NX860 series

   STAC9227/9228/9229/927x
     ref      Reference board
     3stack   D965 3stack
     5stack   D965 5stack + SPDIF

   STAC9872
     vaio      Setup for VAIO FE550G/SZ110
     vaio-ar Setup for VAIO AR

    The model name "genric" is treated as a special case.  When this
    model is given, the driver uses the generic codec parser without
    "codec-patch".  It's sometimes good for testing and debugging.

    If the default configuration doesn't work and one of the above
    matches with your device, report it together with the PCI
    subsystem ID (output of "lspci -nv") to ALSA BTS or alsa-devel
    ML (see the section "Links and Addresses").

[GrannyGeek]

I think this is related to my problem of getting no sound in Linux from my new laptop. You seem to get some sound, I get none. I'll have to take a close look at the alsa-configuration.txt file.
--GrannyGeek

[gamfa]

I am having the same problems with my new Toshiba 135-4666. As it usally goes.."works fine in XP".

[M0E-lnx]

how would one go about trying to pass the "model" parameter when loading the module?
AFAIK, the module gets loaded at boot.

[apock627]

No problem if it's getting loaded as a module from /etc/rc.d/rc.modules or whichever linked file you use.

/sbin/modprobe snd_hda_intel model=<name>

except that I can't figure out what model mine might be. I've got device ID and looked it up at http://www.pcidatabase.com

I'll just assume it's toshiba for now and give it a go.

If you have it compiled in kernel i have no idea how you'd go about this without re-compiling.

[stoichyu]

I think this is related to my problem of getting no sound in Linux from my new laptop. You seem to get some sound, I get none. I'll have to take a close look at the alsa-configuration.txt file.
--GrannyGeek

Let me make a wild guess and suggest you use the conexant one. (For the reason that it's the one my laptop uses.)

If you have it compiled in kernel i have no idea how you'd go about this without re-compiling.

I don't think you can build alsa directly into the kernel, so you're safe there. Also, this site http://www.directdial.com/PTA83C-KF201E.html says the sound chip is an ALC262 so you can probably try that.

[GrannyGeek]

Let me make a wild guess and suggest you use the conexant one. (For the reason that it's the one my laptop uses.)

It's listed as a SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC. lspci says it's nVidia MCP51 High Definition Audio. It uses the snd-hda-intel module.
--GrannyGeek

[The Headacher]

how would one go about trying to pass the "model" parameter when loading the module?
AFAIK, the module gets loaded at boot.

I'm not sure to change the parameters it uses during boot, but you can

Code:

modprobe -r snd-hda-intel && modprobe snd-hda-intel model=ref

(Apparently 'ref' is one of the better chances).

Here's another recent post on linuxquestions about silenced soundcards, which suggests trying kernel 2.6.23: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?p=2871599

[apock627]

Success! (at least mostly). Thanks to The Headacher. Wouldn't have found that documentation without the pointer.
Had some trouble figuring out which chipset I had - looked up lspci -nv, vendor/device ID, then realized it was sitting in front of me every time I started alsamixer up the top. Mine is ALC262. Most of the entries under this chipset in the documentation were for other makes and auto was the default, so I tried basic and suddenly all the mixer apps had all the controls activated, and sound worked from the speakers as soon as I started X. The only problem is that the headphones control which comes from the speakers and moves to the line out when plugged in is too soft even at maximum volume, but it is easy to turn up another control (Front). That doesn't get muted when the line out is plugged in but this is still a huge improvement

To test different model options I had to get out of X (ctrl-alt backspace, still works even though I have runlevel set to 4, just don't log back in)
change to text-only screen (ctrl-alt-F1)
# rmmod -f snd_hda_intel
# modprobe snd_hda_intel model=basic

Now I can load this at boot.

Thanks again. This has really been bugging me.