[E17] unusual sound problem on one particular machine

[vc]

Hello.  This one has me perplexed.  The machine in question is an old P2-400 laptop (a Compaq Armada 1750) with 320MB of system memory (tested; MemTest86+, successful, no errors),  a 20GB IDE hard drive (1GB for swap at /dev/sda1; 4GB for the OS at /dev/sda2; remainder at /dev/sda3 for /home - all ReiserFS; notail,noatime), ATI Mach64 video, and an ESS AudioDrive ES1869 chip for sound.

It is currently running the 2010 E17 Final; the problem, however, is that there is no sound at all.  I have searched through the forum, and read linuxera's remarks regarding sound issues; I have also ran alsaconf repeatedly (and apparently successfully, each time), and have fiddled around with aumix as well - yet all to no avail.  I am able to set the mixer settings to proper values; yet everytime the mixer is opened and examined again, the Master Output is also yet again found to be permanently 'stuck' at a low value, and also with a considerable imbalance between the individual channel levels (despite having previously also locked the 'sliders'.).

The perplexing bit is that I have by now tried several distros in this same machine (PCLinuxOS 2010 E17; 'Lucid' Puppy 5.0; Vector 'KDE Classic' 6.0; Slax 6.1.2; SliTaz 'cooking' 2010/05/30), and while nearly all of them had also stumbled on the same sound problem, one distro however (Slax 6.1.2) does manage to get it going somehow - thus proving that the hardware is functional.

My actual questions:

1)  Is it possible that the hardware could perhaps be only partially defective, or failed incompletely?

2)  Having already tried both alsaconf and aumix, what should the next step be?

3)  Could this perhaps be caused by some sort of BIOS issue?

[djohnston]

1)  Is it possible that the hardware could perhaps be only partially defective, or failed incompletely?

2)  Having already tried both alsaconf and aumix, what should the next step be?

3)  Could this perhaps be caused by some sort of BIOS issue?

Started looking and found only this, so far:

http://www.mail-archive.com/alsa-user@lists.sourceforge.net/msg22994.html

It's from 2008. He says:

Sound is now working with the following setting:

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
  0 [ES1869         ]: ES1869 - ESS AudioDrive ES1869
                       ESS AudioDrive ES1869 at 0x220, irq 5, dma1 1, dma2 5

but there is some spurious clicking after playing some sounds.

#1, If it works with Slax, then I doubt the card is defective.
#2, Go to PCLOS Control Center, Hardware, Sound Configuration. See what driver is in use, and see if Enable Pulse Audio is enabled. Also, if pulseaudio installed on your system? It can cause conflicts with alsa.
#3, It is possible. See if any power-saving settings are on.

You might also try digging into the sound settings on Slax. I'm assuming you don't have Slax installed to hard drive.

EDIT: Is PCLOS e17 installed to a hard drive? If so, are you using the original kernel?

[vc]

Started looking and found only this, so far:

http://www.mail-archive.com/alsa-user@lists.sourceforge.net/msg22994.html

Hmm... yes; that's what I was afraid of - for in reading that link, I see:

"> It's the Compaq BIOS which tells the driver which resources the card can use"

I was really hoping to avoid having to deal with the BIOS, for machines of this vintage tend to be quite cumbersome.  The BIOS on actual silicon within the unit is only a stub; the major portion of the BIOS code on these machines actually resided on a special partition at the end of the hard disk - and since I received this machine with no hard drive, it therefore essentially has almost no BIOS.

I had also hoped that the ES1869 itself would have been old enough to function on its own, as discrete hardware - but apparently, it's not.  So; like nearly everything else nowadays, it too requires firmware in order to do anything at all (aside from consuming power.).

It's from 2008. He says:

Sound is now working with the following setting:

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
  0 [ES1869         ]: ES1869 - ESS AudioDrive ES1869
                       ESS AudioDrive ES1869 at 0x220, irq 5, dma1 1, dma2 5

but there is some spurious clicking after playing some sounds.

Thank you, djohnston; that appears to be the required information.  How should I implement those settings, though?  Or, do I even need to?  I'm thinking that if a proper BIOS partition were to be restored to this machine, then it is likely that alsaconf would in turn detect the sound device properly also and all would be fine.

#1, If it works with Slax, then I doubt the card is defective.

I agree... although I am also left wondering why.  What's so different about Slax?  As I reported, no other distro - not even Vector - was successful.

#2, Go to PCLOS Control Center, Hardware, Sound Configuration. See what driver is in use, and see if Enable Pulse Audio is enabled. Also, if pulseaudio installed on your system? It can cause conflicts with alsa.

No; PulseAudio wasn't installed - it was a straightforward default install of E17 Final, with the stock kernel; all I've done so far was a full system update and a little bit of Enlightenment customisation (installed Parcellite; arranged the shelf.).

PCC reported "No sound card detected"; additionally, no sound driver version is indicated on that same 'Sound Configuration' page.

#3, It is possible. See if any power-saving settings are on.

You might also try digging into the sound settings on Slax. I'm assuming you don't have Slax installed to hard drive.

True.  I was live-booting it as a test only.

EDIT: Is PCLOS e17 installed to a hard drive? If so, are you using the original kernel?

Yes - I believe I mentioned that it is indeed installed onto a 20GB IDE hard drive.

Unavoidably, however, at this point it does seem to me that the next logical step would be to bite the bullet - wipe the drive; force-install Windows 98SE into a single undersized FAT32 partition; dig through the piles of old floppies and keep testing them until I eventually (hopefully?) find five usable diskettes that still have all of their sectors; write the authentic Compaq diagnostic software to them, and then finally utilise same to restore the BIOS partition - then delete the FAT32 partition, re-create the ReiserFS and swap partitions I have at present (minus then a tiny amount off the /home partition, to make allowance for the new BIOS partition at the end of the disk), and re-install the 2010 E17 yet again.

[coffeetime]

Set PCM to 90%

[Old-Polack]

vc:

SWAG time:

From a root terminal, try this;

[root@localhost ~]# modprobe es18xx                  <Enter>

Then check to see if the sound card is recognized.

Post your results.

[vc]

Set PCM to 90%

Have done so already coffeetime, with every mixer app I could find in Synaptic - still no joy.  However; I have noticed that with all settings at maximum I do hear a bit of system noise, and also that this noise level increases slightly whenever I attempt to play a soundfile, returning to its previous level when the playback is ended.

[coffeetime]

Sound icon/Controls:

master=90
PCM=90

hth

[vc]

vc:

SWAG time:

?  I'm sorry, Old-Polack - I do thank you for your reply; unfortunately however, I do not understand that part.  Is it a reference?

From a root terminal, try this;

[root@localhost ~]# modprobe es18xx                 <Enter>

Then check to see if the sound card is recognized.

Post your results.

Result:  "FATAL:  Module es18xx not found."

Is this perhaps because the es18xx.ko module was not loaded during the install, due to the lack of proper hardware detection which was in turn due to the lack of a complete or fully-functional BIOS?

Where should I obtain the es18xx.ko module from?  I have reloaded Synaptic and searched, yet it has failed to find such.


<Modify>

Additional:  alsaconf does detect the device, as "es18xx   snd-es18xx" - although it does not seem to install the actual driver module.  I am wondering if there is perhaps a hardware device contention of some sort - for as alsaconf concludes, there is a very brief flash of an error message which could be indicating that the "sound device is in use by PID(something)".

[vc]

Sound icon/Controls:

master=90
PCM=90

hth

Yes; I have been there, too - and, I have plugged in a functional pair of headphones as well... still no sound, other than the background system noise level.


<Modify>

I should add, though, that the hardware volume adjustment buttons on the casing exterior do seem to be functional also - when I perform an adjustment, both the actual background system noise level output and the "Hardware Master" 'sliders' in the various mixer apps do follow accordingly.

[coffeetime]

Hmm...no sound from speakers or headphones? No problems on my Eee 900

Mine:
Headphone: 80 [lock sliders]
Master: 100 [lock sliders]
PCM: 95 [lock sliders]

Did you try to run "alsaconf" from Konsole?

[djohnston]

Unavoidably, however, at this point it does seem to me that the next logical step would be to bite the bullet - wipe the drive; force-install Windows 98SE into a single undersized FAT32 partition; dig through the piles of old floppies and keep testing them until I eventually (hopefully?) find five usable diskettes that still have all of their sectors; write the authentic Compaq diagnostic software to them, and then finally utilise same to restore the BIOS partition - then delete the FAT32 partition, re-create the ReiserFS and swap partitions I have at present (minus then a tiny amount off the /home partition, to make allowance for the new BIOS partition at the end of the disk), and re-install the 2010 E17 yet again.

You might try here for Windows boot: http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

And here for Compaq diagnostics: http://www.user-guides.co.uk/Compaq/CompaqCDDownloads.asp

Or, do a search for "download Compaq diagnostic software". That is, if you decide on that route.

[Old-Polack]

vc:

SWAG time:

?  I'm sorry, Old-Polack - I do thank you for your reply; unfortunately however, I do not understand that part.  Is it a reference?

Simple Wild Ass Guess

From a root terminal, try this;

[root@localhost ~]# modprobe es18xx                 <Enter>

Then check to see if the sound card is recognized.

Post your results.

Result:  "FATAL:  Module es18xx not found."

My error: Should have been;

[root@localhost ~]# modprobe snd_es18xx                 <Enter>

Is this perhaps because the es18xx.ko module was not loaded during the install, due to the lack of proper hardware detection which was in turn due to the lack of a complete or fully-functional BIOS?

Where should I obtain the es18xx.ko module from?  I have reloaded Synaptic and searched, yet it has failed to find such.

What kernel are you now using? In my /lib/modules/2.6.32.12-pclos1.bfs/kernel/sound/isa/ directory is the module snd-es18xx.ko.gz, which usually translates to snd_es18xx when called by modprobe. I don't have the card, but when called by modprobe, it is obediently loaded as seen below;

[root@littleboy ~]# modprobe snd_es18xx
[root@littleboy ~]# lsmod |grep 18xx
snd_es18xx             21479  0
snd_opl3_lib            7849  1 snd_es18xx
snd_mpu401_uart         4912  1 snd_es18xx
snd_pcm                58960  6 snd_es18xx,snd_usb_audio,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd                    46351  24 snd_es18xx,snd_opl3_lib,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_usb_audio,snd_hwdep,snd_usb_lib,snd_rawmidi,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mixer_oss

Note also lots of extra goodies are also loaded, to work with that module. The next question would be if the driver is associated with the actual card, which may require an extra step or two. First things first. Use the corrected modprobe command and see what you get.  

[vc]

You might try here for Windows boot: http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

And here for Compaq diagnostics: http://www.user-guides.co.uk/Compaq/CompaqCDDownloads.asp

Or, do a search for "download Compaq diagnostic software". That is, if you decide on that route.

Done both already, actually - thank you.  The real issue now is finding five good floppies.

[vc]

Simple Wild Ass Guess

Oh.

Result:  "FATAL:  Module es18xx not found."

My error: Should have been;

[root@localhost ~]# modprobe snd_es18xx                 <Enter>
[/quote]

Ah.  No worry.  That does make a difference though, for now modprobe snd_es18xx returns immediately to the commandline and gives no report at all.

What kernel are you now using? In my /lib/modules/2.6.32.12-pclos1.bfs/kernel/sound/isa/ directory the module snd-es18xx.ko.gz, which usually translates to snd_es18xx when called by modprobe. I don't have the card, but when called by modprobe, it is obediently loaded as seen below;

Yes - I have now found it, here:

/lib/modules/2.6.32.11-pclos2.bfs/kernel/sound/isa/snd-es18xx.ko.gz

Additionally, lsmod | grep 18xx reports:

snd_es18xx             21583 2
snd_opl3_lib            7739  1 snd_es18xx
snd_mpu401_uart     4877  1 snd_es18xx
snd_pcm                58499  3 snd_usb_audio,snd_es18xx,snd_pcm_oss
snd                    46023  17 snd_es18xx,snd_opl3_lib,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_usb_audio,snd_hwdep,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mixer_oss

[Old-Polack]

Yes - I have now found it, here:

/lib/modules/2.6.32.11-pclos2.bfs/kernel/sound/isa/snd-es18xx.ko.gz

Additionally, lsmod | grep 18xx reports:

snd_es18xx             21583 2
snd_opl3_lib            7739  1 snd_es18xx
snd_mpu401_uart     4877  1 snd_es18xx
snd_pcm                58499  3 snd_usb_audio,snd_es18xx,snd_pcm_oss
snd                    46023  17 snd_es18xx,snd_opl3_lib,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_usb_audio,snd_hwdep,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mixer_oss

Ok, the modules are loading. (they don't give feedback when successful, only if there's an error) Now, does sound work yet? I suspect not, but I'm prepared to be surprised.  

As root, run alsaconf from a terminal. Have it check for legacy cards, when asked, as the es1869 from that long ago probably is an ISA slot card. (Don't know if any were ever PCI slot) It may not be found even with the drivers installed, in which case you'll need to install the isapnptools package from Synaptic. It's been a lot of years since I've had a machine with an ISA slot card, so I'm having to dust some cobwebs remembering this stuff.