does KM use devfs or udev?? (i need this info to figure out if i've installed alsa correctly!)

gives nothing!

udev. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEVFS KM runs a 2.6.18+ kernel and devfs has been obsoleted (in Linux anyway).

At this point I would boot up a LiveCD (Knoppix, Puppy, etc.) and test the sound. If it works, then I would check the output of: and see which modules are loaded. Output from dmesg and lspci -v at that point would probably be helpful as well.

I forget which motherboard you said you had, but it appears to be "bleeding edge" enough that some of the required drivers haven't made it into the mainstream yet...

Will do.



It's the Realtek ALC888. It did work when I was attempting to install mythdora (but the video didn't work there ). So I do think there's a way to make it work. Just need to figure out what the problem is.

i'm downloading knoppix live dvd right now.
anything else you want me to look at when i boot from it?

Aside from the above, I would look for the output from aplay -l as Human asked earlier. I would also note the entries at the top left of alsamixer

OK. I had the same problems with Knoppix live CD!
well.. alsamixer doesn't give an error, but opens with very minimal menus.
playback, for example, has no volume bar.

so i decided to check out what mythdora was saying when i tried to install it back then. the card it recognized (and played audio to me through) was:
nVidia Model 0x055C Module snd-hda-intel PCM Device ALC 883 Analog.
(even though nVidia's Model is 0x053E and I have the ALC 888 !)

funny thing that mythdora goes all the way to the mythtv setup and then freezes on me (i believe trying to launch X) just like R5F1 did before. so I booted it to level 3 and tried installing nVidia's driver from the console.

man is that a mess! gcc is not defined! so nVidia's installer could not recompile the kernel. and if i'm to do it with rpm's the package spec-helper is not there... and i'm kind'a reluctant to start tracking all this down!!! i wonder if this is because i'm at level 3? otherwise, how do mythdora users update their drivers???

maybe i'll just leave this mystery at rest and go get myself a soundcard! it is killing me though that really have no clue how mythdora detected my card during installation and KM cannot. oh well..

I know it's frustrating. Now you know the value of reference hardware for KnoppMyth If you did manage to find the differences between the working state and nonworking state, we could likely make it work in KnoppMyth, too, but it would definitely be easier for you to get a new soundcard.

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MythiC Dragon v2.0
Join the KnoppMyth Frappr!

And, just to complicate this thread, my new M2NPV-VM test machine (R5F27) also has no sound. Sadly, it seems to be nothing driver related:


The audio was set to HDAudio in the BIOS. I am just using normal headphone output. So, I reboot and change it. Now? aplay finds no soundcards.

Sigh.[/code]

_________________
| Nigel Pearson, nigel.pearson.au@gmail.com
| "Things you own end up owning you" - Tyler, Fight Club

And, of course, after posting (and re-enabling HDaudio in BIOS) I found the problem. Audio device in MythTV's setup menus was /dev/adsp instead of /dev/dsp

_________________
| Nigel Pearson, nigel.pearson.au@gmail.com
| "Things you own end up owning you" - Tyler, Fight Club

ok. i figured out how to install the nvidia driver on mythdora and ran all the setup till the end. live tv was kind'a choppy, so i still would have to tweak things (if i were to use mythdora).
with knoppmyth, my only problem is audio. the video looks very nice and the speed-up tweak is working so cpu uses up only 7%. (i haven't applied that tweak to mythdora yet, so that might solve the choppy video problem). but i'd like to stay with knoppmyth anyway, if possible. so trying further to understand this audio issue (before i run to circuit city and get myself a new soundcard! ).

mythdora somehow in the course of installation offered me two choice: cx88 and nvidia (unknown device). the module for the nvidia device was hda-intel and it did play the guitar audio. so it somehow works. cx88 didn't play anything. so i chose the nvidia one.

once installation and mythtv setup were over, i had no audio!!!! i was even more baffled! alsamixer doesn't give an error this time but shows that it is using the cx88 thingie. aplay -l shows an empty list of soundcards (doesn't say there are no cards, like it does with knoppmyth though). lsmod | grep '^snd' gives

snd_hda_intel ----------- 24153 ------- 0
snd_hda_codec -------- 156353 ------ 1 ---- snd_hda_intel
snd_seq_dummy ------- 7877 --------- 0
snd_seq_oss ------------ 33601 ------- 0
snd_seq_midi_event -- 11201 ------- 1 ---- snd_seq_oss
snd_seq ------------------- 51249 ------- 5 ---- snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device -------- 11853 ------- 3 ---- snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss ----------- 43617 ------- 0
snd_mixer_oss --------- 19393 -------- 1 ---- snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm ----------------- 75205 -------- 4 ---- snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,cx88_alsa,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer ---------------- 25157 -------- 2 ---- snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd ------------------------- 53829 ------- 14 --- snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,cx88_alsa,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
snd_page_alloc -------- 13769 -------- 2 ---- snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

here's what it gave on KnoppMyth after a fresh installation:

snd_pcm_oss -------- 42912 --- 0
snd_mixer_oss ------ 18176 --- 1 --- snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm -------------- 69380 --- 2 --- cx88_alsa,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer ------------- 22404 --- 1 --- snd_pcm
snd ---------------------- 47588 --- 5 --- cx88_alsa,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
snd_page_alloc ----- 11784 --- 1 --- snd_pcm

and here's what it gives after Realtek Driver's install

snd_hda_intel -------- 19096 ----- 0
snd_hda_codec ------ 159232 --- 1 --- snd_hda_intel
snd_pcm ---------------- 69380 ---- 3 --- snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,cx88_alsa
snd_timer --------------- 22404 ---- 1 --- snd_pcm
snd ----------------------- 47588 ----- 5 --- snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,cx88_alsa,snd_pcm,snd_timer
snd_page_alloc ------- 11784 ---- 2 --- snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

(i added the --- to align things..)
can anybody make anything out of this? why did mythdora manage to play audio at some point and then changed its mind once the setup was complete? why can't KnoppMyth even find the same thing mythdora is finding (even if temporarily!!)?

I'm interested in helping you fix this, but in case you can't, we do separately sell the soundcards used in Dragon: http://mythic.tv/product_info.php?products_id=65

The cx88 is the rudimentary sound device on your hd-5500(s) and should never be used for your sound output. In KnoppMyth, the cx88 is disabled as a sound device and is not selectable.

The bug you're seeing in MythDora is probably the root cause of our decision to disable the cx88 sound device entirely. With newer drivers and kernel versions, the problem will likely disappear, but for now, if ALSA tries to treat the hd-5500's sound device like a real soundcard in any way, it causes problems. Maybe not all at once, and maybe not consistently, but it causes problems.

This doesn't, however, explain why you're having problems in KnoppMyth, just why it's probably not working reliably in MythDora. In KnoppMyth, was snd_hda_intel loaded? I realize it's nontrivial to keep switching back and forth

EDIT: Whoops, I see above that you did get snd_hda_intel loaded after all.

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MythiC Dragon v2.0
Join the KnoppMyth Frappr!

Maybe the missing link is oss support? You got the ALSA drivers installed in KnoppMyth, but when you did, it looks like some oss drivers went away. Can you compile the drivers with oss support and try it?

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MythiC Dragon v2.0
Join the KnoppMyth Frappr!

Hmmmm.. Makes me wonder: what if my problem is simply that BIOS are set to analog???

This would explain whay mythdora finds it at some point (it DOES say that it is analog).

And then maybe if I set it to HD things will just work. Or at least the card will get detected and I won't have sound. But then it should be already a MUCH better situation! Either the device is wrong (like in your case) or stuff is muted..

I'll look into that once I'm home!!

Edit: if i too find out the device was /dev/adsp (i remember not seeing any /dev/dsp !!), then how do i change the device? and if that works, then how do i make that stick after reboot? [crossing my finger this IS simply the problem!!]