Realtek AC97 - No Audio

[mucols]

SOLVED - PCM volume too low, so now I have volume on the left and right, but not sure if I have surround or not...

Hi, I have an on-board Realtek AC97 audio controller and I can't get any normal sound on my new Fedora 10. I've researched as much as I can, but I'm afraid some of the mechanics are still over my head; my Linux experience is less than a year and this is the first troubleshooting I'm doing on Fedora. So, even the most basic advice may be what I need.

I have checked and double checked, the sound is not muted - also, it is functioning properly (tested with the other OS). In 'Sound Preferences', all of the Playback settings are on AutoDetect and when I click 'Test' I do hear a tone - like you would in a hearing test.

The sound has worked with other distros, but not with Fedora for me. I have Fedora 10 kernel 2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686 The motherboard is an Abit-AI7 with the on-board Realtek AC97 Audio. Motherboard chipsets are Intel 82865PE (MCH) + 82801ER (ICH5R)

Thanks in advance for your help!

Mucols

[oldcpu]

A couple of sound tests you could try follow ... try to copy and paste each of these into a gnome terminal or kde konsole:
speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2 -l5 -twav
Note Linux is case sensitive, and “D” is not the same as “d”. Note you should check your mixer settings (kmix if using KDE, and alsamixer if using Gnome) to ensure that PCM and Master Volume are set around 75%. Note the test for surround sound is different.

If that test yields errors, try instead this more simple test: speaker-test -c2 -l5 -twav
In either case, you should ideally hear a lady's voice saying 'FRONT LEFT','FRONT RIGHT' five times. If that does not work as a regular user, you could try with root permissions (to check for a permissions problem).

If you do hear sound from one of those two tests, then you may have a codec problem with your media player.

[mucols]

Thank you oldcpu,

It took a little while to get the font correct, but I was able to do the speaker test and find out, there was a volume problem. Earlier, it had looked like the volume was up enough, but sometimes you just have to turn it all the way up to see what's going on - the speaker test was invaluable.

Could I also ask for the test for the surround now that the volume thing is settled?

Thanks!

Mucols

[oldcpu]

Thank you oldcpu,

It took a little while to get the font correct, but I was able to do the speaker test and find out, there was a volume problem. Earlier, it had looked like the volume was up enough, but sometimes you just have to turn it all the way up to see what's going on - the speaker test was invaluable.

Could I also ask for the test for the surround now that the volume thing is settled?

Thanks!

Mucols

I don't have surround sound functioning on my PC (don't have the speakers) but you could try increasing the channels ... The parameter "-c" controls the channels. So try "c6". ... ie
speaker-test -Dplug:front -c6 -l5 -twav
or
speaker-test -c6 -l5 -twav

... the parameter "-l" controls the number of iterations. For example, "-l10" would give 10 iterations.

[mucols]

Thanks a lot oldcpu

-M

[shahdharmit]

I use Bash shell and it shows 'speaker command not found'

[oldcpu]

I use Bash shell and it shows 'speaker command not found'speaker command? The command is "speaker-test", not "speaker". What did you type??

More precisely, for the "-c6", the command is:
speaker-test -Dplug:front -c6 -l5 -twav
or
speaker-test -c6 -l5 -twav

On my fedora-10, if I type:
rpm -qf /usr/bin/speaker-test
I see that it comes with the package alsa-utils-1.0.19-1.fc10.i386

[shahdharmit]

speaker-test -c6 -l5 -twav

speaker-test 1.0.18rc3

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 6 channels
WAV file(s)
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 32 to 349525
Period size range from 10 to 116509
Using max buffer size 349524
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 87381
was set buffer_size = 349524
0 - Front Left
4 - Center
1 - Front Right
3 - Rear Right
2 - Rear Left
5 - LFE
Time per period = 11.245675
0 - Front Left
4 - Center
1 - Front Right
3 - Rear Right
2 - Rear Left
5 - LFE
Time per period = 11.506425
0 - Front Left
4 - Center
1 - Front Right
3 - Rear Right
2 - Rear Left
5 - LFE
Time per period = 11.506289
0 - Front Left
4 - Center
1 - Front Right
3 - Rear Right
2 - Rear Left
5 - LFE
Time per period = 11.521349
0 - Front Left
4 - Center
1 - Front Right
3 - Rear Right
2 - Rear Left
5 - LFE
Time per period = 11.511863


rpm -qf /usr/bin/speaker-test
alsa-utils-1.0.18-3.rc3.fc10.i386

[oldcpu]

speaker-test -c6 -l5 -twav

speaker-test 1.0.18rc3
..........
rpm -qf /usr/bin/speaker-test
alsa-utils-1.0.18-3.rc3.fc10.i386

OK. You should also hear a ladies voice saying 'CENTER', 'FRONT RIGHT','RIGHT REAR','REAR LEFT', 'LFE' five times (more or less - I don't have a 5.1 system). You can try tune your mixer whle that is being said.