Conexant HD Audio with ALSA

mikethebassman · #1 29th March 2007, 10:58 PM

My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite, 1.6 GHz core 2 duo, 2 GB RAM, 945GM chipset w/ conexant audio. I've patched ALSA lib and drivers to 1.0.14rc3, and utils to 1.0.14rc2. Regardless, the audio doesn't work. The volume is maxed, and not muted. I've done lsmod and rmmod countless times to remove, and then modprobe snd-hda-intel to restart, the sound drivers, but I get no sound. In Admin > Soundcard Detection, it lists my soundcard as 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller, with Conexant Digital as my default PCM. Still no luck. Does anyone know how to get it to work?

P.S., the model number for my laptop is Satellite P105-S6114. (Using FC6)

funkyjunky28 · #2 13th April 2007, 08:56 PM

mikethebassman,
Just curious if you found resolution to this? I recently purchased a p105-s6177 (which uses the same chipsets for sound-- conexant HD audio). I have tried absolutely everything under the sun to get this to work. I have found several folks in the community that say it's not an issue with the conexant card, so much as with the fact that it is audio/modem, and has conflicts with ACPI. I hear there is a patch for ACPI, but I've yet to compile/install. Currently, I am using a Turtle Beach usb soundcard. It works, but admittedly it would be nice to use the native conexant sound for ease.

I will post again if I find resolution. If you don't mind, please let me know if you are able to get it working. I've googled this a lot, and so far it seams that you and I are the only ones voicing our frustration about this particular card.
Thank you much!

mikethebassman · #3 14th April 2007, 09:51 PM

I've tried everything, including ACPI patches. It just doesn't work. My only other thought is to some how use ndiswrapper. Although, it'd take a lot of work, and I'm not sure it would cut it... It sucks, because fc is so much better than windows, and I can't enjoy it!

funkyjunky28 · #4 26th April 2007, 08:46 PM

Agreed. I've pretty much given up on this for now. I understand your passion for FC. I've used many flavors, but FC seems the most flexible....and I've been using it for a while. There is only one other thing I could suggest, if you want to use the sound. I'm running dual boot, as I need my Toshiba to be a temporary network/kickstart server. If you use both Windows and FC regularly, however, you may want to consider Vmware Server (now Free). I was running Windows vista with VMware server 1.0.2, and it was working great. Since VMware builds (or has pre-compiled) modules, kudzu usually picks up on the hardware ok. I installed FC6 on VMware server, and first boot had Wireless card, sound and graphics (though keep in mind you will use VMWare's console, so this doesn't mean you can game very much--if any, but the visual quality will still be good). Vmare basically ports the hardware to linux for you (for lack of a better phrase).

When I get some time, I may talk to Conexant again....tho I'm sure it will once again be a complete and total waste of my time.

cheers.

funkyjunky28 · #5 13th May 2007, 01:30 AM

Got it to work. For the most part.
1) Fresh install: Fedora Core 6 (2.6.20-1.2933.fc6).
2) chown {your_non-root-user_id}:{group} /dev/dsp
chown {your_non-root-user_id}:{group} /dev/audio
chown {your_non-root-user_id}:{group} /dev/mixer
3) add "apci=off" to grub.cof (end of "kernel" line for the version you use).

It works, and the sound quality is pretty good. It's anoying that I can't have sound with Battery management on, but at least now I have the option to enjoy multimedia. I copied my main boot kernel, then turned of acpi on it. Now I can boot with Battery manaement OR music.......it will suffice until I figure out how to make them co-exist until I can fix the ACPI issue.

Toshiba P105-S6177
Fedora Core 6 2.6.20-1.2933.fc6 smp