[nzlug] SansOS Laptops Update?

[Simon Bridge]

On Wed, 2008-03-19 at 01:54 +1300, don.esslemont at paradise.net.nz wrote:
> On 19 Mar 2008 at 0:16, Simon Bridge wrote:

> The only item in the output from lspci that seems to have anything to 
> do with audio is this:
> 
> 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8280H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio 
> Controller (rev 03)
Neat - this looks like it ... give me the result of lspci -vv for that
entry.

> 
> >org/showthread.php?p=4528331 http://ubuntuforums.
> > ... suggests it may be intel chipset audio
> 
Apparently not ... anyway, your lspci agrees with one in the link - so,
never mind.

> Sorry, I don't understand that URL. Has it come through correctly?
> 
> > In the top panel on the right, there is a speaker widget - rt-click it
> > and select "volume control". See if there is a microphone listed.
> 
> It shows "Realtek ALC286 (OSS Mixer)". It has one tab, labelled 
> "Playback" and there are two sets of sliders: "volume" and "In-gain". 
> Bothe are set at maximum.  
> 
Hmmm... Realtek alc 286 is, indeed, an audio chipset.

> > If not, go to edit > preferences and see if it is there. alc2
> 
> "Preferences" offers two choices, "Realtek ALC268 (OSS mixer)" and 
> "HDA Intel (Alsa mixer)".

That's not the preferences I meant... I'll back up:

rt-click the speaker and select "open volume control" - this will
provide a "volume control dialog".

In that *volume control dialog* there is a drop-down menu called "edit",
select "preferences" from there. This brings up the "volume control
preferences" dialog.

>From there you can enable the controls for the supported aspects of the
default card. Something being disabled in here is a common cause of
missing functionality in supported cards.

Still... it's useful info. Saves me from asking for it.

> 
> HDA Intel offers the following choices of device to control:
>   Master 
>   PCM 
>   Line in boost
>   Mic boost
>   Capture
>   Digital
>   Internal mic boostalc2
> 
> However, it doesn't seem to make any difference which of these I 
> select. Right-clicking on the widget and on "Open volume control" 
> always produces the Realtek ALC268.

That's all right - it just means that the realtek whateveritis is set as
the default soundcard. It may be because that is what is sitting behind
the intel controller - in which case you are probably fubared, with the
only hope being to enable backports and update.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-backports-modules-2.6.22/+bug/130559

If you are lucky, it's part of another system ...

Use a terminal and do:

$ asoundconf list

...tell me what it says.

> 
> > ... How goen the wlug harware discovery script these days - worth a try?

> Sorry, I don't understand that :-)

My bad - that was for the wlug folk lurking. <calls out> Hellooo? You
got yer ears on? You fellas still maintaining that script?

The script is this one:
http://www.hbclinux.net.nz/HBCLUG/osc-tut/wlug-pci_1.0-1_i386.deb
... but that's quite an old example. The deb puts a menu item under
applications - using it while online scans your hardware and takes you
to a website dedicated to telling you more than you desire about it.

It has been useful for fiddly troubleshooting in the past. Not used it
recently.