Codec: VIA VIA VT1708S - Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP72XE/MCP72P/MCP78U/MCP78S High Definition Audio (rev a1) - sound not working on M4N78-AM motherboard in Ubuntu 9.10 beta - ALSA driver and library are different versions -> result: aplay: device_list:223: no soundcards found...

Asked by Mikael Hjelm

hjelm@linux-burk:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu karmic (development branch)
Release: 9.10

hjelm@linux-burk:~$ apt-cache policy alsa-base
alsa-base:
  Installerad: 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu4
  Kandidat: 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu4
  Versionstabell:
 *** 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu4 0
        500 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

hjelm@linux-burk:~$ lspci
00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Memory Controller (rev a2)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] LPC Bridge (rev a2)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] SMBus (rev a1)
00:01.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:01.3 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Co-Processor (rev a2)
00:01.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a1)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev a1)
00:04.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a1)
00:04.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev a1)
00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] IDE (rev a1)
00:07.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP72XE/MCP72P/MCP78U/MCP78S High Definition Audio (rev a1)
00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI Bridge (rev a1)
00:09.0 RAID bus controller: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] SATA Controller (RAID mode) (rev a2)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation MCP77 Ethernet (rev a2)
00:10.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:12.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] HyperTransport Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Miscellaneous Control
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Link Control
01:07.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. Atheros AR5001X+ Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV730XT [Radeon HD 4670]
02:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc R700 Audio Device [Radeon HD 4000 Series]

I ran a script i found in another bugreport
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh

ALSA Information Script v 0.4.58
--------------------------------

This script visits the following commands/files to collect diagnostic
information about your ALSA installation and sound related hardware.

  dmesg
  lspci
  lsmod
  aplay
  amixer
  alsactl
  /proc/asound/
  /sys/class/sound/
  ~/.asoundrc (etc.)

See './alsa-info.sh --help' for command line options.

/sbin/alsactl: save_state:1502: No soundcards found...
cat: /tmp/alsa-info.B4dyDfJFSt/alsactl.tmp: No such file or directory
Automatically upload ALSA information to www.alsa-project.org? [y/N] : y
Uploading information to www.alsa-project.org ... Done!

Your ALSA information is located at http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=6112069c07d50903553d0e1dbe21b3d0448acad6

Please inform the person helping you.

hjelm@linux-burk:~$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [NVidia ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
                      HDA NVidia at 0xfbd78000 irq 21
 1 [HDMI ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI
                      HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfbffc000 irq 16

I expected sound

Instead i get no sound and no sound hardware detected, the sound worked in jaunty.
Slightly confused as i see the devices listed are Nvidia and ATI. The specification for my motherboard states
VIA VT1708S

The motherboard is M4N78-AM

I have a ATI HD4670 graphics card as well.

If i interpret this correctly the devices fond are the ones associated with the hdmi outputs and not the actual soundcard on the motherboard.

Only other error message in interpret to be related to alsa is this:
Oct 10 09:34:47 linux-burk pulseaudio[3749]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "PCM" or mixer control is no combination of switch/volume.

ProblemType: Bug
AlsaDevices:
 total 0
 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 80 2009-10-10 22:07 by-path
AplayDevices: aplay: device_list:223: no soundcards found...
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices: arecord: device_list:223: no soundcards found...
AudioDevicesInUse: Error: command ['fuser', '-v', '/dev/dsp', '/dev/snd/by-path', '/dev/sequencer2', '/dev/sequencer', '/dev/seq'] failed with exit code 1:
Date: Sat Oct 10 22:29:09 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: alsa-base 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu4
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=sv_SE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.28-11.42-generic
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic i686

Question information

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Status:
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For:
Ubuntu alsa-driver Edit question
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Solved by:
Mark Rijckenberg
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Revision history for this message
Mikael Hjelm (j-m-hjelm) said :
#1
Revision history for this message
Mikael Hjelm (j-m-hjelm) said :
#2

I manage to get it working by installing a later kernel.
It works with 2.6.31-13 at least.

Perhaps the question is shouldn't the distribution update also update kernel version?

Revision history for this message
Mikael Hjelm (j-m-hjelm) said :
#3

Se comment.
The problem was irst and foremost kernel related but the question is perhaps why didnt the kernel version update when i upgraded to karmic from jaunty.

Revision history for this message
Best Mark Rijckenberg (markrijckenberg) said :
#4

Your ALSA information script output shows the following:

!!ALSA Version
!!------------

Driver version: 1.0.18rc3
Library version: 1.0.20
Utilities version: 1.0.20

So the ALSA driver version is not the same version as the ALSA library version. This will cause ALSA to malfunction and give the error "aplay: device_list:223: no soundcards found..."

If you run the ALSA information script once more and still see the driver - library version difference in the output, I recommend upgrading to ALSA version 1.0.21 using this procedure:

http://monespaceperso.org/blog-en/2009/08/31/upgrade-alsa-1-0-21-on-ubuntu-jaunty-9-04/

So I do not believe you had a kernel related issue, but an issue with ALSA. The driver, library and utilities version should always be on the same version.

Revision history for this message
Mikael Hjelm (j-m-hjelm) said :
#5

Thanks Mark Rijckenberg, that solved my question.

Revision history for this message
Mark Rijckenberg (markrijckenberg) said :
#6

Hi Mikael,

It is now March 2010 and I understand this issue a little better now. :-p

The root cause of the issue above was that you were originally running the Ubuntu 9.04 kernel instead of the Ubuntu 9.10 beta kernel.

You were running the following kernel release: 2.6.28-11-generic

That kernel 2.6.28-11-generic automatically loads the older ALSA driver version 1.0.18rc3, which is incompatible with the Ubuntu 9.10 ALSA library version 1.0.20

When you boot the 2.6.31 kernel, the kernel will automatically load the newer ALSA version 1.0.20, which is of course compatible with ALSA library version 1.0.20

Yes, it is a known bug that the 2.6.31 kernel version is not always displayed in the grub boot menu after UPGRADING from Ubuntu 9.04 to Ubuntu 9.10

The grub menu issue should NOT occur if you do a clean install of Ubuntu 9.10