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Got a new laptop, need a bit of help ironing out issues.

R

RyanGreener

Senior member
Okay, I've gotten most issues worked out, but I just need help applying this advice below when it applies to Debian.

/usr/src/linux-$(uname -r)/Documentation/sound/alsa/ALSA-Configuration.txt

To specify the model add the following to modprobe.conf or the config file that your distribution uses to configure modules.

options snd-hda-intel model=name
Click to expand...

Where exactly do I find the ALSA-Configuration.txt? I went into usr/src and couldn't navigate to the rest of that. Should I just type that in the terminal?

Also for the modprobe.conf, I'm assuming I just do:

sudo gedit modprobe.conf
 
Last edited:
Nothinman said:
If lspci says it's an Intel HDA audio chipset why did you download the Realtek audio driver?
Click to expand...

Eh, I'm not that proficient in Linux when it comes to command line stuff. I didn't install the Realtek audio driver so nothing really changed. I also did a few things that other people told me to try doing, and I still can't figure out what's wrong.
 
azemsiB said:
Eh, I'm not that proficient in Linux when it comes to command line stuff. I didn't install the Realtek audio driver so nothing really changed. I also did a few things that other people told me to try doing, and I still can't figure out what's wrong.
Click to expand...

Usually there's a README or INSTALL file in the tarball that describes how to compile the software, but you shouldn't have to do that often these days.

If you type 'sudo alsamixer' do you get a mixer?
 
I've had similar sound problems with Ubuntu and it's derivatives, so I am not totally surprised Linux Mint Debian is having problems.

My suggestion, try a non-debian/ubuntu distro. Any of the following should work:

PCLinuxOS
Fedora
openSUSE
Sabayon

I would suggest Mandriva, but their future is uncertain and is being forked by former employees.
 
Last edited:
AnonymouseUser said:
I've had similar sound problems with Ubuntu and it's derivatives, so I am not totally surprised Linux Mint Debian is having problems.

My suggestion, try a non-debian/ubuntu distro. Any of the following should work:

PCLinuxOS
Fedora
openSUSE
Sabayon

I would suggest Mandriva, but their future is uncertain and is being forked by former employees.
Click to expand...

I thought most of the sound issues with Ubuntu were related to the userland stuff like PulseAudio. The kernel's should be similar enough that the actual hardware support should be virtually the same.
 
Nothinman said:
I thought most of the sound issues with Ubuntu were related to the userland stuff like PulseAudio. The kernel's should be similar enough that the actual hardware support should be virtually the same.
Click to expand...

Uninstalling Pulseaudio from Ubuntu didn't help, and I still had sound with Pulseaudio on Mandriva. This was only a problem with the ATI Azalia chipset (Intel HDA) as my old Soundblaster PCI card worked fine.
 
azemsiB said:
Okay, I just installed OS11.3 and the updates....sound works perfectly. It was that easy 😛
Click to expand...

Glad to hear it's working. :thumbsup:

Now if anyone can figure out why Debian/Ubuntu has problems with the ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) chipset, please let the devs know so they can fix their shit. Thank you.

BTW, How is the backlight issue?

2. Backlight brightness won't reduce. Whether I set it in the options and plug/unplug it, or try to use my actual keyboard, it won't work.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
AnonymouseUser said:
BTW, How is the backlight issue?
Click to expand...

Works great. Now I'm wondering, how do I install ATi proprietary drivers? I noticed it runs a bit hot and the fan is always on full blast, and I read it might have to do with needing to install drivers. I tried the "1 click install" method and that was a fail. It ended up letting me only go to console mode, so I plan on just doing another installation of OpenSUSE 11.3 (I don't have anything important yet, and I'd rather just do a fresh start), but this time, I plan to do a different and hopefully SUCCESSFUL method of installing them. Could you give me a walkthrough? I'm used to the convenience of jockey, but it doesn't seem to be in this due to the different format?
 
azemsiB said:
Works great. Now I'm wondering, how do I install ATi proprietary drivers? I noticed it runs a bit hot and the fan is always on full blast, and I read it might have to do with needing to install drivers. I tried the "1 click install" method and that was a fail. It ended up letting me only go to console mode, so I plan on just doing another installation of OpenSUSE 11.3 (I don't have anything important yet, and I'd rather just do a fresh start), but this time, I plan to do a different and hopefully SUCCESSFUL method of installing them. Could you give me a walkthrough? I'm used to the convenience of jockey, but it doesn't seem to be in this due to the different format?
Click to expand...

Honestly, I've never owned an ATI card (mostly due to their lacking linux support), and I haven't used anything SUSE in years. Have you used this guide yet?
 
Okay tried it...and it failed just like the 1 click install. It seems I have to choose between graphics and sound. Ubuntu/Debian is good with everything, but no audio as far as I know. And OpenSUSE is good with everything, except graphics as far as I know. At this point, I think I'll go with Debian since I'm more comfortable...but any advice on audio would be appreciated.
 
All Linux distributions supports the same hardware because they use the same engine or kernel even though the distribution could be using patches. If OpenSUSE using a latest kernel version and Ubuntu is not using the latest kernel version then OpenSUSE will get a better advantage of supporting more hardware. If both distributions are using the same kernel version, but Ubuntu left out support for some hardware that cause instability problems, OpenSUSE will still get the advantage.

The module snd-hda-intel have to support multiple different chips that are compatible with the Intel HDA codec system. Usually auto detection works, but sometimes it does. For HP computersis you may have to specify the model. To find a list of models for snd-hda-intel read the following.

/usr/src/linux-$(uname -r)/Documentation/sound/alsa/ALSA-Configuration.txt

To specify the model add the following to modprobe.conf or the config file that your distribution uses to configure modules.

options snd-hda-intel model=name

For your graphics card, the best way is just use the open source driver version. It is not made by ATI or AMD, but it a lot better on terms on stability and reliability. It includes power management and the ability to switch between console and GUI. ATI or AMD Graphics proprietary driver does not allow those features in stable and reliable way. The open source drivers for ATI or AMD graphics should support enough 3D features of the card, so Flash should work. If you run the following to watch a video and it works, you should have no problems handling Flash videos.

mplayer -vo gl -vf scale=-1:-1 file

The following is the features that the open source ATI or AMD graphics supports.

http://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature

The ATI or AMD graphics proprietary drivers only supports features, but reliability and stability are penalized.


FYI, lspci is not the detection of hardware for Linux. It just lists the hardware. The utility lspci translate the vendor ID and product ID from a database or a file located at /usr/share/misc/pci.ids. If the hardware is not shown, the hardware is disabled upon boot up before loading up Linux or technically your BIOS will disable the hardware.


IMHO, SUSE is not Linux because it has a lot of proprietary methods for doing things in Linux. SUSE does not use standards. I recommend Gentoo or Arch Linux if you want a more standard way where utilities and documentation are stored. Sabayon is OK if you can get around the problems of its package manager.
 
Sadly it looks like ATI (sound and video) is once again nothing but trouble in Linux, and I would still recommend trying one of the other distros before going back to Deb/Ubu. For some reason I feel you'll have a better chance ironing out the video problems over the audio.
 
electroju said:
For your graphics card, the best way is just use the open source driver version. It is not made by ATI or AMD, but it a lot better on terms on stability and reliability. It includes power management and the ability to switch between console and GUI. ATI or AMD Graphics proprietary driver does not allow those features in stable and reliable way. The open source drivers for ATI or AMD graphics should support enough 3D features of the card, so Flash should work. If you run the following to watch a video and it works, you should have no problems handling Flash videos.

mplayer -vo gl -vf scale=-1:-1 file

The following is the features that the open source ATI or AMD graphics supports.

http://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature

The ATI or AMD graphics proprietary drivers only supports features, but reliability and stability are penalized.
Click to expand...

About this part of what you said, in OpenSUSE 11.3, I was using it and the CPU area and the area next to it ran EXTREMELY hot everytime I viewed flash videos or anything that required any real usage of the CPU. I read somewhere that the proprietary ATi drivers solve this, which is why I assumed I should install them. Are there ways to modify the behavior of the integrated graphics without the proprietary drivers? I couldn't seem to find them in OpenSUSE, and can't find them now unless I do a reinstall.
 
azemsiB said:
Okay tried it...and it failed just like the 1 click install. It seems I have to choose between graphics and sound. Ubuntu/Debian is good with everything, but no audio as far as I know. And OpenSUSE is good with everything, except graphics as far as I know. At this point, I think I'll go with Debian since I'm more comfortable...but any advice on audio would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Seeing if you can figure out which module that SuSE is using for audio would give you a starting place for getting it working in Debian.
 
Okay, so I'm still newbie to doing troubleshooting like this...so right now I'm on Debian.

/usr/src/linux-$(uname -r)/Documentation/sound/alsa/ALSA-Configuration.txt

To specify the model add the following to modprobe.conf or the config file that your distribution uses to configure modules.

options snd-hda-intel model=name
Click to expand...

Where exactly do I find the ALSA-Configuration.txt? I went into usr/src and couldn't navigate to the rest of that. Should I just type that in the terminal?

Also for the modprobe.conf, I'm assuming I just do:

sudo gedit modprobe.conf
 
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