Sound card detection

[demolition]

Hello

I would like some help with sound card detection and selection.

Edit: My post below (1st June 2012) includes relevant output relating to detection and activation of sound-card.

Current situation:
- System > Preferences > Sound ——>>> Error : "No volume control GStreamer plugins and/or devices found."
- Slight loss of patience with self/going round in a lot of circles! (hence post)

Desired outcome:
Help with creation of, or direction to the location of an existing (zenity?) script that
- detects connected sound-cards and presents info to user,
- allows user to enable/disable preferred output and input device(s) from list of detected devices,
- assigns these settings to the system preferences.

Additional information:

Initial problem
- Only sound output was from mic-input. i.e. No recorded sound could be heard.
- When I first installed Squeeze (6.0.3), everything seemed to work fine (once I'd turned off the SPDIF) but went wrong at some point - around the time I installed 6.0.4 but not sure it was directly related because I was installing quite a few other things.
- In trying to solve the problem, I installed the drivers listed on the ALSA website (1.0.25) but I think this has caused more problems than it solved and I do not seem to be able to replace 1.0.25 with the original Squeeze 1.0.23 drivers.
- I've done a lot of investigating/tinkering but please ask if any specific outputs might help...

System
- OS: Debian Squeeze
- Motherboard audio: Realtek ALC650E Audio AC'97 CODEC (part of GA8-INXP)
- Soundcard: Creative Audigy SoundBlaster SB00090
- "lspci" shows both of these devices are physically connected, if not operational.

Hopefully, such a tool already exists (desired outcome) and I've just been blind to it. If not, then everyone can share the benefits when it's done.

Many thanks in advance for any assistance.

demolition.

[kedaha]

To use the soundblaster audio, disable the onboard Audio AC'97 CODEC in the BIOS.

[demolition]

To use the soundblaster audio, disable the onboard Audio AC'97 CODEC in the BIOS.

Thanks. Well, that's one way. Ideally, I would like the option to switch between them, once the system is running.

I have now done this (disabled motherboard sound card).

Using lspci | grep audio command, it is clear the sound-card is plugged in:

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02:02.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy (rev 03)

Here are the relevant bits from lshal:

Code: Select all

udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_1102_4001'
  info.linux.driver = 'firewire_ohci'  (string)
  info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_8086_244e'  (string)
  info.product = 'SB Audigy FireWire Port'  (string)
  info.subsystem = 'pci'  (string)
  info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_1102_4001'  (string)
  info.vendor = 'Creative Labs'  (string)
  linux.hotplug_type = 2  (0x2)  (int)
  linux.subsystem = 'pci'  (string)
  linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:02:02.2'  (string)
  pci.device_class = 12  (0xc)  (int)
  pci.device_protocol = 16  (0x10)  (int)
  pci.device_subclass = 0  (0x0)  (int)
  pci.linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:02:02.2'  (string)
  pci.product = 'SB Audigy FireWire Port'  (string)
  pci.product_id = 16385  (0x4001)  (int)
  pci.subsys_product = 'SB Audigy FireWire Port'  (string)
  pci.subsys_product_id = 16  (0x10)  (int)
  pci.subsys_vendor = 'Creative Labs'  (string)
  pci.subsys_vendor_id = 4354  (0x1102)  (int)
  pci.vendor = 'Creative Labs'  (string)
  pci.vendor_id = 4354  (0x1102)  (int)

udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/ieee1394_guid23c003103d9b3'
  ieee1394.device = '/dev/fw0'  (string)
  ieee1394.guid = 628921473423795  (0x23c003103d9b3)  (uint64)
  ieee1394.product = 'Juju'  (string)
  ieee1394.product_id = 1  (0x1)  (int)
  ieee1394.vendor = 'Linux Firewire'  (string)
  ieee1394.vendor_id = 13634846  (0xd00d1e)  (int)
  info.capabilities = {'ieee1394'} (string list)
  info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_1102_4001'  (string)
  info.subsystem = 'ieee1394'  (string)
  info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/ieee1394_guid23c003103d9b3'  (string)
  linux.device_file = '/dev/fw0'  (string)
  linux.hotplug_type = 2  (0x2)  (int)
  linux.subsystem = 'firewire'  (string)
  linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:02:02.2/fw0'  (string)

udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_1102_7003'
  info.linux.driver = 'Emu10k1_gameport'  (string)
  info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_8086_244e'  (string)
  info.product = 'SB Audigy Game Port'  (string)
  info.subsystem = 'pci'  (string)
  info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_1102_7003'  (string)
  info.vendor = 'Creative Labs'  (string)
  linux.hotplug_type = 2  (0x2)  (int)
  linux.subsystem = 'pci'  (string)
  linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:02:02.1'  (string)
  pci.device_class = 9  (0x9)  (int)
  pci.device_protocol = 0  (0x0)  (int)
  pci.device_subclass = 128  (0x80)  (int)
  pci.linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:02:02.1'  (string)
  pci.product = 'SB Audigy Game Port'  (string)
  pci.product_id = 28675  (0x7003)  (int)
  pci.subsys_product = 'SB Audigy Game Port'  (string)
  pci.subsys_product_id = 64  (0x40)  (int)
  pci.subsys_vendor = 'Creative Labs'  (string)
  pci.subsys_vendor_id = 4354  (0x1102)  (int)
  pci.vendor = 'Creative Labs'  (string)
  pci.vendor_id = 4354  (0x1102)  (int)

udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_1102_4'
  info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_8086_244e'  (string)
  info.product = 'SB Audigy'  (string)
  info.subsystem = 'pci'  (string)
  info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_1102_4'  (string)
  info.vendor = 'Creative Labs'  (string)
  linux.hotplug_type = 2  (0x2)  (int)
  linux.subsystem = 'pci'  (string)
  linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:02:02.0'  (string)
  pci.device_class = 4  (0x4)  (int)
  pci.device_protocol = 0  (0x0)  (int)
  pci.device_subclass = 1  (0x1)  (int)
  pci.linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:02:02.0'  (string)
  pci.product = 'SB Audigy'  (string)
  pci.product_id = 4  (0x4)  (int)
  pci.subsys_product = 'SB0090 Audigy Player/OEM'  (string)
  pci.subsys_product_id = 83  (0x53)  (int)
  pci.subsys_vendor = 'Creative Labs'  (string)
  pci.subsys_vendor_id = 4354  (0x1102)  (int)
  pci.vendor = 'Creative Labs'  (string)
  pci.vendor_id = 4354  (0x1102)  (int)

- so, it really does exist!

However, aplay -l doesn't seem so happy:

Code: Select all

aplay: device_list:252: no soundcards found...

And it's not possible to resolve things with the desktop GUI: System > Preferences > Sound

No volume control GStreamer plugins and/or devices found

The alsa-info.sh script gives some clues as to what's happening but not a lot on how to resolve the problem. Perhaps someone else can give some advice on this?

Code: Select all

upload=true&script=true&cardinfo=
!!################################
!!ALSA Information Script v 0.4.60
!!################################

!!Script ran on: Fri Jun  1 10:34:45 UTC 2012


!!Linux Distribution
!!------------------

Debian GNU/Linux 6.0 \n \l


!!DMI Information
!!---------------

Manufacturer:       
Product Name:       
Product Version:    


!!Kernel Information
!!------------------

Kernel release:    2.6.32-5-686
Operating System:  GNU/Linux
Architecture:      i686
Processor:         unknown
SMP Enabled:       Yes


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

Driver version:     1.0.25
Library version:    1.0.25
Utilities version:  1.0.25


!!Loaded ALSA modules
!!-------------------



!!Sound Servers on this system
!!----------------------------

No sound servers found.


!!Soundcards recognised by ALSA
!!-----------------------------

--- no soundcards ---


!!PCI Soundcards installed in the system
!!--------------------------------------

02:02.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy (rev 03)


!!Advanced information - PCI Vendor/Device/Subsystem ID's
!!--------------------------------------------------------

02:02.0 0401: 1102:0004 (rev 03)
	Subsystem: 1102:0053


!!Modprobe options (Sound related)
!!--------------------------------

snd-atiixp-modem: index=-2
snd-intel8x0m: index=-2
snd-via82xx-modem: index=-2
snd-pcsp: index=-2
snd-usb-audio: index=-2


!!Loaded sound module options
!!--------------------------

Is there any other information can I provide to get help resolving this?

[vbrummond]

If you can confirm this card works under linux; You might just need a newer kernel such as from debian backports. Not sure otherwise.

[demolition]

If you can confirm this card works under linux; You might just need a newer kernel such as from debian backports. Not sure otherwise.

Yeah I know, it did work at first - when I installed Debian. When 6.0.3 -> 6.0.4, it made the m/b card the default so I tinkered about and now everything is broken!

- The problem is not can this card work but why isn't it and how can it be made to get working?

Not sure upgrading the kernel is necessary but if I decided to, I already have the bpo repo in my sources-list file. Is there a meta-package which brings in all the others? Looking in Synaptic, there are quite a few 3.2.XX-bpo packages for i686.

[vbrummond]

The kernel for 32-bit currently is linux-image-3.2.0-0.bpo.2-686-pae. I am not sure what metapackage brings it in.

[kedaha]

Have you seen viewtopic.php?f=6&t=53434#p388069 about the SB00090?
By the way, I no longer use ALSA on any of my computers since I prefer OSS4; however, I've never tried it with the SB00090 but you might like to look at this possibility too.

[demolition]

[Post removed]
Record of /suggestions on how-to compile & install alsa-1.0.25 (driver, lib, utils & plugins) from source.
[/Post removed]
Reason for removal: restoration of sound was only temporary.