HDA Intel - ALC269 on Netbook and/or laptop

[JMac]

Hi,

I recall there was a thread some time ago about getting the above soundcard to work well on netbooks/laptops. I dealt with it by monkeying around and trying to see which settings worked in alsamixer until I got it to work.  This included doing non-intuitive things like muting the front speaker (which muted the front speaker) but left the headphones working.

So, I got tired of it and went to http://www.alsa-project.org/snapshot/ and downloaded the online snapshot for alsa-driver.  I unzipped it and installed it with ./configure, make and then root make install.

Now, I get a new looking gnome alsa-mixer under the Soundcard Utilities that actually includes a headphone slider. And, a great big AND, when I plug in the headphones it automatically mutes the front speaker and routes to the headphones. I have tested it with Jack and LinuxSampler.  What a relief.  Just thought I would share.

Please note this also worked on ArchBang on another partition on my Netbook.

As always though Your Mileage May Vary.

The audio system seems snappier too (important on such an underpowered machine).

Thanks All!

JMac

[lokeyb]

thanks for sharing!...

I may be back asking for more details later though 

[trulan]

Wow, that's great!  As always, handle this kind of stuff with care, alsa-driver is a part of the kernel and if something goes awry, you can end up with no sound at all.  It's a good idea to back up your current kernels alsa-driver before doing 'make install', as described here:
http://alsa.opensrc.org/Jack_and_Loopback_device_as_Alsa-to-Jack_bridge#Compiling_snd-aloop_if_needed
Also, keep in mind that if you upgrade your kernel, you'll have to re-install your custom alsa-driver.

From my end of things, I'll need to move to a newer kernel version to implement this.  I've been playing with the idea of adding a 'testing' section to the kernel repos, as a way of making newer kernels available without accidently messing up anybody's system.

[JMac]

Hi Trulan,

It works here fine and I will be applying the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"  Question though arising out of my own ignorance, does updating the alsa-driver like I did mean that you cannot go back to the old alsa-driver should the new one fail?  My sense is that the alsa developers are building upon prior work and incorporating the configurations like in my netbook. So, it seems additive rather than changing existing alsa-driver structure (if that make any sense).

I am currently running a custom rt-kernel anyway built for the netbook (trying to squeeze every mini-ounce of performance out of it). 

On my studio system, I have not changed a thing ALSA related because it works flawlessly.

JMac

[trulan]

My comments were directed as much toward others who might be reading this as they were toward you, you've done it successfully so you don't really need the warning.  But like so many things in the world of Linux, downgrading is more complicated than upgrading.

To sort of answer your question: Yes, the alsa devs are building upon their prior work.  This means they are adding to and changing their source code.  When you do 'make', you are compiling their code (into binary files that only a computer can understand) based on the settings specified when you 'configure'd it. And when you do 'make install', you are overwriting your current alsa-driver binary files with the new ones you just compiled. So to go back to a previous version, you'd need to either download, make, and install that older version of the source code, or re-install your kernel (and I don't think you can re-install your currently running kernel, so you'd need to have a different kernel version installed and boot into that to re-install it).  Unless of course you had made a backup, in which case you could just copy the backup back into place and everything would be back to normal.

[joe k]

5-4-2012
avlinux 5.0.3
I have this chip on my acer 5420 line in and mic will not work. can anyone help?
sound output works fine .

also get an error when compiling alsa-utils-1.0.25

checking for new_panel in -lpanelw... no
configure: error: panelw library not found 

but it is in the /usr/lib
what to do??






 

[miuble]

5-4-2012
avlinux 5.0.3
I have this chip on my acer 5420 line in and mic will not work. can anyone help?
sound output works fine .

also get an error when compiling alsa-utils-1.0.25

checking for new_panel in -lpanelw... no
configure: error: panelw library not found 

but it is in the /usr/lib
what to do??

I have the same problem with my Acer laptop. Now that I've found the mic source in the sound settings, the mic still doesn't work or can't capture the sound loud enough. Have you found a way to solve this ? Can you please tell me if you have ?

Do you just monkey around with Alsamixer ? What is the digital mic and all those settings ? I think it might have something to do with Alsamixer and all those configurations with sound.

However, I know for sure that it is not a problem with the physical mic because I also have Windows on this computer and it works fine there. 

Thanks !
Anna

[JMac]

Hi,

So long as you recognize the valid concerns posted by Trulan you can try the ALSA snapshot approach I described in the initial post.  For my system, that was the only thing that worked. Please though, your system is different and it may not work for you.

Are you trying to use the internal microphone or an external one?

If external, and assuming you have the updated gnome-alsamixer installed, the "capture" slide on my Netbook controls its level and you have to make sure the "rec" button is checked.  It is imperfect but just trying different non-intuitive things may be needed for your particular setup.

Good luck,

JMac