Linux Lite Forums

I needed a pc for a project and decided to resurrect an old laptop that has run flawlessly on ubuntu for over a decade. I had tied Linux Lite last year when helping a friend get an old laptop going again by rebuilding it upon Linux Lite. Worked like a charm. So I decided to put it on my old Laptop too.  But this time around, my laptop seems to be too much of a challenge for Linux Lite. I'm guessing the age of the laptop is the real issue. I'm hoping for a lot when I try to get such an old (2005) laptop to run on an up-to-date OS. But I've been a linux user for about 10 years now (not an expert - just a user) and I like to think I can get linux to do anything! I've spent time in the past on dozens of pc's troubleshooting audio and video issues - seems to be something that you have to accept when using linux - but I usually resolve the problem within hours. Not this time.

I have spent about 3 days looking at everything there is about getting sound to work including this forum and many others. I have come to the conclusion that it's simply incompatible (but faintly hoping I am wrong). The reason I believe this is I rebooted with an old 12.04 Live CD (where the sound works perfectly) and noted the results of the following command line queries (among others but I found these to be the most revealing):

aplay -l
amixer -c0 scontents
amixer -c0 scontrols

and I only found one thing different: "amixer -c0 scontrols" yields a shorter list of controls in Linux Lite than in 12.04. Mostly 'Master Switch' controls are missing.

My sound card: "aplay -l yields"

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC880 Analog [ALC880 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC880 Digital [ALC880 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Under Ubuntu 12.04 Live CD "amixer -c0 scontrols" yields

numid=26,iface=MIXER,name='Master Playback Switch'
numid=25,iface=MIXER,name='Master Playback Volume'
numid=4,iface=MIXER,name='Headphone Playback Switch'
numid=3,iface=MIXER,name='Headphone Playback Volume'
numid=27,iface=MIXER,name='PCM Playback Volume'
numid=2,iface=MIXER,name='Front Playback Switch'
numid=1,iface=MIXER,name='Front Playback Volume'
numid=6,iface=MIXER,name='CD Playback Switch'
numid=5,iface=MIXER,name='CD Playback Volume'
numid=8,iface=MIXER,name='Mic Playback Switch'
numid=7,iface=MIXER,name='Mic Playback Volume'
numid=9,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Switch'
numid=10,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Switch',index=1
numid=11,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Switch',index=2
numid=12,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Volume'
numid=13,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Volume',index=1
numid=14,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Volume',index=2
numid=22,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Default PCM Playback Switch'
numid=18,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Con Mask'
numid=19,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Pro Mask'
numid=20,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Default'
numid=21,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Switch'
numid=24,iface=MIXER,name='Beep Playback Switch'
numid=23,iface=MIXER,name='Beep Playback Volume'
numid=15,iface=MIXER,name='Input Source'
numid=16,iface=MIXER,name='Input Source',index=1
numid=17,iface=MIXER,name='Input Source',index=2
numid=26,iface=MIXER,name='Master Playback Switch'

But under Linux Lite "amixer -c0 scontrols" yields

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
Simple mixer control 'Surround',0
Simple mixer control 'Center',0
Simple mixer control 'LFE',0
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0
Simple mixer control 'Beep',0
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
Simple mixer control 'Capture',1
Simple mixer control 'Capture',2
Simple mixer control 'Channel Mode',0
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',1
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',2
Simple mixer control 'Loopback Mixing',0

Everything else I have looked at seems identically installed between the 12.04 Live CD and the Linux Lite I have installed.

"lsb_release -a" shows:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:  Ubuntu
Description:  Linux Lite 3.8
Release:  16.04
Codename:  xenial

I should point out that when playing a sound from any source if I look at "pavucontrol" everything looks fine: i get choices of speakers or headphones as usual, it's using analog stereo output as usual and the volume meter is showing the sound playing (blue bar bouncing around as it should. The conclusion I draw from that is the final connection to the speakers or headphones is not being made correctly. It's not a muting issue (or at least I've unmuted everything there is to unmute). I think it's the driver is simply not compatible.

So anyway, I thought I'd post this to the forum (sorry if I have not adhered to your conventions but forum posting is new to me) and see if someone could suggest a way forward. I'd put another version on the laptop if I could identify a version that would work. Or is there something I'm missing - not inconceivable. It seems to me I've tried just about everything anyone has ever suggested to troubleshoot this issue in the past three days.

Thanks.

Hello nebulous,

have you tried reply #6, #7, and #8 by "lidex" - https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1315170

Thanks for your help. Got my hopes up. But gnome-alsamixer wasn't the solution. I enabled IEC958 etc and nothing happened.

I also had another look at alsa-base.conf as one of the suggestions was to look at it. This is what mine looks like:

# autoloader aliases
install sound-slot-0 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-0
install sound-slot-1 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-1
install sound-slot-2 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-2
install sound-slot-3 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-3
install sound-slot-4 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-4
install sound-slot-5 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-5
install sound-slot-6 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-6
install sound-slot-7 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-7

# Cause optional modules to be loaded above generic modules
install snd /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-ioctl32 ; /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq ; }
#
# Workaround at bug #499695 (reverted in Ubuntu see LP #319505)
install snd-pcm /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-pcm $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-pcm-oss ; : ; }
install snd-mixer /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-mixer $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-mixer-oss ; : ; }
install snd-seq /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-seq $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq-midi ; /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq-oss ; : ; }
#
install snd-rawmidi /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-rawmidi $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq-midi ; : ; }
# Cause optional modules to be loaded above sound card driver modules
install snd-emu10k1 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-emu10k1 $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-emu10k1-synth ; }
install snd-via82xx /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-via82xx $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq ; }

# Load saa7134-alsa instead of saa7134 (which gets dragged in by it anyway)
install saa7134 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install saa7134 $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist saa7134-alsa ; : ; }
# Prevent abnormal drivers from grabbing index 0
options bt87x index=-2
options cx88_alsa index=-2
options saa7134-alsa index=-2
options snd-atiixp-modem index=-2
options snd-intel8x0m index=-2
options snd-via82xx-modem index=-2
options snd-usb-audio index=-2
options snd-usb-caiaq index=-2
options snd-usb-ua101 index=-2
options snd-usb-us122l index=-2
options snd-usb-usx2y index=-2
# Ubuntu #62691, enable MPU for snd-cmipci
options snd-cmipci mpu_port=0x330 fm_port=0x388
# Keep snd-pcsp from being loaded as first soundcard
options snd-pcsp index=-2
# Keep snd-usb-audio from beeing loaded as first soundcard
options snd-usb-audio index=-2

Not sure what it all means. "options snd-intel8x0m index=2" for instance. when I use aplay or amixer the card is -c0. It's all confusing to me.

But thanks for helping.

Hello nebulous,

what are the results after following these instructions -
https://www.howtoinstall.co/en/ubuntu/xe...ion=remove

Still no change after removing alsa-base. Pavucontrol still shows sound playing but nothing from the speakers. I tried selecting all the input devices - made no difference. Currently have it on 'analog stereo duplex', port 'speakers'. Thanks for helping.

FYI I am traveling over the next few days and won't be online but I will bring this old laptop along and will be back online in at my destination in case you keep helping!

From the distant past, I seem to remember a preference expressed in this forum for using pulse audio; supposedly fewer problems setting up?  Might be worth a try?  Worked for me when setting up the old Toshiba when I first used LL 32 bit. What  make is the sound card?

Sorry for the delay. I've been traveling. Back online now.

sudo aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC880 Analog [ALC880 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC880 Digital [ALC880 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0