HD-Audio: ALSA settings not persistent across reboots.

 
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Operating Systems Linux Slackware HD-Audio: ALSA settings not persistent across reboots.
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Old 01-05-2013
HD-Audio: ALSA settings not persistent across reboots.

Hi:
The OS is Slackware 14.0. When, after 14.0 install I first ran alsamixer, I got an error message and it quit. After some googling, I created /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf with these lines:
Code:
      alias snd-card-0 snd_hda_intel
      alias sound-slot-0 snd_hda_intel
      options snd_hda_intel model=auto

Then 'alsactl init' and 'alsactl store'.


All went well. I rebooted and still everything fine. I then turned off the computer and, this morning, after turning it on back, I found the OS had only found the PC builtin speaker but not the sound card, which is Realtek ALC887-VD (High definition audio). I ran alsa_utils_alsa-info.sh, provided by the ALSA project, and whose output I attach (alsa-info.txt.XXXXxjVB26_old.txt).

I renamed alsa.conf to a non existent name, rebooted, and all went back to normal. I renamed back to alsa.conf, rebooted again and still normal. See by the way /lib/modprobe.d/sound-modems.conf:
Code:
# ALSA modules to support sound modems.  These should be loaded manually
# if needed.  For most people they just break sound support...
blacklist snd-atiixp-modem
blacklist snd-intel8x0m
blacklist snd-via82xx-modem

In fact the detection of the sound card is random across reboots: sometimes detected, sometimes not. Perhaps removing the second line above has anything to do. Now, from HD-Audio.txt:

Quote:
DMA-Position Problem
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The most common problem of the controller is the inaccurate DMA
pointer reporting. The DMA pointer for playback and capture can be
read in two ways, either via a LPIB register or via a position-buffer
map. As default the driver tries to read from the io-mapped
position-buffer, and falls back to LPIB if the position-buffer appears
dead. However, this detection isn't perfect on some devices. In such
a case, you can change the default method via `position_fix` option.

`position_fix=1` means to use LPIB method explicitly.
`position_fix=2` means to use the position-buffer.
`position_fix=3` means to use a combination of both methods, needed
for some VIA and ATI controllers. 0 is the default value for all other
controllers, the automatic check and fallback to LPIB as described in
the above. If you get a problem of repeated sounds, this option might
help.
Perhaps the addition of 'position_fix=3' in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf, line options, solves the problem. I could try it myself, but I repeat, the behavior is almost random. In fact, in another post I saw some people used this option, but I disregarded it, because a remark there made reference to mic noise. Now, this is the output of alsa_utils_alsa-info.sh when everything goes well (see second attachment). That would be all, I think.

Slackware 14.0

EDIT: in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf, I'm not sure if it is 'options snd_hda_intel' or 'snd-hda-intel'. Both forms get the same error message at boot time.

EDIT:
Code:
semoi@darkstar:/lib/modprobe.d$ cat sound-modems.conf 
##############################################################################
# Do not edit this file; instead, copy it to /etc/modprobe.d/ and edit that
##############################################################################

# ALSA modules to support sound modems.  These should be loaded manually
# if needed.  For most people they just break sound support...
blacklist snd-atiixp-modem
blacklist snd-intel8x0m
blacklist snd-via82xx-modem

semoi@darkstar:/lib/modprobe.d$

So, I just renamed /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf as /etc/modprobe.d/sound-modems.conf and appended the blacklist lines. Then booted and it worked. I must wait to see if it's still working after several boots [it is NOT]
As a side note, I think this post is not trivial if you believe, and I quote from another forum, this:
Quote:
It is probably issue with the Realtek ALC 887 codec, since there is miriad of problems in linux with that codec in combination with Intel and Nvidia HDA cards.

Last edited by stf92; 01-06-2013 at 08:35 AM..
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