Hi, my soundcard is onboard ASUS P4 PE: Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 2). IRQ 21. There are faulty patches in 2.6.12-mm2. The effect is that the sound device becomes unusable: The PCM-button of my sound mixer (kmix) does not work as an effectless volume control any longer, but acts like a moog synthesizer old Keith Emerson would have been proud of: producing weird distorted tones when used. I tried to substitute a couple of modules by the ones of official Kernel 2.6.12: - intel8x0 - ac97_codec.c That did not work because the compiler then complained about unknown vendors and devices in module intel8x0.c. I have no idea which modules could be faulty, as the sound architecture is quite complex as far as dependencies are concerned. So please revise that patches.
Is this problem still present in kernel 2.6.13-rc3-mm1?
Answer by Uwe Bugla: 1.I'm working with KDE 3.3.1 and kmix 2.2 beta1 2.The problem persists in all Kernel versions of sublevel 2.6.13 (i. e. rc1, rc2, rc3 and rc3-mm1) 3.I'm working with Debian Sarge testing 3.1, snapshot from November 2004: Perhaps I should make an upgrade, and then test new kernel. 4.Fact is that I tested Knoppix 3.9 with KDE 3.4 and a newer version of kmix: Knoppix 3.9 is completely unstable as far as KDE is concerned, but the PCM problem with kmix in relation to my personal sound card doesn't exist anymore.
Are you using ALSA or OSS driver. Add output from: cat /proc/asound/cards cat /proc/asound/version
Can we have an update on this please? There have been ALSA patches in 2.6.13-rc4 - testing those would be appreciated.
Subject: Bug 4831 - Soundcard problems with Intel ICH4 onboard sound chip Before anything runs into chaos concerning this bug report, I decided to compare two kernel versions to show a kind of "before-afterwards-effect" for developpers: 2.6.13-rc3 and 2.6.13-rc4. A. Kernel version: 2.6.13-rc4 Two printouts in advance: 1.cat /proc/asound/cards says: 0 [I82801DBICH4 ]: ICH4 - Intel 82801DB-ICH4 Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with AD1980 at 0xe8800000, irq 21 2. cat /proc/asound/version says: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.9b (Thu Jul 28 12:20:13 2005 UTC). 1.PCM button works now. It doesn't produce weird sythesizer-like tones any more. 2.The output part of Kmix2.2beta1 contains three buttons: PCM, Input amplification and Digital 1: PCM works fine for video playback, Input amplification seems to be completely effectless, Digital 1 I cannot test because I'm missing digital equipment. A volume control for audio CD playback is missing. Digital 1 refuses to work correctly (it kind of trembles when moved). 3.The input part of Kmix2.2beta1 contains 8 buttons: master volume, input, microphone, CD, input 1, phone input, phone output, video. Master volume works fine, input is effectless, microphone not tested, CD is effectless, though it should control audio CD playback, input 1 controls audio CD playback, phone input and output is not tested, and video refuses to work (it kind of trembles when moved). Advantages to former versions: a. The mixer device carries a correct name now: Analog Devices AD1980 b. All button names are german now. c. No more distorted tones by any control buttons In comparison to this: B. Kernel version: 2.6.13-rc3 Two printouts in advance: 2.cat /proc/asound/cards says: 0 [I82801DBICH4 ]: ICH4 - Intel 82801DB-ICH4 Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with AD1980 at 0xe8800000, irq 21 2. cat /proc/asound/version says: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.9 (Sun May 29 07:31:02 2005 UTC). 1.The output part of Kmix2.2beta1 contains eight buttons: Master, master mono, master surround, PCM, surround, center, LFE, IEC 958 Playback. Master works fine for video and CD audio playback, master mono is effectless, master surround produces weird synthesizer-like tones (i. e. unusable!), PCM is only usable for video playback, not for audio CD playback, surround, center are not tested as I don't own digital equipment, LFE effectless, IEC958 Playback effectless. 2.The input part of Kmix2.2beta1 contains 6 buttons: line, CD, microphone, phone, Aux, video. For video playback all 6 buttons are completely effectless. For audio CD playback only the Aux button works fine, while the other 5 buttons are completely effectless. OK, so far about the bug report update. Big question: Under Windoze XP the driver package supplied by ASUS contains wonderful MIDI support. Why isn't that also possible under Linux? It's a real pity that many PC owners are thrown back to oldfashioned ISA cards if they appreciate MIDI support. Would developpers please be so kind and add MIDI support not only to this sound device?
OK, so we've had some progress with this bug. Is 2.6.14-rc1 still actually more buggy than 2.6.12 or are we at the same level of bugginess?
Please reopen this bug if you are able to answer the questions from comment 6.