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At wit's end with amixer of ALSA 0.9.4 on CMI8738 (Soyo KT..

  
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Lucius Chiaravigli1

External


Since: Jul 05, 2003
Posts: 5



(Msg. 1) Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2003 2:49 pm
Post subject: At wit's end with amixer of ALSA 0.9.4 on CMI8738 (Soyo KT-333 DragonPlus)
Archived from groups: comp>os>linux>misc, others (more info?)
I am trying to get my onboard sound hardware (CMI8738) to work under
Linux From Scratch 4.1/Beyond Linux From Scratch 1.0 with ALSA 0.9.4 installed
under kernel 2.4.21. I have actually succeeded in getting it to play sounds,
but cannot figure out how to use amixer to get it to record(*), or to change
many of the options on the sound card. The problem is that the amixer man
page and the help printed by "amixer help" are just barely useful, and the
How-To on <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.alsa-project.org/" target="_blank">http://www.alsa-project.org/</a> is very out of date (apparently refers
to ALSA 0.4, and has amixer commands that do not even exist in version 0.9.4).

(*) The microphone does function on a Windows NT machine.

  What I need is pointers on how to use basic functions on the sound
hardware (record from microphone and CD, set input/output options to something
other than mono, set full duplex), or better yet pointers to some USEFUL
documentation(*) about how to use amixer. I did manage to twiddle the
playback on/off flag (unmute and mute) capture on/off flag (record and
norecord) on various controls, including all the ones that have capture
capability listed (including 'Mic'), but although I managed to get sound to
come out the Line In port, I could never record any sound with arecord (and
couldn't even get stream of characters from /dev/audio to change with varying
sound input).

(*) The amixer documentation in particular and the ALSA documentation in
general seem to be really lacking useful information beyond the level of
which sound hardware is supported but short of the developer level.

  I am cross-posting this message into the Soyo motherboards group in
case people in this group know of quirks specific to this sound hardware.

System configuration, hardware
------------------------------

Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67 GHz) (no overclocking)
Soyo SY-KT333 Dragon Plus mainboard (VIA KT333 chip set)
  Network chip is integrated VT6102 Rhine II, according to /proc/pci
  Sound chip is integrated CMI8738, according to /proc/pci
LNE100TX 4.1 PCI ethernet card (in case of problems with onboard chip)
256 Mibytes of RAM
80 Gbyte hard drive (ATA-133)
Samsung SM-348BEA CD-RW/DVD combo drive
NEC standard floppy drive
Sapphire Atlantis (OEM ATI Radeon) 9100 video card (AGP 4X)

System configuration, software
------------------------------

Kernel 2.4.21 from kernel.org (compiled with -O2 -march=athlon)
Modutils 2.4.22 (compiled with -O3 -mcpu=athlon)
glibc 2.3.1 (compiled with -O2 -g)
GCC 3.2.1 (compiled with -O2 -g)
(Other Linux From Scratch system software compiled with -O3 -mcpu=athlon)
GCC 2.95.3 (compiled with -O2 -g, available as alternative GCC version)
alsa-driver 0.9.4 (compiled with -O2 -g)
alsa-lib 0.9.4 (compiled with -O2 -g)
alsa-utils 0.9.4 (compiled with -O2 -g)
alsa-tools 0.9.4 (compiled with -O2 -g)
alsa-oss 0.9.4 (compiled with -O2 -g)
(Various other Linux From Scratch packages compiled mostly with -O3
-mcpu=athlon)
(All packages compiled with GCC 3.2.1 unless otherwise stated)

amixer output (how do I use the various capabilities in here?)
--------------------------------------------------------------

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
Capabilities: pvolume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 28 [90%]
Front Right: Playback 28 [90%]
Simple mixer control '3D Control - Switch',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 28 [90%] [on] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 28 [90%] [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Synth',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 24 [77%] [on] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 24 [77%] [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 28 [90%] [on] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 28 [90%] [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line-In As Bass',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line-In As Rear',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'CD',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined cvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch
cswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Capture channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 31 Capture 0 - 7
Mono: Playback 16 [52%] [off] Capture 7 [100%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic As Center/LFE',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 5V',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Copyright',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Monitor',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Phase Inverse',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Select',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Valid',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Loop',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Output',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'PC Speaker',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 3
Mono: Playback 2 [67%]
Simple mixer control 'Aux',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 15
Front Left: Playback 12 [80%] [on] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 12 [80%] [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Exchange DAC',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Four Channel Mode',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]

--
Lucius Chiaraviglio
Approximate E-mail address: luciusone DeleteThis @chapter.net
To get the exact address: ^^^ ^replace this with 'r'
|||
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 >> Stay informed about: At wit's end with amixer of ALSA 0.9.4 on CMI8738 (Soyo KT.. 
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Lucius Chiaravigli1

External


Since: Jul 05, 2003
Posts: 5



(Msg. 2) Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2003 7:05 am
Post subject: Re: At wit's end with amixer of ALSA 0.9.4 on CMI8738 (Soyo KT-333 DragonPlus) [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
I wrote:
  > I am trying to get my onboard sound hardware (CMI8738) to work under
 >Linux From Scratch 4.1/Beyond Linux From Scratch 1.0 with ALSA 0.9.4 installed
 >under kernel 2.4.21. I have actually succeeded in getting it to play sounds,
 >but cannot figure out how to use amixer to get it to record(*), or to change
 >many of the options on the sound card. The problem is that the amixer man
 >page and the help printed by "amixer help" are just barely useful, and the
 >How-To on <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.alsa-project.org/" target="_blank">http://www.alsa-project.org/</a> is very out of date (apparently refers
 >to ALSA 0.4, and has amixer commands that do not even exist in version 0.9.4).
 >
 >(*) The microphone does function on a Windows NT machine.
 >[. . .]

  I eventually traced the problem to a bad electrical connection (bang
head . . . bang head), so I am up and running for now, although I still don't
know how to get amixer to make full use of the capabilities of this sound
hardware. It still sure would be nice to have some better documentation for
both amixer and this particular sound hardware.

--
Lucius Chiaraviglio
Approximate E-mail address: luciusone.TakeThisOut@chapter.net
To get the exact address: ^^^ ^replace this with 'r'
|||
replace this with single digit meaning the same thing
(Spambots of Doom, take that!).<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->

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Vampire at Wicked

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Since: Jul 21, 2003
Posts: 1



(Msg. 3) Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2003 12:45 pm
Post subject: Re: At wit's end with amixer of ALSA 0.9.4 on CMI8738 (Soyo KT-333 [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
Lucius Chiaraviglio wrote:
 > I wrote:
 >
   >> I am trying to get my onboard sound hardware (CMI8738) to work under
  >>Linux From Scratch 4.1/Beyond Linux From Scratch 1.0 with ALSA 0.9.4 installed
  >>under kernel 2.4.21. I have actually succeeded in getting it to play sounds,
  >>but cannot figure out how to use amixer to get it to record(*), or to change
  >>many of the options on the sound card. The problem is that the amixer man
  >>page and the help printed by "amixer help" are just barely useful, and the
  >>How-To on <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.alsa-project.org/" target="_blank">http://www.alsa-project.org/</a> is very out of date (apparently refers
  >>to ALSA 0.4, and has amixer commands that do not even exist in version 0.9.4).
  >>
  >>(*) The microphone does function on a Windows NT machine.
  >>[. . .]
 >
 >
  > I eventually traced the problem to a bad electrical connection (bang
 > head . . . bang head), so I am up and running for now, although I still don't
 > know how to get amixer to make full use of the capabilities of this sound
 > hardware. It still sure would be nice to have some better documentation for
 > both amixer and this particular sound hardware.
 >

gnome-alsa-mixer<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: At wit's end with amixer of ALSA 0.9.4 on CMI8738 (Soyo KT.. 
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Lucius Chiaravigli1

External


Since: Jul 05, 2003
Posts: 5



(Msg. 4) Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2003 9:56 am
Post subject: Re: At wit's end with amixer of ALSA 0.9.4 on CMI8738 (Soyo KT-333 DragonPlus) [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
Vampire at Wicked Empire <vampire RemoveThis @msn.com> wrote:
 >I wrote:
  >> [. . .] It still sure would be nice to have some better documentation for
  >> both amixer and this particular sound hardware.
 >
 >gnome-alsa-mixer

  Thanks for the tip! (By the way, for others who may be seeking the
same thing, it is at <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.paw.za.org/projects/gnome-alsamixer/" target="_blank">http://www.paw.za.org/projects/gnome-alsamixer/</a> -- just
searching for gnome-alsa-mixer with various Linux software search engines
didn't turn it up). I haven't had a chance to try it yet(*) but I have put
this in my list of things to get.

(*) First I have to figure out what it requires -- will it need the whole
Gnome environment, or just a couple of Gnome libraries? -- and then install
this stuff. But before any more Gnome pieces (Gnome sure has an awful lot of
them), I have to install some other stuff.

--
Lucius Chiaraviglio
Approximate E-mail address: luciusone RemoveThis @chapter.net
To get the exact address: ^^^ ^replace this with 'r'
|||
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Alan Hamilton

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Since: Jul 30, 2003
Posts: 1



(Msg. 5) Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2003 4:19 am
Post subject: Re: At wit's end with amixer of ALSA 0.9.4 on CMI8738 (Soyo KT-333 DragonPlus) [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
luciusone.DeleteThis@chapter.net (Lucius Chiaraviglio) wrote in message news:<3f06b640.50608861.DeleteThis@news.charter.net>...

  > What I need is pointers on how to use basic functions on the sound
 > hardware (record from microphone and CD, set input/output options to something
 > other than mono, set full duplex), or better yet pointers to some USEFUL
 > documentation(*) about how to use amixer. I did manage to twiddle the
 > playback on/off flag (unmute and mute) capture on/off flag (record and
 > norecord) on various controls, including all the ones that have capture
 > capability listed (including 'Mic'), but although I managed to get sound to
 > come out the Line In port, I could never record any sound with arecord (and
 > couldn't even get stream of characters from /dev/audio to change with varying
 > sound input).

How did you get sound from line-in? I'm fighting with that right now.
It works in WinXP, but I can't get anything from it in Linux. I can
play back WAV files okay, so I know the output sound is working.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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Lucius Chiaravigli1

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Since: Jul 05, 2003
Posts: 5



(Msg. 6) Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 11:34 am
Post subject: Re: At wit's end with amixer of ALSA 0.9.4 on CMI8738 (Soyo KT-333 DragonPlus) [Login to view extended thread Info.]
Archived from groups: per prev. post (more info?)
alanh RemoveThis @arizonaroads.com (Alan Hamilton) wrote:
 >How did you get sound from line-in? I'm fighting with that right now.
 > It works in WinXP, but I can't get anything from it in Linux. I can
 >play back WAV files okay, so I know the output sound is working.

  Right now my system is dealing with the result of my having guessed
too small on partition sizes, so I can't test this to tell you for sure, but
basically you tell amixer to turn up the playback volume and unmute the
Line-In port (front or rear) that you want to play through (if you still need
the specific commands, e-mail me or post again and I'll try to figure it out
again -- I just barely figured it out and haven't messed with it much due to
the time consumed by installing Linux From Scratch 4.1/Beyond Linux From
Scratch 1.0). This seems the opposite of what I would expect a Line-In port
to do (I thought Line-In meant an input port), but it works.

--
Lucius Chiaraviglio
Approximate E-mail address: luciusone RemoveThis @chapter.net
To get the exact address: ^^^ ^replace this with 'r'
|||
replace this with single digit meaning the same thing
(Spambots of Doom, take that!).<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: At wit's end with amixer of ALSA 0.9.4 on CMI8738 (Soyo KT.. 
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