FC4 - No Sound on Dell Dimension 5100

[Jeff Vian]

On Sun, 2005-08-14 at 13:05 -0400, Erik Hemdal wrote:
> > Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 15:59:33 -0500
> > From: akonstam at trinity.edu
> > 
> > On Sat, Aug 13, 2005 at 05:37:54PM +0100, Dave Cross wrote:
> > > I've just installed Fedora Core 4 on my new Dell Dimension 5100 and it all
> > > works very well except that I can't get any sound.
> > > 
> > > I have the onboard Intel sound controller. lspci recognises it as this:
> > > 
> > > 00:1b.0 Class 0403: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High
> > > Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
> > >         Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 01ab
> > >         Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 169
> > >         Memory at efebc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
> > >         Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
> > >         Capabilities: [60] Message Signalled Interrupts: 64bit+
> > > Queue=0/0 Enable-
> > >         Capabilities: [70] Express Unknown type IRQ 0
> > >         Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
> > >         Capabilities: [130] Unknown (5)
> > > 
> > > The "configure sound card" app, finds the sound controller, but no sound
> > > plays.
> > > 
> > > /etc/modprobe.conf looks like this:
> > > 
> > > alias scsi_hostadapter ata_piix
> > > alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
> > > options snd-card-0 index=0
> > > options snd-hda-intel index=0
> > > remove snd-hda-intel { /usr/sbin/alsactl store 0 >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
> > > ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-hda-intel
> > > alias usb-controller ehci-hcd
> > > alias usb-controller1 uhci-hcd
> > > alias eth1 e100
> > > alias eth0 orinoco_pci
> > > 
> > > When I run alsamixer, it only shows one channel - PCM. I'd expect to see a
> > > number of channels.
> > > 
> > > If anyone has had any luck getting this to work, I'd be very interested in
> > > hearing how.
> > > 
> > > Thanks,
> > > 
> > > Dave...
> > > 
> > Again this seems like a classic case that requires running alsamixer
> > and increasing the output on relevant channels.
> > The Application-> Sound and Video -> Volume Control might also help.
> 
> Aaron:
> 
> Do you have any pointers about what to do in the "classic" case when one
> has done all of the above, including increasing the output of alsamixer,
> and yet no sound comes forth?  I have similar sound hardware on a
> similar laptop (the I1100) and none of the "usual suspects" has been my
> culprit.  The repairs I've found here, in the archives and on Google,
> don't seem to fix the problem.  So no sound, until I have more time to
> sort it out.
> 
> This morning, after upgrading a different system from FC3 to FC4, I
> discovered that while xscreensaver-base was upgraded,
> xscreensaver-gl-extras was left out.  So I had xscreensaver, but no
> screensavers to show with it.
> 
Between FC3 and FC4 the packages were split.  

In FC3 it was only xscreensaver and an upgrade installs 
xscreensaver-base only.  In fact a new install of FC4 also only installs
the base package unless you select everything.

In FC4 to get the whole thing you need 
   xscreensaver-extras
   xscreensaver-base
   xscreensaver-gl-extras

> This has nothing at all to do with sound, except it makes me wonder if
> some necessary package was left out of the default installation on my
> laptop for sound support.
> 
Some have said that there are switch settings in alsamixer to turn on
the headphones and off the sound.  I have not seen that problem but
maybe it is related to which sound system you have.  Carefully check all
the different controls in alsamixer and for those that are just toggles
(several in mine) it may be a single setting and not a slider that fixes
the issue.

> Thanks!   Erik
>