Sound on Dell Latitude L400Forum: Laptops Topic: Sound on Dell Latitude L400 started by: dsl_fan Posted by dsl_fan on Jan. 12 2005,23:29
Folks,I am new to Linux, and I found DSL while surfing the net. I downloaded it (ver 0.9.2) and installed it to my Dell Latitude laptop (256 RAM, 20 GB hard disk, PIII 700 MHz). Everything works fine except the sound. The sound card is an on board Crystal cs4281. I searched the forum for a way to get the sound working, but could not find any reference to cs4281. Any ideas? Many Thanks in advance! Posted by ke4nt1 on Jan. 13 2005,02:59
Search the forums for the keywords "crystal" or "cs4232" ..Lots of threads describing this brand of chipset.. Most all of them share the same module.. 73 ke4nt Posted by dsl_fan on Jan. 13 2005,05:29
Sorry to disappoint you! But none of the forums were of any help. In fact, I tried KNOPPIX3.7 earlier, and there was no sound too. When I boot up the machine (with DSL or KNOPPIX), I see that cs4281 is detected, but if I launch XMMS, I don't hear any thing even though XMMS shows some activities. Any idea where to go from here? Thanks again! Posted by ke4nt1 on Jan. 13 2005,05:56
There is a wealth of data on getting crystal sound chipsets working in DSL.Many of these posts I have contributed to.. I have 2 laptops with crystal sound chips in them, no issues. There are step -by- step instructions in many of these threads.. Here is the results for searching thru the forums for the word " crystal " < http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....720c469 > Here are more results searching for the word " cs42 " < http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....307f03f > Let us know how it goes.. 73 ke4nt Posted by dsl_fan on Jan. 13 2005,18:30
Thanks, ke4nt1, for your quick response. I am still unable to get the sound working on CS4281. I tried ALL the options you included in the links, and got no where. I tried Mandrake 10 and Fedora Core2, and still no sound even though the sound card is being detected, and it is showing during boot up. I guess this is going to be one of those unresolved cases!
Posted by clivesay on Jan. 13 2005,19:32
From googling it looks like this one may be tricky. I did see something about adding some alsa modules. Maybe check with alsa and see what yuo can do.Chris Posted by dsl_fan on Jan. 13 2005,19:55
Thanks Chris. I tried ALSA, and it didn't work either. Not sure where the problem is.
Posted by ke4nt1 on Jan. 13 2005,21:54
I've got ONE of my laptops where this was also happening strangely enough..This computer I'm mentioning is a compaq presario , p233 , etc.. The sound works , but ONLY thru the headphone jack. Apparently, there is a switch/relay controlled by software, and the usual sound modules do not have this function. I have a pair of cheep speakers conencted to the headphone port. My xmms runs without errors, I get the wmix icon at the bottom of the slit, It appears that everything works, but NO SOUND. ..unless I use that headphone jack.. Just a thought.. If you'd like more help on your sound issue, try finding us late nights in the #damnsmalllinux IRC channel. 73 ke4nt Posted by dsl_fan on Jan. 13 2005,22:09
Thanks ke4nt1. I'll give that a shot, and will let you know.
Posted by dsl_fan on Jan. 14 2005,05:02
ke4nt1,I hooked up a headphone to my machine to see if I can get some sound from the sound card, but I got nothing. As in your case, "My xmms runs without errors, I get the wmix icon at the bottom of the slit, It appears that everything works." But in my case, I get NO SOUND with or without a headphone. Looks like there is a problem with CS4281 chips on Linux. As I mentioned earlier, I tried KNOPPIX, Mandrake 10, and Fedora Core2. A few hours ago, I tested FreeBSD, Feather Linux 0.71, and SuSe 9.1. The result was the same: NO SOUND. I guess it's time for me to give up, and try using DSL instead of fixing a sound problem that cannot be fixed! Many thanks to you, and to Chris. Posted by panama on Jan. 14 2005,05:26
Hey dsl_fan,I have the same problem EVERY time I load (to HDD) DSL. This is how I "fix" it...it's not "step-by-step" but it will get you going in the right direction. Before I start I wanted to mention that I HAVE NOT looked at any of the searches that Kent posted. I have however received help AND this particular solution from this board...so the answer is out there... I normally like to install SYNAPTIC to add debian packages that are NOT included in DSL (I'm a GUI kinda guy). If you enable APT you can do the same from command line. Either way you have to get SNDCONFIG by either "apt-get install sndconfig" or via SYNAPTIC. Unfortunately DSL doesn't come with the latestest version (0.67)...maybe someday it will. After it is downloaded/installed run the sndconfig command as ROOT (sudo su) and start it up by clicking OK. It will try to auto-detect your sound card/chip and probably will tell you that there isn't one installed. Say OK and choose yours from the list. (I just checked it and the CS4281 is indeed there.) Anyway, pick it and hit OK. You will get a screen that will allow you to change a bunch of settings you wouldn't normally mess with. Change one (UP, DWN, LFT RGHT arrows...but remember the way it WAS. I have to change DMA1 from 0 to 1) and hit enter/OK. It will then say it wants to play a sound sample. Make sure your volume in the mixer is all the way UP (and you are listening closely). Hit enter/OK. It will play some lame "Hello, blah, blah, blah" It will then ask if you heard it. If you did then you are DEALING! If not hit NO, put your previously changed setting BACK and change another. Repeat this process until you get sound. There are not THAT many settings so you should be able to figure it out rather quickly. If this doesn't work then I would have to say you are screwed (or just need to do more homework!). Good luck and let us know how it went! panama Posted by ke4nt1 on Jan. 14 2005,07:29
Don't give up the ship yet !!I've been reading about alsa support on that chipset.. It also should work, no problem.. Things to check.. 1. Did you bootup with alsa in your lilo.conf, and rerun lilo ( for HDInstall ) ( or startup your liveCD with ' dsl alsa ' ?? ) 2. what was your output when you ran the alsaconfig ? 3. Did you unmute your mixer ? Let us know.. 73 ke4nt |