[issue623] New grml kernel and ALSA

[Tong Sun]

New submission from Tong Sun <suntong001 at gmail.com>:

hi, 

My recent upgrade caused my sound card not working any more. Checking back
at my packages version log, the only related upgrade is that
alsa-base_1.0.17.dfsg-2 is upgraded to alsa-base_1.0.17.dfsg-4. 
The rest are still the same:

  alsa-oss_1.0.15-1
  alsa-utils_1.0.16-2

Detailed info regarding the issue is posted at
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.user/346652

Having an extensive discussion over the issue, I now suspect that it might be
caused by my grml kernel, because also get upgraded is my kernel, from
linux-image-2.6.26-grml_grml.05 to
linux-image-2.6.26-grml_grml.08.

Quoting from Florian Kulzer @debian.user:

>   # modprobe -r snd_via82xx gameport snd_ac97_codec ac97_bus snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc snd_mpu401_uart snd_seq_midi snd_seq_midi_event snd_rawmidi
snd_seq snd_timer snd_seq_device snd soundcore
> 
>   # lsmod | grep snd
> 
>   # modprobe -v snd_via82xx
>   install /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-via82xx  && {
/lib/alsa/modprobe-post-install snd-via82xx ; /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-seq ; }
>   insmod /lib/modules/2.6.26-grml/kernel/sound/pci/snd-via82xx.ko index=0

Maybe the grml kernel is for some reason not compatible with Debian's
ALSA setup. (Grml is based on Debian, but I don't know which changes its
maintainers introduce to their kernels. They are focused on system
rescue so maybe they don't bother too much about ALSA.) Do you have the
same problem with a stock Debian kernel?

>   # modprobe -v snd_pcm
> 
>   # modprobe -v snd_seq

That means the modules were already loaded together with snd_via82xx. I
do see such additional modules listed when I "modprobe -v" my main sound
module; maybe the "--quiet" in the command above suppresses this output
for you.

>   $ cat /dev/sndstat
>   Sound Driver:3.8.1a-980706 (ALSA v1.0.16 emulation code)
>   Kernel: Linux helios.selfip.org 2.6.26-grml #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Nov 26
21:41:43 UTC 2008 i686
>   Config options: 0
> 
>   Installed drivers: 
>   Type 10: ALSA emulation
> 
>   Card config: 
>   VIA 8237 with AD1980 at 0xc800, irq 22
> 
>   Audio devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

... and it is still broken. You already tried to purge and reinstall the
ALSA packages, so I am afraid the next step is to recompile your kernel
with CONFIG_SND_DEBUG enabled and hope that something useful shows up in
the syslog.

----------
messages: 1897
nosy: suntong
priority: bug
status: unread
title: New grml kernel and ALSA

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GRML issue tracker <bts at bts.grml.org>
<http://bts.grml.org/grml/issue623>
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