No sound on Dell C521, Mint 6 Felicia Main

[fpa]

Need help. I moved to Mint two months ago and everything is working fine but I have no sound. I used to run Mandriva 2008 on the same hardware, and sound worked fine.

My version of Mint is:
$ cat /etc/linuxmint/info
RELEASE=6
CODENAME=Felicia
EDITION=Main Edition
DESCRIPTION="Linux Mint 6 Felicia - Main Edition"
DESKTOP=Gnome
TOOLKIT=GTK

My lspci is:
$ lspci
00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 0 (rev a2)
00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 1 (rev a2)
00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 5 (rev a2)
00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 4 (rev a2)
00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
00:00.6 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 3 (rev a2)
00:00.7 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 2 (rev a2)
00:02.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:03.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:05.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C51 [GeForce 6150 LE] (rev a2)
00:09.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
00:0a.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 LPC Bridge (rev a3)
00:0a.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP51 SMBus (rev a3)
00:0a.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Memory Controller 0 (rev a3)
00:0b.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:0b.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:0e.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Serial ATA Controller (rev a1)
00:0f.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Serial ATA Controller (rev a1)
00:10.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
04:07.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
04:09.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6105/VT6106S [Rhine-III] (rev 85)

My alsa-base file says:
$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
# autoloader aliases
install sound-slot-0 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-0
install sound-slot-1 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-1
install sound-slot-2 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-2
install sound-slot-3 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-3
install sound-slot-4 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-4
install sound-slot-5 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-5
install sound-slot-6 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-6
install sound-slot-7 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-7

# Cause optional modules to be loaded above generic modules
install snd /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-ioctl32 ; : ; }
install snd /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd && { /sbin/modprobe -Qb snd-seq ; }
install snd-pcm /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-pcm && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-pcm-oss ; : ; }
install snd-mixer /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-mixer && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-mixer-oss ; : ; }
install snd-seq /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-seq && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-seq-midi ; /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-seq-oss ; : ; }
install snd-rawmidi /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-rawmidi && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-seq-midi ; : ; }
# Cause optional modules to be loaded above sound card driver modules
install snd-emu10k1 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-emu10k1 $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe -Qb snd-emu10k1-synth ; }
install snd-via82xx /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-via82xx $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe -Qb snd-seq ; }

# Load saa7134-alsa instead of saa7134 (which gets dragged in by it anyway)
install saa7134 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install saa7134 $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe -Qb saa7134-alsa ; : ; }

# Load snd-seq for devices that don't have hardware midi;
# Ubuntu #26283, #43682, #56005; works around Ubuntu #34831 for
# non-Creative Labs PCI hardware
install snd /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd && { /sbin/modprobe -Qb snd-seq ; }
# Prevent abnormal drivers from grabbing index 0
options bt87x index=-2
options cx88_alsa index=-2
options saa7134-alsa index=-2
options snd-atiixp-modem index=-2
options snd-intel8x0m index=-2
options snd-via82xx-modem index=-2
options snd-usb-audio index=-2
options snd-usb-usx2y index=-2
options snd-usb-caiaq index=-2
# Ubuntu #62691, enable MPU for snd-cmipci
options snd-cmipci mpu_port=0x330 fm_port=0x388
# Keep snd-pcsp from beeing loaded as first soundcard
options snd-pcsp index=-2

I haven't touched any configuration manually. I only tried changing configs through the graphical menus so I can't have broken anything.

Help would be appreciated. Thanks,

fpa

[Husse]

The
00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
is actually some Intel ICH sound
Try this
http://www.linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopi ... sa#p107982
Of course you use model=dell

[fpa]

Thanks Husse, but no it didn't work .

I noticed at my syslog these lines appear:
Mar 14 19:16:22 amos pulseaudio[5849]: ltdl-bind-now.c: Failed to find original dlopen loader.
Mar 14 19:16:22 amos pulseaudio[5851]: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_NICE, (31, 31)) failed: Operation not permitted
Mar 14 19:16:22 amos pulseaudio[5851]: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_RTPRIO, (9, 9)) failed: Operation not permitted
Mar 14 19:16:37 amos pulseaudio[5851]: module-x11-xsmp.c: X11 session manager not running.
Mar 14 19:16:37 amos pulseaudio[5851]: module.c: Failed to load module "module-x11-xsmp" (argument: ""): initialization failed.

This probably means something is wrong. Ideas? Thx

fpa

[Husse]

I have the same errors and my sound works, with the exception of a USB headset and that's not related
There are lots of reports about these log entries but no explanation
To be on the safe side - check all settings for sound including double clicking the volume applet at the clock

[fpa]

In the sound settings everybody is enabled. I have device saying HDA Nvidia (Alsa mixer).

In the Control Center, .... ok. I think I found it....

I just went into Multimedia Systems Selector, and Pulse Audio was set. Tested, nothing. When I changed to Alsa and tested a LOUD sine wave sound was heard. Ouch...

And now I can get music out of Rhythmbox.... resolved!

Thanks for the help Husse! The alsa-base thing and setting Alsa instead of PulseAudio was the answer.

fpa

[Husse]

Well we're not the only ones who'd like to use a dirty word together with pulse audio