Alan Mackenzie wrote: > Hello, Dale. > > On Fri, Jan 24, 2025 at 14:53:30 -0600, Dale wrote: >> Alan Mackenzie wrote: >>> Hello, Gentoo. >>> I've finally got around to buying a pair of new loadspeakers for my new >>> (as of 2024-08) PC. The experience has not been relaxed and obvious. >>> I have connected the speakers up physically. I have made the necessary >>> settings in the kernel configuration, rebuilt and rebooted into it. So >>> far, so good. >>> Then I attempt to use alsamixer to unmute the speakers and, hopefully get >>> some sound out of them. This is where my problems start. >>> alsamixer displays just one object, labelled S/PDIF in the middle of the >>> screen. I don't have an S/PDIF connection, just an ordinary audio cable >>> with a green 3.5 mm jack plug at each end. >>> How do I configure alsamixer to show me appropriate things, such as >>> volume settings and so on. >>> I've tried following https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/ALSA, but it is most >>> unhelpful. It describes in detail a few complicated setups, presumably >>> for those who understand the basics and want such a setup. It doesn't >>> say how to get a simple configuration, such as my own, working. >>> I have a /etc/asound.conf file set up, as suggested in the above doc, as: >>> defaults.pcm.!card Generic >>> defaults.pcm.!device 0 >>> defaults.pcm.!ctl Generic >>> .. >>> Before I spend hours reading documentation, could some kind person >>> familiar with these things perhaps give me a tip to getting my speakers >>> working. >>> Setting up loudspeakers shouldn't be this difficult. >>> Thanks in advance for any help! > >> I have a similar setup. I made my speakers from a spare set that didn't >> fit my car and wasn't worth sending back. Made a nice little box for >> them. My monitor sits on it. :-D Anyway, I use KDE and the new >> pipewire thingy. To be fair, pipewire does work better, mostly. Still, >> you have to unmute in alsa, kmix and all that before using pipewire. >> If the devices are not showing up, either you didn't load the modules if >> you use those or didn't enable the right drivers in the kernel. >> Otherwise, they should show up. I don't think there is any magic to >> this. It never has been for me anyway. > You're absolutely right. I was missing CONFIG_SND_USB_AUDIO, a setting > that builds in the USB sound driver. I'm not sure how I worked that out, > but probably somewhere on my Internet searches the concept USB sound chip > came up. It doesn't mean a setup where you plugh the loudspeakers into a > USB socket; it's to do with the internal communication inside the chip > set, or something like that. > > So now it "works". My new speakers are fine on my old box, but on the > new one, an MSI Tomahawk board, there's a constant crackling, and a sound > something like somebody playing the bongos added in for good measure. In > short, utterly unusable. This seems to have been a problem with this > make of board for many months, but MSI have failed to fix it. I can see > my still shiny new machine (from August) going back to its seller as a > guarantee case. > >> Even if you don't use KDE and pipewire, it should still show up if the >> right drivers are being used. I'd double or triple check my drivers >> first thing. Using the command lspci -k might help. Make sure >> something is loaded then make sure it is the correct drivers. If >> unsure, booting media from CD/DVD/USB stick and doing a lspci -k there >> should help, if sound works. I find Knoppix works well with this. >> Every system that can have sound, has it with Knoppix. >> Hope that helps. > It did, thanks! > >> Dale >> :-) :-)
Could it be two drivers that match that sound device? One that doesn't quite work right, crackle problem, and one that does? I've never ran into that but it might be worth doing some research into. Unless your previous searches show this is a well known mobo issue. If it is a well known hardware problem, then it is what it is. Glad to help, in some small way. ;-) Dale :-) :-)
