Distorted audio on Ubuntu 5.10 on amd64 with Audigy 2ZS [SB0350]

Please perform the following steps:

1) Install libesd-alsa0
2) In System> Preferences> Multimedia Systems Selector> Default Audio Sink,
choose alsasink
3) Configure XMMS's output plugin to use ALSA

libesd-alsa0 was already installed. I changed the default audio sink to alsasink
and still got the same results. I didn't need to go as far as xmms since I had
the sound server running. I rebooted and got the same behavior. Since I had been
using the 5.10 preview release, I did a re-install of the final release. This
problem still persisted with the final release.

I know my hardware works because I dual boot my workstation with gentoo linux.
With gentoo, I compile my sound module (emu10k1) into the kernel and things work
fine.

Is there anything else I can try? Thanks for the help,

Lloyd

Yes, please try compiling alsa-driver 1.0.10rc2 from upstream
(http://www.alsa-project.org/).

I compiled the upstream driver as per your instructions but still have the same
problem. There still don't seem to be any errors in any of the log files or
anything funny that happened during the compile.

Does /proc/asound/version report 1.0.10rc2?

yes it does. Here's the contents of version:

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.10rc2.
Compiled on Oct 18 2005 for kernel 2.6.12-9-amd64-generic.

Why does ubuntu compile alsa seperately instead of using what's in the kernel?
Just curious.

FYI, on my gentoo disk (on this machine) I have compiled both alsa and emu10k1
into the kernel (I understand you would want to load emu10k1 as a module for
ubuntu though) and that setup works. I'm using gentoo source 2.6.12-r10 for that.

Lloyd

(In reply to comment #6)
> Why does ubuntu compile alsa seperately instead of using what's in the kernel?
> Just curious.

Ubuntu doesn't compile ALSA separately. ALSA is patched in-tree.

> FYI, on my gentoo disk (on this machine) I have compiled both alsa and emu10k1
> into the kernel (I understand you would want to load emu10k1 as a module for
> ubuntu though) and that setup works. I'm using gentoo source 2.6.12-r10 for that.

So the OSS driver (emu10k1.ko) works whereas the ALSA one (snd-emu10k1.ko) doesn't?

ahhh, ok, that explains it (alsa being patched in-tree).

Sorry I'm dense, but maybe I'm misunderstanding, on gentoo, I compile emu10k1
into the kernel, so I don't have any modules laying around. I did a find / -name
emu10k1.ko and snd-emu10k1.ko and found nothing.

From the kernel source, I select

Device Drivers ---> Sound ---> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ---> PCI
devices ---> Emu10k1
Device Drivers ---> Sound ---> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ---> OSS (Mixer
API & OSS PCM API, OSS Sequencer API) emulations stuff

I don't select anything from the

Device Drivers ---> Sound ---> Open Sound System

On gentoo, I have the alsa output plugin in xmms, which works. The Multimedia
Systems Selector is also set to Alsa.

On gentoo the /proc/asound directory seems to contain a lot of stuff it didn't
when booting under ubuntu, but I'll have to reboot and double check.

Daniel,

I can report the same problem as Lloyd and would add only one further
obsevation. I find that when working with my system through the GNOME desktop,
there are brief periods when the white noise may disappear [machine goes silent]
and then returns. This typically corresponds to periods when launching
applications, opening new windows, etc.

I can also report that I see the same problem on both of my machines. One is
based on an Athlon 4200-X2 chip [A-bit AV8 mobo] the other is based on a pair of
Opteron 250s [Tyan Thunder K8W mobo]. In both cases I have the same Audigy sound
card as Lloyd.

Lloyd seems to be much more technically aware than I am, so I do not believe I
am going to be able to add any value to the information he has already gathered,
but if you need someone to perform additional testing on a [slightly] different
platform, then I'm happy to help.

Regards,

Clive

Daniel,

Further update for you. As part of testing for another bug, I have just
completed an installation of ubuntu from the i386 DVD on to my Thunder K8W
Opteron system, then patched up to run the SMP version of the kernel.

I am able to confirm that the sound system that generated white noise under the
AMD64 binaries, does in fact work perfectly under the i386 binaries. I have no
idea which this might be the case, only that it works. It would be nice to be
able to say this was 100% success, but for some odd reason I can play audio CDs
running GNOME but not KDE [using CD Player]. Suspect this is just some weird
config file setting, so I will try and dig that out tomorrow.

Let me know if I can be of any more help tracking this bug down.

Regards,

Clive

This bug is thought to have been fixed in ALSA 1.0.11-rc*

Fix has been applied already to Dapper's kernel (see git changeset 85c6716a5c51fbd6b09946ab6d1842566b147f3f, or http://kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/bcollins/ubuntu-2.6.git;a=commit;h=85c6716a5c51fbd6b09946ab6d1842566b147f3f).

Is there any way I can install the fix or do I have to wait for a fixed version of the kernel to be released? Are there instructions of compiling and installing upstream kernels? Thanks,

Lloyd

Certainly seems to be fixed in Dapper Flight-6 for AMD 64...

This issue was fixed in git commit 85c6716a5c51fbd6b09946ab6d1842566b147f3f (2.6.15-15.20). Please reopen if still exhibited.