Hi,

I've tried Mandrake, Knoppix, Debian, ELX (red hat) even IcePack.  No one
can get sound out of this VIA VT8233 onboard chip set.
Mandrake does correctly identify it--but does not play any sound.

I see in the forums there is a HUGE amount of interest in this 'problem'
audio chip.

Does anyone have experience here?

Thanks,

Lance at TheHaverkamps dot net
(800) 290-9522

On Saturday 16 August 2003 23:06 Lance W. Haverkamp wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I've tried Mandrake, Knoppix, Debian, ELX (red hat) even IcePack.  No
> one can get sound out of this VIA VT8233 onboard chip set.
> Mandrake does correctly identify it--but does not play any sound.
> 
> I see in the forums there is a HUGE amount of interest in this
> 'problem' audio chip.
> 
> Does anyone have experience here?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Lance at TheHaverkamps dot net
> (800) 290-9522

AFAIK, there is currently no free method for 2.4.x kernel users.  OSS,
see 4front in a google search, has drivers for about a 20 dollar bill
IIRC.  OTOH, the upcoming 2.6.0 kernels have builtin alsa sound, and
its possible that the latest alsasound can also drive it.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
A mostly retired old coot

"Lance W. Haverkamp" <NoReply@thehaverkamps.net> writes:

 >Hi,

 >I've tried Mandrake, Knoppix, Debian, ELX (red hat) even IcePack.  No one
 >can get sound out of this VIA VT8233 onboard chip set.
 >Mandrake does correctly identify it--but does not play any sound.

I get sound out of my via board running kernel 2.4.18.  lspci reports
"00:07.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686
[Apollo Super AC97/Audio] (rev 50)".  

lsmod lists these sound modules:
  via82cxxx_audio        18200   0
  uart401                 6340   0 [via82cxxx_audio]
  ac97_codec              9640   0 [via82cxxx_audio]
  sound                  54764   0 [via82cxxx_audio uart401]
  soundcore               3556   5 [via82cxxx_audio sound]

The command "grep 8233 /usr/src/linux/drivers/sound/*.c reveals

  via82cxxx_audio.c: { PCI_VENDOR_ID_VIA, PCI_DEVICE_ID_VIA_8233_5,

In otherwords, the same audio module at least should be able to
identify an 8233 if not play sound on it.

These ac97 turkeys don't put out much signal so you may have to crank
the chips output up - I found a program called "volume" & set it to
95.  I unfortunately neither have the source nor a current URL for it.
You also have to use externally powered speakers.
-- 
<> Robert Geer & Donna Tomky | 	  ||||      We sure       ||||    <>
<>    bgeer@xmission.com     | 	==    ==    find it     ==    ==  <>
<>    dtomky@xmission.com    | 	==    ==   enchanting   ==    ==  <>
<>   Albuquerque, NM  USA    | 	  ||||       here!        ||||    <>

Can you play and listen to MIDI file using kmid and not kmidi? If you can't,
then I am afraid that there is no wavetable support on this chipset, yet.
If you can only use kmidi to play and listen to MIDI file, then chances are
the sound is emulated through timidity.

bgeer wrote:

> "Lance W. Haverkamp" <NoReply@thehaverkamps.net> writes:
> 
>  >Hi,
> 
>  >I've tried Mandrake, Knoppix, Debian, ELX (red hat) even IcePack.  No
>  >one can get sound out of this VIA VT8233 onboard chip set.
>  >Mandrake does correctly identify it--but does not play any sound.
> 
> I get sound out of my via board running kernel 2.4.18.  lspci reports
> "00:07.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686
> [Apollo Super AC97/Audio] (rev 50)".
> 
> lsmod lists these sound modules:
>   via82cxxx_audio        18200   0
>   uart401                 6340   0 [via82cxxx_audio]
>   ac97_codec              9640   0 [via82cxxx_audio]
>   sound                  54764   0 [via82cxxx_audio uart401]
>   soundcore               3556   5 [via82cxxx_audio sound]
> 
> The command "grep 8233 /usr/src/linux/drivers/sound/*.c reveals
> 
>   via82cxxx_audio.c: { PCI_VENDOR_ID_VIA, PCI_DEVICE_ID_VIA_8233_5,
> 
> In otherwords, the same audio module at least should be able to
> identify an 8233 if not play sound on it.
> 
> These ac97 turkeys don't put out much signal so you may have to crank
> the chips output up - I found a program called "volume" & set it to
> 95.  I unfortunately neither have the source nor a current URL for it.
> You also have to use externally powered speakers.

On Sat, 16 Aug 2003 21:06:55 -0600, Lance W. Haverkamp wrote:

> I've tried Mandrake, Knoppix, Debian, ELX (red hat) even IcePack.  No one
> can get sound out of this VIA VT8233 onboard chip set.
> Mandrake does correctly identify it--but does not play any sound.

By far the biggest problem I had with the VT8233A was that by default the
volume was so low, it made it appear that the audio simply didn't work.
Have you tried dinking with mixers and/or volume controls?

Other than that, I've had but only minor, but screwy, problems using
Libranet 2.8 and kernel v2.4.20 and 21.  Libranet's audio module tester
said that the AC97 kernel module failed to load and offered to try ALSA,
which worked properly.  Recently, although the audio was working properly,
I told it to test the audio again.  Now, it says the kernel driver works
and loads it at boot time.

Which codec is on your motherboard?
They are usually located somewhere on left of PCI/AGP slots...

I used KNOPPIX to boot my machines, and have such a result...

A mainboard using VIA VT82C686A + VT1611 codec:
-- success, with no boot parameters in "boot:" prompt
-- cannot play MIDI, but can play MP3, ogg file in KNOPPIX CD in xmms
A mainboard using VIA VT8233A + CMedia 9738A codec:
-- with no boot parameters, KNOPPIX try to use via82cxxx_audio, but in
failure
-- no sound...

I think the reason why KNOPPIX cannot make VT8233 sound to work
maybe the via82cxxx_audio assumes a particular codec is paired up with
the southbridge, as I see most boards using VT82C686(A) southbridge
are paired with the VT1611 codec, but not in case of VT8233(A/C/...),
VT8235 southbridge.

Those motherboards using VT8233 southbridge can be paired with
different codec(s) from different manufacturers, like CMedia, Realtek,
Analog Devices, etc.

In M$ Windows system, people use/install sound drivers from the codec
manufacturer, not from sothbridge manufacturer...
(except some codecs which is made by VIA,Intel... , like VT1611)

Maybe you and me need support on the codec chip...