[alsa-devel] Subwoofers aren't working on ALC298 (Lenovo Yoga C930 Laptop)
Hi Alsa Devs,
I've been struggling with a sound issue for a while now. I just bought a new laptop that's known for its high-quality audio. It's billed as a Dolby Atmos speaker system, and it appears to be using a ALC298 card (or so I gathered from `aplay -l`). From what I can tell, it has tweeters in the back, and subwoofers on the bottom of the laptop. It sounds really great in Windows, but tinny and flat in Linux. I'm guessing this is because the subwoofers aren't being engaged.
Here are some things I've tried so far:
- Tweaking what is possible to tweak in GNOME. - Running pavucontrol. No useful options here. - Unmuting everything in alsamixer. Unmuting only some things in alsamixer. - Running hdajackretask, from the alsaTools package. It seems to correctly recognize that there are some unassigned pins, and even gives me the option of assigning them to "internal speaker (LFE)," which sounds like it could be a bass output. But when I click "apply now" or "apply boot options," the scripts fail by saying they can't find tools like md or tee. I can run the scripts it generates manually, but then the changes don't really seem to take effect. - Following the instructions from the ALSA page on the wiki, and trying all kinds of different options - All of the above, and also restarting alsa / snd_hda / pulseaudio all manually.
As far as I can tell, I'm running the latest version of ALSA, since I'm on NixOS unstable, and [[https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/os-specific/linux/alsa-fir... build script]] seems to grab the latest version.
[[http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=8c072b3fbb139d350cd0e2c4c98cbb7736c6455a%5... the output from my alsa-info.sh.]] I don't know enough about ALSA, or sound hardware, to know what's going on there. Is it obvious from my alsa-info which pins I should try reassigning to which channels? And does anyone know of a good way of doing this? Preferably one that doesn't use hdajackretask, which doesn't appear to work on NixOS.
[[https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/482885/how-can-i-get-my-laptops-int... also posted a few more details about this on this StackExchange question.]]
I hope that getting this to work will not only help me, but others with this same laptop or speaker configuration.
Thanks in advance for any help you'd be able to provide!
Best,
Jonathan
Hi Jonathan,
- Running hdajackretask, from the alsaTools package. It seems to
correctly recognize that there are some unassigned pins, and even gives me the option of assigning them to "internal speaker (LFE)," which sounds like it could be a bass output.
LFE usually stands for Low Frequency Effects, i.e. a subwoofer channel on a movie or game. There are some tips on surround sound at http://www.volkerschatz.com/noise/alsa.html
I don't know which 'md' program they are referring to, but you can install tee separately.
Cheers!
Daniel
Hi Daniel,
I'm guessing I shouldn't assign this pin to LFE, then? And maybe assign it to "internal speaker (back)"? I'm at a loss for knowing what to assign to what.
But this is all moot, since the real problem, it seems to me, is that clicking "apply now" or "install boot override" won't work on NixOS. The first issue is that `hdajackretask` apparently can't find my copies of `tee` and `mv`. I can run these programs just fine from a shell, and `which tee` shows their locations in NixOS: `/run/current-system/sw/bin/tee`, but `hdajackretask` can't find them, for some reason, and `Apply now` fails. The second is that, even if I run run the /tmp script manually, nothing seems to change with my system. I have a feeling `hdajackretask` needs to do something beyond what is in the `/tmp` script, and that it can't do that, since it can't find my system utilities.
Thanks for that link, though—there's some useful stuff in there.
Are there other ways of connecting unused pins that don't use hdajackretask? Like a script I can run or a sequence of commands?
Best,
Jonathan
Daniel James daniel@64studio.com writes:
Hi Jonathan,
- Running hdajackretask, from the alsaTools package. It seems
to correctly recognize that there are some unassigned pins, and even gives me the option of assigning them to "internal speaker (LFE)," which sounds like it could be a bass output.
LFE usually stands for Low Frequency Effects, i.e. a subwoofer channel on a movie or game. There are some tips on surround sound at http://www.volkerschatz.com/noise/alsa.html
I don't know which 'md' program they are referring to, but you can install tee separately.
Cheers!
Daniel
As far as I can tell, I'm running the latest version of ALSA, since I'm
on NixOS unstable, and
Have you tried any other distribution, something more normal like latest Fedora or Ubuntu ? Does the subwoofers work there ? If you run Ubuntu/Fedora you can check the sound settings and pavucontrol there is selection of speakers usually 2.1 5.1... try those ? The moment you realize your "tee" is located in /run/current-system/sw/bin/tee it should ring a bell that something is wrong with this distribution. hdajackretask is creating a /lib/firmware/hda-jack-retask.fw (text file) which is attached to modprobe automatic and creates a file in /etc/modprobe.d/hda-jack-retask.conf which contains a line: options snd-hda-intel patch=hda-jack-retask.fw, hda-jack-retask.fw, hda-jack-retask.fw, hda-jack-retask.fw And the content of the hda-jack-retask.fw is something like this:
[codec] 0x10138409 0x106b3300 0
[pincfg] 0x24 0x90100080 0x25 0x90100082 0x26 0x400000f0 0x27 0x400000f0 And you have to make sure those [pincfgs] match with your Windows10 registry of the driver's PinConfigOverride. You happen to have Windows running on that machine and can extract the pinconfigoverride or have .ini of the driver? I can help you compare those.
On Wed, Nov 28, 2018 at 5:37 PM Jonathan Reeve jon.reeve@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Daniel,
I'm guessing I shouldn't assign this pin to LFE, then? And maybe assign it to "internal speaker (back)"? I'm at a loss for knowing what to assign to what.
But this is all moot, since the real problem, it seems to me, is that clicking "apply now" or "install boot override" won't work on NixOS. The first issue is that `hdajackretask` apparently can't find my copies of `tee` and `mv`. I can run these programs just fine from a shell, and `which tee` shows their locations in NixOS: `/run/current-system/sw/bin/tee`, but `hdajackretask` can't find them, for some reason, and `Apply now` fails. The second is that, even if I run run the /tmp script manually, nothing seems to change with my system. I have a feeling `hdajackretask` needs to do something beyond what is in the `/tmp` script, and that it can't do that, since it can't find my system utilities.
Thanks for that link, though—there's some useful stuff in there.
Are there other ways of connecting unused pins that don't use hdajackretask? Like a script I can run or a sequence of commands?
Best,
Jonathan
Daniel James daniel@64studio.com writes:
Hi Jonathan,
- Running hdajackretask, from the alsaTools package. It seems
to correctly recognize that there are some unassigned pins, and even gives me the option of assigning them to "internal speaker (LFE)," which sounds like it could be a bass output.
LFE usually stands for Low Frequency Effects, i.e. a subwoofer channel on a movie or game. There are some tips on surround sound at http://www.volkerschatz.com/noise/alsa.html
I don't know which 'md' program they are referring to, but you can install tee separately.
Cheers!
Daniel
Alsa-devel mailing list Alsa-devel@alsa-project.org http://mailman.alsa-project.org/mailman/listinfo/alsa-devel
Hi David,
Thanks very much for helping me look into this.
Have you tried any other distribution, something more normal like latest Fedora or Ubuntu ? Does the subwoofers work there ?
I just tried an Ubuntu live USB disk. I can't get subwoofers to work there, either.
If you run Ubuntu/Fedora you can check the sound settings and pavucontrol there is selection of speakers usually 2.1 5.1... try those ?
I don't see any option for that in pavucontrol on Ubuntu.
And you have to make sure those [pincfgs] match with your Windows10 registry of the driver's PinConfigOverride.
Awesome. How can I find these settings? I checked in regedit and searched for `pinconfigoverride` and `pincfg`, but nothing's coming up. I also grepped all the driver files for those expressions, but nothing's coming up there, either. Do you know if these settings are called something else?
You happen to have Windows running on that machine and can extract the pinconfigoverride or have .ini of the driver? I can help you compare those.
Yep, I have the Windows 10 driver files, but there is no .ini file, as far as I can tell. There are lots of text files that look like they could be configuration files of some sort. Which one(s) should I be looking for?
Best,
Jonathan
Ooops I have misleaded you with PinConfigOverride that's for all the Macs, dont look for it anymore.
Node 0x17 [Pin Complex] wcaps 0x40058d: Stereo Amp-Out Control: name="Bass Speaker Playback Switch", index=0, device=0 ControlAmp: chs=3, dir=Out, idx=0, ofs=0 Amp-Out caps: ofs=0x00, nsteps=0x00, stepsize=0x00, mute=1 Amp-Out vals: [0x00 0x00] Pincap 0x0001001c: OUT HP EAPD Detect EAPD 0x2: EAPD Pin Default 0x411111f0: [N/A] Speaker at Ext Rear Conn = 1/8, Color = Black DefAssociation = 0xf, Sequence = 0x0 Misc = NO_PRESENCE Pin-ctls: 0x40: OUT Unsolicited: tag=00, enabled=0 Power states: D0 D1 D2 D3 EPSS Power: setting=D3, actual=D3 Connection: 3 0x0c 0x0d 0x06*
Looking at your alsa-info, this is your Bass Speaker Playback Switch. It is in current Power setting=D3 and actual=D3. It should become D0 to be turned on.
Not sure if you can do this via alsamixer -c0 ?(or whatever number is your card). there is also a way with hda-verb (make sure you have hda-verb installed (from ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/tools/alsa-tools-1.1.7.tar.bz2 alsa-tools ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/tools/alsa-tools-1.1.7.tar.bz2 ?))
According to https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.16/sound/hd-audio/notes.html
power_save_node (bool) advanced power management for each widget, controlling the power sate (D0/D3) of each widget node depending on the actual pin and stream states could be a permanent more elegant solution in a hda-jack-retask.fw patch, but no idea how it should look for that widget exactly, Takashi can suggest.
You can try for now enabling that Power: setting=D0, actual=D0 if that will help you probably:
Documentation is at: https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/product-specifi... Page 153 is of your interest. 0x705 is the SET verb, 0x00 should be fully on D0 state # sudo hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x17 0x705 0x00 you can get the value from the codec back: # sudo hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x17 0xf05 0x00
Hope that helps, if that solves the solution as a dirty thing you can put that hda-verb command in your /etc/rc.local (depending on the distro rc.local maybe deadend).
On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 5:58 AM Jonathan Reeve jon.reeve@gmail.com wrote:
Hi David,
Thanks very much for helping me look into this.
Have you tried any other distribution, something more normal like latest Fedora or Ubuntu ? Does the subwoofers work there ?
I just tried an Ubuntu live USB disk. I can't get subwoofers to work there, either.
If you run Ubuntu/Fedora you can check the sound settings and pavucontrol there is selection of speakers usually 2.1 5.1... try those ?
I don't see any option for that in pavucontrol on Ubuntu.
And you have to make sure those [pincfgs] match with your Windows10 registry of the driver's PinConfigOverride.
Awesome. How can I find these settings? I checked in regedit and searched for `pinconfigoverride` and `pincfg`, but nothing's coming up. I also grepped all the driver files for those expressions, but nothing's coming up there, either. Do you know if these settings are called something else?
You happen to have Windows running on that machine and can extract the pinconfigoverride or have .ini of the driver? I can help you compare those.
Yep, I have the Windows 10 driver files, but there is no .ini file, as far as I can tell. There are lots of text files that look like they could be configuration files of some sort. Which one(s) should I be looking for?
Best,
Jonathan
participants (3)
-
Daniel James -
David Ulricht -
Jonathan Reeve