| MORE NOTES ON HD-AUDIO DRIVER |
| ============================= |
| Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de> |
| |
| |
| GENERAL |
| ------- |
| |
| HD-audio is the new standard on-board audio component on modern PCs |
| after AC97. Although Linux has been supporting HD-audio since long |
| time ago, there are often problems with new machines. A part of the |
| problem is broken BIOS, and the rest is the driver implementation. |
| This document explains the brief trouble-shooting and debugging |
| methods for the HD-audio hardware. |
| |
| The HD-audio component consists of two parts: the controller chip and |
| the codec chips on the HD-audio bus. Linux provides a single driver |
| for all controllers, snd-hda-intel. Although the driver name contains |
| a word of a well-known hardware vendor, it's not specific to it but for |
| all controller chips by other companies. Since the HD-audio |
| controllers are supposed to be compatible, the single snd-hda-driver |
| should work in most cases. But, not surprisingly, there are known |
| bugs and issues specific to each controller type. The snd-hda-intel |
| driver has a bunch of workarounds for these as described below. |
| |
| A controller may have multiple codecs. Usually you have one audio |
| codec and optionally one modem codec. In theory, there might be |
| multiple audio codecs, e.g. for analog and digital outputs, and the |
| driver might not work properly because of conflict of mixer elements. |
| This should be fixed in future if such hardware really exists. |
| |
| The snd-hda-intel driver has several different codec parsers depending |
| on the codec. It has a generic parser as a fallback, but this |
| functionality is fairly limited until now. Instead of the generic |
| parser, usually the codec-specific parser (coded in patch_*.c) is used |
| for the codec-specific implementations. The details about the |
| codec-specific problems are explained in the later sections. |
| |
| If you are interested in the deep debugging of HD-audio, read the |
| HD-audio specification at first. The specification is found on |
| Intel's web page, for example: |
| |
| - http://www.intel.com/standards/hdaudio/ |
| |
| |
| HD-AUDIO CONTROLLER |
| ------------------- |
| |
| DMA-Position Problem |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| The most common problem of the controller is the inaccurate DMA |
| pointer reporting. The DMA pointer for playback and capture can be |
| read in two ways, either via a LPIB register or via a position-buffer |
| map. As default the driver tries to read from the io-mapped |
| position-buffer, and falls back to LPIB if the position-buffer appears |
| dead. However, this detection isn't perfect on some devices. In such |
| a case, you can change the default method via `position_fix` option. |
| |
| `position_fix=1` means to use LPIB method explicitly. |
| `position_fix=2` means to use the position-buffer. |
| `position_fix=3` means to use a combination of both methods, needed |
| for some VIA and ATI controllers. 0 is the default value for all other |
| controllers, the automatic check and fallback to LPIB as described in |
| the above. If you get a problem of repeated sounds, this option might |
| help. |
| |
| In addition to that, every controller is known to be broken regarding |
| the wake-up timing. It wakes up a few samples before actually |
| processing the data on the buffer. This caused a lot of problems, for |
| example, with ALSA dmix or JACK. Since 2.6.27 kernel, the driver puts |
| an artificial delay to the wake up timing. This delay is controlled |
| via `bdl_pos_adj` option. |
| |
| When `bdl_pos_adj` is a negative value (as default), it's assigned to |
| an appropriate value depending on the controller chip. For Intel |
| chips, it'd be 1 while it'd be 32 for others. Usually this works. |
| Only in case it doesn't work and you get warning messages, you should |
| change this parameter to other values. |
| |
| |
| Codec-Probing Problem |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| A less often but a more severe problem is the codec probing. When |
| BIOS reports the available codec slots wrongly, the driver gets |
| confused and tries to access the non-existing codec slot. This often |
| results in the total screw-up, and destructs the further communication |
| with the codec chips. The symptom appears usually as error messages |
| like: |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| hda_intel: azx_get_response timeout, switching to polling mode: |
| last cmd=0x12345678 |
| hda_intel: azx_get_response timeout, switching to single_cmd mode: |
| last cmd=0x12345678 |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| |
| The first line is a warning, and this is usually relatively harmless. |
| It means that the codec response isn't notified via an IRQ. The |
| driver uses explicit polling method to read the response. It gives |
| very slight CPU overhead, but you'd unlikely notice it. |
| |
| The second line is, however, a fatal error. If this happens, usually |
| it means that something is really wrong. Most likely you are |
| accessing a non-existing codec slot. |
| |
| Thus, if the second error message appears, try to narrow the probed |
| codec slots via `probe_mask` option. It's a bitmask, and each bit |
| corresponds to the codec slot. For example, to probe only the first |
| slot, pass `probe_mask=1`. For the first and the third slots, pass |
| `probe_mask=5` (where 5 = 1 | 4), and so on. |
| |
| Since 2.6.29 kernel, the driver has a more robust probing method, so |
| this error might happen rarely, though. |
| |
| On a machine with a broken BIOS, sometimes you need to force the |
| driver to probe the codec slots the hardware doesn't report for use. |
| In such a case, turn the bit 8 (0x100) of `probe_mask` option on. |
| Then the rest 8 bits are passed as the codec slots to probe |
| unconditionally. For example, `probe_mask=0x103` will force to probe |
| the codec slots 0 and 1 no matter what the hardware reports. |
| |
| |
| Interrupt Handling |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| HD-audio driver uses MSI as default (if available) since 2.6.33 |
| kernel as MSI works better on some machines, and in general, it's |
| better for performance. However, Nvidia controllers showed bad |
| regressions with MSI (especially in a combination with AMD chipset), |
| thus we disabled MSI for them. |
| |
| There seem also still other devices that don't work with MSI. If you |
| see a regression wrt the sound quality (stuttering, etc) or a lock-up |
| in the recent kernel, try to pass `enable_msi=0` option to disable |
| MSI. If it works, you can add the known bad device to the blacklist |
| defined in hda_intel.c. In such a case, please report and give the |
| patch back to the upstream developer. |
| |
| |
| HD-AUDIO CODEC |
| -------------- |
| |
| Model Option |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| The most common problem regarding the HD-audio driver is the |
| unsupported codec features or the mismatched device configuration. |
| Most of codec-specific code has several preset models, either to |
| override the BIOS setup or to provide more comprehensive features. |
| |
| The driver checks PCI SSID and looks through the static configuration |
| table until any matching entry is found. If you have a new machine, |
| you may see a message like below: |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| hda_codec: ALC880: BIOS auto-probing. |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Meanwhile, in the earlier versions, you would see a message like: |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| hda_codec: Unknown model for ALC880, trying auto-probe from BIOS... |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Even if you see such a message, DON'T PANIC. Take a deep breath and |
| keep your towel. First of all, it's an informational message, no |
| warning, no error. This means that the PCI SSID of your device isn't |
| listed in the known preset model (white-)list. But, this doesn't mean |
| that the driver is broken. Many codec-drivers provide the automatic |
| configuration mechanism based on the BIOS setup. |
| |
| The HD-audio codec has usually "pin" widgets, and BIOS sets the default |
| configuration of each pin, which indicates the location, the |
| connection type, the jack color, etc. The HD-audio driver can guess |
| the right connection judging from these default configuration values. |
| However -- some codec-support codes, such as patch_analog.c, don't |
| support the automatic probing (yet as of 2.6.28). And, BIOS is often, |
| yes, pretty often broken. It sets up wrong values and screws up the |
| driver. |
| |
| The preset model is provided basically to overcome such a situation. |
| When the matching preset model is found in the white-list, the driver |
| assumes the static configuration of that preset and builds the mixer |
| elements and PCM streams based on the static information. Thus, if |
| you have a newer machine with a slightly different PCI SSID from the |
| existing one, you may have a good chance to re-use the same model. |
| You can pass the `model` option to specify the preset model instead of |
| PCI SSID look-up. |
| |
| What `model` option values are available depends on the codec chip. |
| Check your codec chip from the codec proc file (see "Codec Proc-File" |
| section below). It will show the vendor/product name of your codec |
| chip. Then, see Documentation/sound/alsa/HD-Audio-Models.txt file, |
| the section of HD-audio driver. You can find a list of codecs |
| and `model` options belonging to each codec. For example, for Realtek |
| ALC262 codec chip, pass `model=ultra` for devices that are compatible |
| with Samsung Q1 Ultra. |
| |
| Thus, the first thing you can do for any brand-new, unsupported and |
| non-working HD-audio hardware is to check HD-audio codec and several |
| different `model` option values. If you have any luck, some of them |
| might suit with your device well. |
| |
| Some codecs such as ALC880 have a special model option `model=test`. |
| This configures the driver to provide as many mixer controls as |
| possible for every single pin feature except for the unsolicited |
| events (and maybe some other specials). Adjust each mixer element and |
| try the I/O in the way of trial-and-error until figuring out the whole |
| I/O pin mappings. |
| |
| Note that `model=generic` has a special meaning. It means to use the |
| generic parser regardless of the codec. Usually the codec-specific |
| parser is much better than the generic parser (as now). Thus this |
| option is more about the debugging purpose. |
| |
| Speaker and Headphone Output |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| One of the most frequent (and obvious) bugs with HD-audio is the |
| silent output from either or both of a built-in speaker and a |
| headphone jack. In general, you should try a headphone output at |
| first. A speaker output often requires more additional controls like |
| the external amplifier bits. Thus a headphone output has a slightly |
| better chance. |
| |
| Before making a bug report, double-check whether the mixer is set up |
| correctly. The recent version of snd-hda-intel driver provides mostly |
| "Master" volume control as well as "Front" volume (where Front |
| indicates the front-channels). In addition, there can be individual |
| "Headphone" and "Speaker" controls. |
| |
| Ditto for the speaker output. There can be "External Amplifier" |
| switch on some codecs. Turn on this if present. |
| |
| Another related problem is the automatic mute of speaker output by |
| headphone plugging. This feature is implemented in most cases, but |
| not on every preset model or codec-support code. |
| |
| In anyway, try a different model option if you have such a problem. |
| Some other models may match better and give you more matching |
| functionality. If none of the available models works, send a bug |
| report. See the bug report section for details. |
| |
| If you are masochistic enough to debug the driver problem, note the |
| following: |
| |
| - The speaker (and the headphone, too) output often requires the |
| external amplifier. This can be set usually via EAPD verb or a |
| certain GPIO. If the codec pin supports EAPD, you have a better |
| chance via SET_EAPD_BTL verb (0x70c). On others, GPIO pin (mostly |
| it's either GPIO0 or GPIO1) may turn on/off EAPD. |
| - Some Realtek codecs require special vendor-specific coefficients to |
| turn on the amplifier. See patch_realtek.c. |
| - IDT codecs may have extra power-enable/disable controls on each |
| analog pin. See patch_sigmatel.c. |
| - Very rare but some devices don't accept the pin-detection verb until |
| triggered. Issuing GET_PIN_SENSE verb (0xf09) may result in the |
| codec-communication stall. Some examples are found in |
| patch_realtek.c. |
| |
| |
| Capture Problems |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| The capture problems are often because of missing setups of mixers. |
| Thus, before submitting a bug report, make sure that you set up the |
| mixer correctly. For example, both "Capture Volume" and "Capture |
| Switch" have to be set properly in addition to the right "Capture |
| Source" or "Input Source" selection. Some devices have "Mic Boost" |
| volume or switch. |
| |
| When the PCM device is opened via "default" PCM (without pulse-audio |
| plugin), you'll likely have "Digital Capture Volume" control as well. |
| This is provided for the extra gain/attenuation of the signal in |
| software, especially for the inputs without the hardware volume |
| control such as digital microphones. Unless really needed, this |
| should be set to exactly 50%, corresponding to 0dB -- neither extra |
| gain nor attenuation. When you use "hw" PCM, i.e., a raw access PCM, |
| this control will have no influence, though. |
| |
| It's known that some codecs / devices have fairly bad analog circuits, |
| and the recorded sound contains a certain DC-offset. This is no bug |
| of the driver. |
| |
| Most of modern laptops have no analog CD-input connection. Thus, the |
| recording from CD input won't work in many cases although the driver |
| provides it as the capture source. Use CDDA instead. |
| |
| The automatic switching of the built-in and external mic per plugging |
| is implemented on some codec models but not on every model. Partly |
| because of my laziness but mostly lack of testers. Feel free to |
| submit the improvement patch to the author. |
| |
| |
| Direct Debugging |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| If no model option gives you a better result, and you are a tough guy |
| to fight against evil, try debugging via hitting the raw HD-audio |
| codec verbs to the device. Some tools are available: hda-emu and |
| hda-analyzer. The detailed description is found in the sections |
| below. You'd need to enable hwdep for using these tools. See "Kernel |
| Configuration" section. |
| |
| |
| OTHER ISSUES |
| ------------ |
| |
| Kernel Configuration |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| In general, I recommend you to enable the sound debug option, |
| `CONFIG_SND_DEBUG=y`, no matter whether you are debugging or not. |
| This enables snd_printd() macro and others, and you'll get additional |
| kernel messages at probing. |
| |
| In addition, you can enable `CONFIG_SND_DEBUG_VERBOSE=y`. But this |
| will give you far more messages. Thus turn this on only when you are |
| sure to want it. |
| |
| Don't forget to turn on the appropriate `CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_*` |
| options. Note that each of them corresponds to the codec chip, not |
| the controller chip. Thus, even if lspci shows the Nvidia controller, |
| you may need to choose the option for other vendors. If you are |
| unsure, just select all yes. |
| |
| `CONFIG_SND_HDA_HWDEP` is a useful option for debugging the driver. |
| When this is enabled, the driver creates hardware-dependent devices |
| (one per each codec), and you have a raw access to the device via |
| these device files. For example, `hwC0D2` will be created for the |
| codec slot #2 of the first card (#0). For debug-tools such as |
| hda-verb and hda-analyzer, the hwdep device has to be enabled. |
| Thus, it'd be better to turn this on always. |
| |
| `CONFIG_SND_HDA_RECONFIG` is a new option, and this depends on the |
| hwdep option above. When enabled, you'll have some sysfs files under |
| the corresponding hwdep directory. See "HD-audio reconfiguration" |
| section below. |
| |
| `CONFIG_SND_HDA_POWER_SAVE` option enables the power-saving feature. |
| See "Power-saving" section below. |
| |
| |
| Codec Proc-File |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| The codec proc-file is a treasure-chest for debugging HD-audio. |
| It shows most of useful information of each codec widget. |
| |
| The proc file is located in /proc/asound/card*/codec#*, one file per |
| each codec slot. You can know the codec vendor, product id and |
| names, the type of each widget, capabilities and so on. |
| This file, however, doesn't show the jack sensing state, so far. This |
| is because the jack-sensing might be depending on the trigger state. |
| |
| This file will be picked up by the debug tools, and also it can be fed |
| to the emulator as the primary codec information. See the debug tools |
| section below. |
| |
| This proc file can be also used to check whether the generic parser is |
| used. When the generic parser is used, the vendor/product ID name |
| will appear as "Realtek ID 0262", instead of "Realtek ALC262". |
| |
| |
| HD-Audio Reconfiguration |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| This is an experimental feature to allow you re-configure the HD-audio |
| codec dynamically without reloading the driver. The following sysfs |
| files are available under each codec-hwdep device directory (e.g. |
| /sys/class/sound/hwC0D0): |
| |
| vendor_id:: |
| Shows the 32bit codec vendor-id hex number. You can change the |
| vendor-id value by writing to this file. |
| subsystem_id:: |
| Shows the 32bit codec subsystem-id hex number. You can change the |
| subsystem-id value by writing to this file. |
| revision_id:: |
| Shows the 32bit codec revision-id hex number. You can change the |
| revision-id value by writing to this file. |
| afg:: |
| Shows the AFG ID. This is read-only. |
| mfg:: |
| Shows the MFG ID. This is read-only. |
| name:: |
| Shows the codec name string. Can be changed by writing to this |
| file. |
| modelname:: |
| Shows the currently set `model` option. Can be changed by writing |
| to this file. |
| init_verbs:: |
| The extra verbs to execute at initialization. You can add a verb by |
| writing to this file. Pass three numbers: nid, verb and parameter |
| (separated with a space). |
| hints:: |
| Shows / stores hint strings for codec parsers for any use. |
| Its format is `key = value`. For example, passing `hp_detect = yes` |
| to IDT/STAC codec parser will result in the disablement of the |
| headphone detection. |
| init_pin_configs:: |
| Shows the initial pin default config values set by BIOS. |
| driver_pin_configs:: |
| Shows the pin default values set by the codec parser explicitly. |
| This doesn't show all pin values but only the changed values by |
| the parser. That is, if the parser doesn't change the pin default |
| config values by itself, this will contain nothing. |
| user_pin_configs:: |
| Shows the pin default config values to override the BIOS setup. |
| Writing this (with two numbers, NID and value) appends the new |
| value. The given will be used instead of the initial BIOS value at |
| the next reconfiguration time. Note that this config will override |
| even the driver pin configs, too. |
| reconfig:: |
| Triggers the codec re-configuration. When any value is written to |
| this file, the driver re-initialize and parses the codec tree |
| again. All the changes done by the sysfs entries above are taken |
| into account. |
| clear:: |
| Resets the codec, removes the mixer elements and PCM stuff of the |
| specified codec, and clear all init verbs and hints. |
| |
| For example, when you want to change the pin default configuration |
| value of the pin widget 0x14 to 0x9993013f, and let the driver |
| re-configure based on that state, run like below: |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| # echo 0x14 0x9993013f > /sys/class/sound/hwC0D0/user_pin_configs |
| # echo 1 > /sys/class/sound/hwC0D0/reconfig |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| |
| |
| Early Patching |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| When CONFIG_SND_HDA_PATCH_LOADER=y is set, you can pass a "patch" as a |
| firmware file for modifying the HD-audio setup before initializing the |
| codec. This can work basically like the reconfiguration via sysfs in |
| the above, but it does it before the first codec configuration. |
| |
| A patch file is a plain text file which looks like below: |
| |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| [codec] |
| 0x12345678 0xabcd1234 2 |
| |
| [model] |
| auto |
| |
| [pincfg] |
| 0x12 0x411111f0 |
| |
| [verb] |
| 0x20 0x500 0x03 |
| 0x20 0x400 0xff |
| |
| [hint] |
| hp_detect = yes |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| |
| The file needs to have a line `[codec]`. The next line should contain |
| three numbers indicating the codec vendor-id (0x12345678 in the |
| example), the codec subsystem-id (0xabcd1234) and the address (2) of |
| the codec. The rest patch entries are applied to this specified codec |
| until another codec entry is given. |
| |
| The `[model]` line allows to change the model name of the each codec. |
| In the example above, it will be changed to model=auto. |
| Note that this overrides the module option. |
| |
| After the `[pincfg]` line, the contents are parsed as the initial |
| default pin-configurations just like `user_pin_configs` sysfs above. |
| The values can be shown in user_pin_configs sysfs file, too. |
| |
| Similarly, the lines after `[verb]` are parsed as `init_verbs` |
| sysfs entries, and the lines after `[hint]` are parsed as `hints` |
| sysfs entries, respectively. |
| |
| Another example to override the codec vendor id from 0x12345678 to |
| 0xdeadbeef is like below: |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| [codec] |
| 0x12345678 0xabcd1234 2 |
| |
| [vendor_id] |
| 0xdeadbeef |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| |
| In the similar way, you can override the codec subsystem_id via |
| `[subsystem_id]`, the revision id via `[revision_id]` line. |
| Also, the codec chip name can be rewritten via `[chip_name]` line. |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| [codec] |
| 0x12345678 0xabcd1234 2 |
| |
| [subsystem_id] |
| 0xffff1111 |
| |
| [revision_id] |
| 0x10 |
| |
| [chip_name] |
| My-own NEWS-0002 |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| |
| The hd-audio driver reads the file via request_firmware(). Thus, |
| a patch file has to be located on the appropriate firmware path, |
| typically, /lib/firmware. For example, when you pass the option |
| `patch=hda-init.fw`, the file /lib/firmware/hda-init-fw must be |
| present. |
| |
| The patch module option is specific to each card instance, and you |
| need to give one file name for each instance, separated by commas. |
| For example, if you have two cards, one for an on-board analog and one |
| for an HDMI video board, you may pass patch option like below: |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| options snd-hda-intel patch=on-board-patch,hdmi-patch |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| |
| |
| Power-Saving |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| The power-saving is a kind of auto-suspend of the device. When the |
| device is inactive for a certain time, the device is automatically |
| turned off to save the power. The time to go down is specified via |
| `power_save` module option, and this option can be changed dynamically |
| via sysfs. |
| |
| The power-saving won't work when the analog loopback is enabled on |
| some codecs. Make sure that you mute all unneeded signal routes when |
| you want the power-saving. |
| |
| The power-saving feature might cause audible click noises at each |
| power-down/up depending on the device. Some of them might be |
| solvable, but some are hard, I'm afraid. Some distros such as |
| openSUSE enables the power-saving feature automatically when the power |
| cable is unplugged. Thus, if you hear noises, suspect first the |
| power-saving. See /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save to |
| check the current value. If it's non-zero, the feature is turned on. |
| |
| |
| Development Tree |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| The latest development codes for HD-audio are found on sound git tree: |
| |
| - git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tiwai/sound-2.6.git |
| |
| The master branch or for-next branches can be used as the main |
| development branches in general while the HD-audio specific patches |
| are committed in topic/hda branch. |
| |
| If you are using the latest Linus tree, it'd be better to pull the |
| above GIT tree onto it. If you are using the older kernels, an easy |
| way to try the latest ALSA code is to build from the snapshot |
| tarball. There are daily tarballs and the latest snapshot tarball. |
| All can be built just like normal alsa-driver release packages, that |
| is, installed via the usual spells: configure, make and make |
| install(-modules). See INSTALL in the package. The snapshot tarballs |
| are found at: |
| |
| - ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/tiwai/snapshot/ |
| |
| |
| Sending a Bug Report |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| If any model or module options don't work for your device, it's time |
| to send a bug report to the developers. Give the following in your |
| bug report: |
| |
| - Hardware vendor, product and model names |
| - Kernel version (and ALSA-driver version if you built externally) |
| - `alsa-info.sh` output; run with `--no-upload` option. See the |
| section below about alsa-info |
| |
| If it's a regression, at best, send alsa-info outputs of both working |
| and non-working kernels. This is really helpful because we can |
| compare the codec registers directly. |
| |
| Send a bug report either the followings: |
| |
| kernel-bugzilla:: |
| https://bugzilla.kernel.org/ |
| alsa-devel ML:: |
| alsa-devel@alsa-project.org |
| |
| |
| DEBUG TOOLS |
| ----------- |
| |
| This section describes some tools available for debugging HD-audio |
| problems. |
| |
| alsa-info |
| ~~~~~~~~~ |
| The script `alsa-info.sh` is a very useful tool to gather the audio |
| device information. You can fetch the latest version from: |
| |
| - http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh |
| |
| Run this script as root, and it will gather the important information |
| such as the module lists, module parameters, proc file contents |
| including the codec proc files, mixer outputs and the control |
| elements. As default, it will store the information onto a web server |
| on alsa-project.org. But, if you send a bug report, it'd be better to |
| run with `--no-upload` option, and attach the generated file. |
| |
| There are some other useful options. See `--help` option output for |
| details. |
| |
| When a probe error occurs or when the driver obviously assigns a |
| mismatched model, it'd be helpful to load the driver with |
| `probe_only=1` option (at best after the cold reboot) and run |
| alsa-info at this state. With this option, the driver won't configure |
| the mixer and PCM but just tries to probe the codec slot. After |
| probing, the proc file is available, so you can get the raw codec |
| information before modified by the driver. Of course, the driver |
| isn't usable with `probe_only=1`. But you can continue the |
| configuration via hwdep sysfs file if hda-reconfig option is enabled. |
| Using `probe_only` mask 2 skips the reset of HDA codecs (use |
| `probe_only=3` as module option). The hwdep interface can be used |
| to determine the BIOS codec initialization. |
| |
| |
| hda-verb |
| ~~~~~~~~ |
| hda-verb is a tiny program that allows you to access the HD-audio |
| codec directly. You can execute a raw HD-audio codec verb with this. |
| This program accesses the hwdep device, thus you need to enable the |
| kernel config `CONFIG_SND_HDA_HWDEP=y` beforehand. |
| |
| The hda-verb program takes four arguments: the hwdep device file, the |
| widget NID, the verb and the parameter. When you access to the codec |
| on the slot 2 of the card 0, pass /dev/snd/hwC0D2 to the first |
| argument, typically. (However, the real path name depends on the |
| system.) |
| |
| The second parameter is the widget number-id to access. The third |
| parameter can be either a hex/digit number or a string corresponding |
| to a verb. Similarly, the last parameter is the value to write, or |
| can be a string for the parameter type. |
| |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| % hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x12 0x701 2 |
| nid = 0x12, verb = 0x701, param = 0x2 |
| value = 0x0 |
| |
| % hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x0 PARAMETERS VENDOR_ID |
| nid = 0x0, verb = 0xf00, param = 0x0 |
| value = 0x10ec0262 |
| |
| % hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 2 set_a 0xb080 |
| nid = 0x2, verb = 0x300, param = 0xb080 |
| value = 0x0 |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| |
| Although you can issue any verbs with this program, the driver state |
| won't be always updated. For example, the volume values are usually |
| cached in the driver, and thus changing the widget amp value directly |
| via hda-verb won't change the mixer value. |
| |
| The hda-verb program is found in the ftp directory: |
| |
| - ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/tiwai/misc/ |
| |
| Also a git repository is available: |
| |
| - git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tiwai/hda-verb.git |
| |
| See README file in the tarball for more details about hda-verb |
| program. |
| |
| |
| hda-analyzer |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| hda-analyzer provides a graphical interface to access the raw HD-audio |
| control, based on pyGTK2 binding. It's a more powerful version of |
| hda-verb. The program gives you an easy-to-use GUI stuff for showing |
| the widget information and adjusting the amp values, as well as the |
| proc-compatible output. |
| |
| The hda-analyzer: |
| |
| - http://git.alsa-project.org/?p=alsa.git;a=tree;f=hda-analyzer |
| |
| is a part of alsa.git repository in alsa-project.org: |
| |
| - git://git.alsa-project.org/alsa.git |
| |
| Codecgraph |
| ~~~~~~~~~~ |
| Codecgraph is a utility program to generate a graph and visualizes the |
| codec-node connection of a codec chip. It's especially useful when |
| you analyze or debug a codec without a proper datasheet. The program |
| parses the given codec proc file and converts to SVG via graphiz |
| program. |
| |
| The tarball and GIT trees are found in the web page at: |
| |
| - http://helllabs.org/codecgraph/ |
| |
| |
| hda-emu |
| ~~~~~~~ |
| hda-emu is an HD-audio emulator. The main purpose of this program is |
| to debug an HD-audio codec without the real hardware. Thus, it |
| doesn't emulate the behavior with the real audio I/O, but it just |
| dumps the codec register changes and the ALSA-driver internal changes |
| at probing and operating the HD-audio driver. |
| |
| The program requires a codec proc-file to simulate. Get a proc file |
| for the target codec beforehand, or pick up an example codec from the |
| codec proc collections in the tarball. Then, run the program with the |
| proc file, and the hda-emu program will start parsing the codec file |
| and simulates the HD-audio driver: |
| |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| % hda-emu codecs/stac9200-dell-d820-laptop |
| # Parsing.. |
| hda_codec: Unknown model for STAC9200, using BIOS defaults |
| hda_codec: pin nid 08 bios pin config 40c003fa |
| .... |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| |
| The program gives you only a very dumb command-line interface. You |
| can get a proc-file dump at the current state, get a list of control |
| (mixer) elements, set/get the control element value, simulate the PCM |
| operation, the jack plugging simulation, etc. |
| |
| The package is found in: |
| |
| - ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/tiwai/misc/ |
| |
| A git repository is available: |
| |
| - git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tiwai/hda-emu.git |
| |
| See README file in the tarball for more details about hda-emu |
| program. |