Bug 4272

Summary: aLC662 hda codec model options drastically reduced
Product: Mageia Reporter: Richard Walker <richard.j.walker>
Component: RPM PackagesAssignee: Mageia Bug Squad <bugsquad>
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX QA Contact:
Severity: normal    
Priority: Normal CC: djmarian4u, tmb
Version: Cauldron   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: i586   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Source RPM: CVE:
Status comment:

Description Richard Walker 2012-01-25 02:40:04 CET
models option list prior to kernel 3.2.0;
ALC662/663/272
==============
  3stack-dig	3-stack (2-channel) with SPDIF
  3stack-6ch	 3-stack (6-channel)
  3stack-6ch-dig 3-stack (6-channel) with SPDIF
  5stack-dig	 5-stack with SPDIF
  lenovo-101e	 Lenovo laptop
  eeepc-p701	ASUS Eeepc P701
  eeepc-ep20	ASUS Eeepc EP20
  ecs		ECS/Foxconn mobo
  m51va		ASUS M51VA
  g71v		ASUS G71V
  h13		ASUS H13
  g50v		ASUS G50V
  asus-mode1	ASUS
  asus-mode2	ASUS
  asus-mode3	ASUS
  asus-mode4	ASUS
  asus-mode5	ASUS
  asus-mode6	ASUS
  asus-mode7	ASUS
  asus-mode8	ASUS
  dell		Dell with ALC272
  dell-zm1	Dell ZM1 with ALC272
  samsung-nc10	Samsung NC10 mini notebook
  auto		auto-config reading BIOS (default)

New list starting with kernel 3.2.0
	ALC662/663/272
	==============
	  asus-mode1	ASUS
	  asus-mode2	ASUS
	  asus-mode3	ASUS
	  asus-mode4	ASUS
	  asus-mode5	ASUS
	  asus-mode6	ASUS
	  asus-mode7	ASUS
	  asus-mode8	ASUS


The problems start when a sound card which used a previously available model option to provide access to some capabilities is now forced to fall back on automatically probed capabilities and the probe fails to detect what is required.

Personally I would class this as a major bug as it has happened to me. It would appear, after a week of canvassing information on the forum, that I am the only sufferer.

Unless it was a mistake to remove the models support for this codec, then perhaps we should urge the Alsa developers to do something to improve the auto detection on which they appear to be relying.
Comment 1 Thomas Backlund 2012-01-25 14:57:02 CET
The correct way to fix this is to report upstream what used to work, what model option you needed to get it all to work, and what stopped to work with 3.2 series kernels.

Then we can get it properly fixed

CC: (none) => tmb

Comment 2 Richard Walker 2012-01-25 20:21:52 CET
(In reply to comment #1)
> The correct way to fix this is to report upstream what used to work, what model
> option you needed to get it all to work, and what stopped to work with 3.2
> series kernels.
> 
> Then we can get it properly fixed

Hi Thomas, I'd love to report it upstream. Do you know where that is? Would it be Alsa project or kernel?

 Richard
Comment 3 Richard Walker 2012-01-26 22:44:30 CET
May I also suggest that until we have a universal solution from the Alsa or kernel people, that we restore the last stable MGA2 kernels which do fully support the ALC662 codec models?

I notice tonight that the rt kernel has been bumped to 3.2.2 from the 3.0.14 version I am using. The last useful desktop kernel for me was, I believe, 3.1.14. I will be putting the new one in my skip list as soon as I have mastered the intricacies and regular expressions of that facility.

Obviously I think it is a good idea to have access to the pre-3.2 kernels, and I feel fairly sure that it would be useful to some other Mageia users who might otherwise struggle to understand why their sound configuration has broken.

Any further thought on whether I should report the underlying issue to Alsa or the kernel people?
Comment 4 Richard Walker 2012-01-27 02:39:32 CET
Also to be found at:
https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa-bug/view.php?id=5518
Comment 5 Richard Walker 2012-02-04 20:32:36 CET
Now that Mageia has a solution, how do I forward it to the kernel people so that it can be incorporated in the kernel drivers for future releases of the kernel?
Comment 6 Richard Walker 2012-02-04 22:00:36 CET
Changed severity to normal from enhancement as this has turned out to be a side-effect of improving the snd-hda-intel module's auto-probing of soundcards. Previously required special handling cases have been removed from the driver, but not all special cases have been properly handled by new code.

Severity: enhancement => normal

Dan Joita 2012-03-07 11:15:09 CET

CC: (none) => djmarian4u
Summary: ALC662 hda codec model options drastically reduced => aLC662 hda codec model options drastically reduced

Comment 7 Richard Walker 2012-03-27 00:38:00 CEST
I have lived with this problem through three or four beta installations. So long as I don't lose my firmware patch file I can live with the alsa driver change. Nobody else on the Mageia forum has reported sound problems due to the kernel change to the 3 series so I imagine that I am likely one of a very small set of potentially affected users (one specific codec with a supported CD input not detected by the driver). If there is a real problem for lots of people then the Alsa devs have the solution and they can apply it if required.

For these reasons I propose that we change this bug to Resolved - Won't fix

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => WONTFIX