Re: [Linphone-users] One-Way Audio Issues

[Jim Diamond]

On Mon, Apr  4, 2011 at 14:19 (-0400), David Diamond wrote:

> Hi Jim,

> Could you expand on what you mean by "loading the audio module with the
> correct option"? I also just moved onto a machine with the same problem.

> I had to do a lot of fiddling around until I could get the microphone to
> work. Once it worked in MS Sound Recorder, I figured all my problems were
> solved, but then depending on which SIP phone I used, my callers would
> either hear clear audio, or clipped, tinny audio. I don't know any further
> tweaks I can make to fix this - and by the way I am testing on a LAN within
> my office, so I'm pretty sure this is not a networking issue.

Here's my story, for what its worth.

I have a Fujitsu T900.  It has an Intel HDA (*spit*) card in it.

<rant on>

As you may know, there is not just one model of HDA (*spit*), oh no,
that would be too easy.  Any group of drunks can vomit out a sound
card, and, apparently, call it an Intel HDA (*spit*).  There are (at
last count) 437 different models, all with different internal codecs,
parameters, settings, configurations, moods, anxieties, phobias, and
so on.  (An advertisement or spec-sheet which says "Intel HDA"
(*spit*) is telling you very little.)  It is possible that some of
these are good cards, but some are absolute junk.  Feel free to quote
me.

Intel should be embarrassed; they are far too respectable a company to
have their name on some of these cards.  And the fact that you might
know of a good (?) Intel HDA (*spit*) card, and then buy a computer
expecting a similar quality card only to end up with a junk card (been
there, done that, not happy about it) smacks of the old "bait and
switch" routine.

<rant off>

When Linux loads a module, it sometimes needs a hint to know how to
drive the corresponding device.  In /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf on
that laptop I put the following line
        options snd_hda_intel index=0 model=fujitsu
The "index=0" line says that the HDA (*spit*) is sound card 0, and the
"model=fujitsu" says to do whatever strange things are needed to make
Fujitsu's strange version of the card work.  Tempted though I was to
read the kernel source code, I managed to resist temptation this time.

After editing that file, I ran
        sudo depmod -a
On Ubuntu, doing a reboot might suffice and might be the easiest, for
people who aren't used to manually unloading and loading modules.

Now, this worked on my laptop (praise be!), but for other machines,
you might need to use a different option.  You are probably wondering
how you know which option.  Good question.  Google is your friend, as
are web forums for people with the same machine as you.  (It turns out
I found this in a web forum for Fujitsu T5010, which is the previous
incarnation of the T900.  Pure chance...)


There may be some way known to many people as to how to figure out
what option you should hand to your sound card.  I'm not one of those
people, so from here you are on your own.

Cheers.
                                Jim

(P.S.: David, I owe you another response off-line...)