Hello everyone,
So, I have to revive an old laptop for my parents - Asus W2U00VC. Apparently, Linux was the only solution. I tried different distros, but Puppy (BionicPup32 8.0) was the fastest. In addition, it's relatively user-friendly, as far as I can judge.
I've been trying to solve this issue for a couple of days and I am going insane now. I have no sound, nowhere. In retrovol, it shows hw:0 and there are no buttons, nothing is active. If I set it to hw:1, it uses a TV tuner chip, I guess, which is not what is needed. In alsamixer, if I press F6 and choose HDA Intel, it says "This Sound Device Does Not Have Any Controls".
I tried lots of different distros, Arch, TinyCore, Lubuntu, Linux Lite, AntiX, Peppermint, etc., yet all of them have the same issue.
I can get sound, however, when I use extremely old versions of any of them. I believe, the last Puppy distro that gives me sound is Puppy Linux 5.5 "Slacko". But here, I have another problem - Firefox is extremely old and it can't be used to surf web. And even if I update it manually, it doesn't run.
Anyway, the problem is that, as I've found out, there is some kernel-related issue which appeared many years ago and which brings a lot of problems for Intel HDA Realtek ALC880 (or any other similar) chip. I think I've tried everything I could find on the Internet (I'm really sorry, but I can't list everything, but at least I can say I tried removing alsa and installing pulseaudio/pavucontrol).
The last straw was when I read somewhere that I could downgrade kernel, but then it appears Puppy is somewhat unique, and I cannot use UKUU to do it (to be honest, I cannot even find out how to install it).
To make it clear - I'm a complete beginner and I've never had to tweak anything in Linux, so all I've learned is a couple of commands, a lot of which don't work in Puppy for whatever reasons, and some general impression of how Linux works.
Sorry for such a long post.
Any help will be appreciated.
Sound in Asus W2U00VC laptop only works in older Puppies
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leviqsupernova
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Mon 01 Jun 2020, 15:34
- Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
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OscarTalks
- Posts: 2196
- Joined: Mon 06 Feb 2012, 00:58
- Location: London, England
From what you describe it sounds like you have old hardware and the main soundcard within it is supported in older linux kernels but for some reason support for that soundcard has been lost or dropped in more recent kernels. The kernel provides, among other things, an interface between the hardware and the software.
In more recent Puppies it is fairly easy to swap kernels, so if you hunt around the forum you may find some older ones that people have provided.
A slightly easier alternative might be to look in the Puppy Derivatives section of the forum for Precise-light or Tahr-light. These are older Puppies which have been modified to work with newer programs including browsers. Some trial and error will be needed. Others may have further advice.
In more recent Puppies it is fairly easy to swap kernels, so if you hunt around the forum you may find some older ones that people have provided.
A slightly easier alternative might be to look in the Puppy Derivatives section of the forum for Precise-light or Tahr-light. These are older Puppies which have been modified to work with newer programs including browsers. Some trial and error will be needed. Others may have further advice.
Oscar in England
I am also a newbie!!
But please give more information about your hardware.
Could not find what is sound chipset for Asus W2U00Vc.
Drivers are included in the kernel. New kernels might not have the desired hardware support but can be added with another file.
Go to menu/system /Hardinfo or System information
Generate report
choose only computer and devices (no need for network/benchmarks)
choose dir root/my-documents
choose save as txt.
then you can paste or attach here.
Sometimes the sound is very low(zero) on PCM slider.
right click in sound icon choose Config Window
In Retrovol - Configuration choose hardware
move all inactive sliders to active sliders (choose one then left arrow)
choose apply
right click on sound icon again and choose full window.
Check pcm and other sliders.
Hope it helps
But please give more information about your hardware.
Could not find what is sound chipset for Asus W2U00Vc.
Drivers are included in the kernel. New kernels might not have the desired hardware support but can be added with another file.
Go to menu/system /Hardinfo or System information
Generate report
choose only computer and devices (no need for network/benchmarks)
choose dir root/my-documents
choose save as txt.
then you can paste or attach here.
Sometimes the sound is very low(zero) on PCM slider.
right click in sound icon choose Config Window
In Retrovol - Configuration choose hardware
move all inactive sliders to active sliders (choose one then left arrow)
choose apply
right click on sound icon again and choose full window.
Check pcm and other sliders.
Hope it helps
Paulo Pestana <- All the way from Portugal 8)
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Mike Walsh
- Posts: 6351
- Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
- Location: King's Lynn, UK.
Hallo, leviqsupernova. And 
to the 'kennels'.
I think Oscar's nailed it. It does sound, from your description of the issue, that support for your card has been dropped from the kernel. Slacko 5.5 has a very early 3-series kernel, so Precise 571 might be a good one to try - k3.9.11. Slacko 5.7.0 was k3.10.32, Slacko 5.6.0 was k3.10.5.
Racy 5.5 was k3.0.66, one of the very last Pups from the older T2 'build-system'. Bloody good little Puppy; my mate tuxtoo has recently dedicated a new website to this wee gem:-
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=117307
.....which I helped with research for. Yep; might be worth a look at. We can help you out with some suggestions for an up-to-date browser, though it'll be Mozilla-based, not a Chromium 'clone', I'm afraid.
Mike.
to the 'kennels'.I think Oscar's nailed it. It does sound, from your description of the issue, that support for your card has been dropped from the kernel. Slacko 5.5 has a very early 3-series kernel, so Precise 571 might be a good one to try - k3.9.11. Slacko 5.7.0 was k3.10.32, Slacko 5.6.0 was k3.10.5.
Racy 5.5 was k3.0.66, one of the very last Pups from the older T2 'build-system'. Bloody good little Puppy; my mate tuxtoo has recently dedicated a new website to this wee gem:-
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=117307
.....which I helped with research for. Yep; might be worth a look at. We can help you out with some suggestions for an up-to-date browser, though it'll be Mozilla-based, not a Chromium 'clone', I'm afraid.
Mike.
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Mike Walsh
- Posts: 6351
- Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
- Location: King's Lynn, UK.
@ pcplague2:-
Mike.
Paulo, appreciate your enthusiasm, but it does help to read things properly. The OP's already stated thatpcplague2 wrote:Sometimes the sound is very low(zero) on PCM slider.
right click in sound icon choose Config Window
In Retrovol - Configuration choose hardware
move all inactive sliders to active sliders (choose one then left arrow)
choose apply
right click on sound icon again and choose full window.
Check pcm and other sliders.
(Emphasis supplied).it says "This Sound Device Does Not Have Any Controls".
Mike.
If you have BionicPup32 8.0 installed as a frugal install.
you can change the kernel to any type you would like with this tool.
In a terminal
Just to better understand the change_kernels program.
The info for the input slots is a little miss leading.
(Use nothing from the running Puppy)
What goes into the slots is stuff from the new kernel.
Top slot -->the vmlinuz file
Bottom slot -->the zdrv sfs or the kernel-modules sfs
There is a kernels button (bottom right) that will take you to the repository of all the regular Puppy versions kernels.
You can use any of them, however get too old a kernel and newer hardware may not be supported.
The 32bit kernels will not have a bit number in the name or will have 32 in the name.
All 64 bit kernels will have 64 in the name.
Note:
Download the kernel package (Example: huge-3.0.103-tahr_noPAE_retro.tar.bz2)
Use UExtract program to extract the package contents into a directory.
In Rox file manager, open the directory to see the needed files to drag and drop into change_kernels.
Not sure which kernel you would need, but there are plenty of version 3 kernels.
Maybe pick one that was used in an older Puppy, that had working sound.
you can change the kernel to any type you would like with this tool.
In a terminal
Code: Select all
change_kernels- Download a huge kernel and extract the files in it to a directory.
open the change_kernels program
open in rox the directory holding the extracted huge kernel components
drag and drop the correct vmlinuz and kernel-modules.sfs or zdrv.sfs into the correct input slot.
answer prompt yes
reboot
Just to better understand the change_kernels program.
The info for the input slots is a little miss leading.
(Use nothing from the running Puppy)
What goes into the slots is stuff from the new kernel.
Top slot -->the vmlinuz file
Bottom slot -->the zdrv sfs or the kernel-modules sfs
There is a kernels button (bottom right) that will take you to the repository of all the regular Puppy versions kernels.
You can use any of them, however get too old a kernel and newer hardware may not be supported.
The 32bit kernels will not have a bit number in the name or will have 32 in the name.
All 64 bit kernels will have 64 in the name.
Note:
Download the kernel package (Example: huge-3.0.103-tahr_noPAE_retro.tar.bz2)
Use UExtract program to extract the package contents into a directory.
In Rox file manager, open the directory to see the needed files to drag and drop into change_kernels.
Not sure which kernel you would need, but there are plenty of version 3 kernels.
Maybe pick one that was used in an older Puppy, that had working sound.
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The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected
YaPI(any iso installer)
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected
YaPI(any iso installer)
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leviqsupernova
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Mon 01 Jun 2020, 15:34
- Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
UPD: So, basically I had two decent solutions: one from bigpup - to make a frugal installation of the recent Puppy and change the kernel, and one from Mike Walsh - to install Puppy Racy 5.5 and get some cool updates, gathered by tuxtoo (https://racypup.netlify.app/).
I went for the solution number 2, because changing the kernel looked a little bit harder (wasn't sure whether I had to find the kernel (I, indeed, needed 5.7.1, as I see now) manually or some kind of list with kernels would pop-up if I type the command).
As a result - everything works just fine. I have sound now. Got Firefox from, again, http://www.racypup.netlify.app, and even though it's a bit old, I have no certificate issues so far; YouTube works, Gmail works. That's basically everything my parents wanted.
Thank you everyone again, I'm surprised how quickly I got help here!
UPD 2: Unfortunately, I still have to update Firefox, singe Gmail loads only basic HTML, Facebook says it won't support the browser soon, add-ons cannot be installed directly from the store, etc. I guess, I should create a separate topic for that.
I went for the solution number 2, because changing the kernel looked a little bit harder (wasn't sure whether I had to find the kernel (I, indeed, needed 5.7.1, as I see now) manually or some kind of list with kernels would pop-up if I type the command).
As a result - everything works just fine. I have sound now. Got Firefox from, again, http://www.racypup.netlify.app, and even though it's a bit old, I have no certificate issues so far; YouTube works, Gmail works. That's basically everything my parents wanted.
Thank you everyone again, I'm surprised how quickly I got help here!
UPD 2: Unfortunately, I still have to update Firefox, singe Gmail loads only basic HTML, Facebook says it won't support the browser soon, add-ons cannot be installed directly from the store, etc. I guess, I should create a separate topic for that.