Sound on ALIX.3D3

The AMD CS5536 Geode on the ALIX.3D3 board has an included audio controller which headset output and microphone input is populated on the board. lspci lists the audio controller as

00:0f.3 Multimedia audio controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] CS5536 [Geode companion] Audio (rev 01)

ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) supports this chip. To use audio on the board, some adjustments to kernel are needed:

Device Drivers  --->
   <*> Sound card support  --->
      <*>   Advanced Linux Sound Architecture  --->
         [*]   Dynamic device file minor numbers
         [*]   PCI sound devices  --->
            <*>   CS5535/CS5536 Audio

After compiling and installing the kernel, we need to install ALSA userspace tools:

emerge -va alsa-headers alsa-lib alsa-utils

After rebooting the kernel should recognize the sound device:

[    2.830979] cs5535audio 0000:00:0f.3: PCI INT B -> Link[LNKB] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
[    2.842814] cs5535audio 0000:00:0f.3: setting latency timer to 64
[    2.850457] ALSA device list:
[    2.863735]   #0: CS5535 Audio cs5535audio at 0xfe00, irq 11

Now it's time to setup the audio channels. Run

alsamixer

unmute and pull up the Headphone and PCM faders. Unmute "Mic Boost" and change to the Capture View and pull up Capture there. It should look like

alsamixer: Playback alsamixer: Capture

You can navigate with the left/right keys, change the volume with the up/down keys, mute/unmute with M, change between Playback/Capture/All with TAB and quit with ESC.

J12/J13 on ALIX.3D3

J12/J13 on ALIX.3D3

Now connect a headphone oder speakers to J12 (headphone output) and run

speaker-test -twav -c2

You should hear a female voice saying "front left" and "front right" on the corresponding channel. Cancel the test with Control+C. Now connect a microphone to J13 (microphone input) and run

arecord -d 5 -f cd -t wav /tmp/mic-test.wav

You have 5 seconds to make some noise. Afterwards run

aplay /tmp/mic-test.wav

and you should hear the previous made noise. Finally do

rc-update add alsasound boot

so that ALSA can save/restore your settings on reboot.

2 thoughts on “Sound on ALIX.3D3

  1. Hi Tobias,

    vielen Dank für diese Beschreibung - ich habe versucht das Ganze mit Debian 6 auf die Reihe zu bekommen, leider ohne Erfolg. Ich nehme an, dass hier der SChritt mit dem Kernel fehlt. Denn ich kann nichts aufnehmen, noch abspielen - immer tote Hose in den Kopfhörern.

    Hast du vielleicht schon mal mit dem Alix und Debian was gemacht?

    VIelen Dank, lg und bis bald, Bernhard

  2. @Bernhard
    Hallo Bernhard!

    Ich habe leider nie Debian auf dem Alix getestet und inzwischen besitze ich auch keines mehr, so dass ich es testen könnte. Du könntest aber auch unter Debian versuchen dir den Kernel selbst zu compilen. Ansonsten kannst du mal schaun, ob im dmesg der Kernel irgendetwas in Richtung Sound zu erzählen hat.

    Grüße
    Tobias

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