Problem with HDA Intel / Realtek ALC880 on TinyCore

[Capodastro]

Alsa provides some machine-model-names to add them as option for the card-codec. In my case the model-name is "Medion" or at least "Targa 5ch". Without this option I get the sound only from the woofer, left and right are excluded and the result is of very poor quality. Such a result is exactly what I get from "speaker test".
In the file "/tmp/tcloop/alsa-config/usr/local/share/alsa/init/HDA" I found mentioned and configured
"Acer Travelmate 8100"
"Lenovo T61"
as ALC880.

Usually I find in "/etc/modprobe.d" some appropriate ".conf"" file where I modify "options snd-hda-intel, enable=1" to
"options snd-hda-intel model=medion,enable=1", but tinycore has of course an other structure.

Does somebody know about the way to configure properly my sond card?
Thanks in advance!

[curaga]

You're correct about the file location. That dir doesn't exist by default, but you can create it.

edit: Corrected post.

[Capodastro]

hi Curaga!,
first of all thenks a lot for your attention. Well, at least I learned to make files persistent. In addition I stopped for ever distinguishing between files and folders: the last act in leaving $$ndows. I know that in modprobe.d everything with ".config" will be parsed. However, reading doesn't mean doing! I mean alsa reads and doesn't do!  Here an example 15 min. old, I think you will like it:
I boot with the ominous option "kmap=qwertz/de-latin1-nodeadkeys". By getting a perfect X configuration I also got back the us keyboard. Of course: the keyboard section in X. I didn't find a valid reference in our forum and the attempt to get an xorg.conf generated in text modus by X leaded to a crash, believe or not. On the other hand I know that X executes fist the code from xorg.conf, in case the directives are wrong or absent X will use the own configuration. Finally I made the following xorg.conf:

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
        Driver          "kbd"
        Option          "XkbRules"      "xorg"
        Option          "XkbModel"      "pc105"
        Option          "XkbLayout"     "de"
EndSection

I mean that is the entire file, and now: ÜüÄäÖöß~@ 
I have my german keyboard working! I am sure that will be helpful to many users.

Well, back to alsa, I did take a superficial look to the files discovering that a huge amount of code resides in "/temp". Such files and dirs are just linked to the "official place".
Other code is on place, possibly the "static" one and also possibly the right place to search. But where I was especting value assignments I found "floors" of "conditionals". Logic! This distribution is a little linux jewel and also more complicated.

J need to add that I didn't install the packages alsa-config.tcz  and alsaconf.tcz, the included explanation was too cryptic for me.

Finally, perhaps you know some tinycore-alsa-guru and you can ask him, or even better, you will get some  brilliant idea: addefinitively my weapons are over!

Hoping in your further help!

[Capodastro]

SOLVED!!!
modprobe -r snd-hda-intel
modprobe snd-hda-intel position_fix=1 model=medion
 
the rest is just technique...

[curaga]

You can put that to /opt/bootlocal.sh

[Capodastro]

yes curaga, I did so! The proper way would be putting in "/etc/modprobe.conf":

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel model=medion
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel model=medion

but it doesn't work, I didn't install alsaconf / alsa-config.
Well, I have still to add some more drivers but basically my OSS looks perfect. Even some 3D acc. without proprietary drivers. Great!
Thanks!

[tinypoodle]

Not clear how exactly alsa and OSS are related here...

[Capodastro]

you are right, so I didn't install OSS. As recapitulation I rewrite the whole procedure, a dirty one but the only working.
- I have a laptop MSI GT740. The laptop has two double speakers, left and right, plus a woofer in the middle. alsa loads the driver snd-hda-intel and I get just a mono channel on the woofer. I know from previous linux installations that my sound card works only if I start the same driver in the form

snd-hda-intel position_fix=1 model=medion

If I write in /etc/modprobe.conf  "options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=medion", that doesn't work, possibly because the OS evaluates the expression too late, when the driver is already started. I wrote in "opt/bootsynch.sh"

# unload the driver if loaded.
modprobe -r snd-hda-intel

# reload the driver with the right option.
modprobe snd-hda-intel position_fix=1 model=medion

- I installed the alsamixer
- I added in /opt/.filetool.lst "usr/local/etc/asound.state" without quotes.  this file stores the values which I assign to the different alsamixer channels.
- I configurated reasonably the channels in alsamixer.
- in the terminal, as root: " alsactl store"  without quotes, to store the mixer configuration.
-  in /opt/bootlocal.sh: "alsactl restore"  without quotes, to restore the mixer configuration on next boot.

That's all!

[tinypoodle]

- I installed the alsamixer

AFAIK, alsamixer gets automatically installed with alsa.tcz

[Rich]

Hi tinypoodle
I don't think so, it's not listed in the dependency file.

[gerald_clark]

Look in Files, not Depends.
It is included in alsa.tcz.

[Rich]

Hi gerald_clark
Yes, that is the ncurses version. I believe Capodastro was referring to alsamixergui.tcz which is based on the
FLTK GUI.

[Capodastro]

oh well, i meant th gui mixer, i found irrelevant to be precise by such small details and i beg for absolution!  now, to be exact:
in my case, as example, my laptop is a msi but only the configuration for medion laptops works on 100%. that forced me to try a huge amount of options / configurations. incredibly, on tc is possible to accomplish such a job very fast. the gui mixer icon is under my nose, just a click to start the applet, in addition i can use the mouse. the point is that before loading the driver with a new option or configuration or both together, i need fist to unload the present driver, what is impossible if aqlsamixer is running: first i have to close it. how i did the job: a root console to unload - load the driver. another console as user to test the new configuration checking the speakers with "speaker-test -c2 -t wav -l1", no quotes. if no sound i started the gui mixer to check - configure the channels. a very rapid way!
i add as attachment a huge list of models to try, the list comes from ubuntu and don't ask me about the link, i don't remember.
i think everybody knows how to make the configuration persistent, i was certainly the only forum member with this problem.
if missed something more just say that and i will be more complete!

[tinypoodle]

Not a small probability that with cards of similar model/codec OSS could turn out to provide more functionality.