[?]Are Realtek Audio Drivers for Linux available for use

[Susmita/Rajib]

To,
The Team Debian-Laptop,
debian...@lists.debian.org,
Debian.org

My dear illustrious Team Leaders,

Good morning.

Model (India): Lenovo IdeaPad 320-15ISK 80XH01FKIN 15.6-inch Laptop
(6th Gen Core i3-6006U/4GB/2TB/Integrated Graphics), Platinum Grey

The OSes are Debian (Stretch) 9.11.0 Lxde and Knoppix 8.6.0, in 64-bit
operation.

All details/specifications of my used Lenovo laptop are also in the
Debian Forums post (to avoid clutter and maintain centralised notes).

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=146606&p=722991

I am searching for Realtek audio drivers for Linux for the Hardware
details: "Lenovo ideapad 320-15ISK" LNVNB161216, and "Realtek
Audio_6.0.1.8652.A.",otherwise, I am afraid that the audio won't be
able to operate in duplex mode, i.e., won't record audio while playing
it.

I have posted the topic in Debian Forum here:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=149074, but as said
earlier too, it is difficult to find solution in the Debian forum.

I assure you that, as always, I shall post a [Solved] reply in the
Debian Forums at the end of this experience for future users.

Regards,
Rajib Bandopadhyay
A dedicated Debian and Knoppix user

[Susmita/Rajib]

On 15/03/2021, James Henry McCoy Jr <spacek...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Your sound card Realtek may have problems with frequencies. To solve
> install OSS. It seems that it is supported. Install and restart.
> If installation errors, try installing alsa-oss
>
... ... [snipped] ... ...
>
> On Fri, 2021-03-12 at 15:12 +0530, Susmita/Rajib wrote:
... ... [snipped] ... ...

Thank you, Mr. McCoy, for replying to my request for solution. Could
you please elaborate a little more please? Like, what could be the
problems with frequencies? There are multiple 'oss' packages. A little
more details please?

Searched for oss in Debian package repository. It appears that
oss4-base isn't available in Debian Stretch or Buster. It is in Jessie
and Sid.

Did not reach the stage for alsa-oss. The package was however found.

Best.
Rajib

[ael]

On Mon, Mar 15, 2021 at 11:00:15PM +0530, Susmita/Rajib wrote:
> On 15/03/2021, James Henry McCoy Jr <spacek...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > Your sound card Realtek may have problems with frequencies. To solve

What does aplay -l show? That should show what realtek chip alsa has
detected.

Also look in /proc/asound/ and in the cardn/ subdirectories.

If you use the alsa plughw device, that ought to handle any mismatch
between the frequencies supported by the hardware and frequencies
requested by software. But perhaps that is not you problem: I have lost
the original post.

If you think it is an ALSA driver problem (unlikely), then run
alsa-info which is in alsa-utils. That should collect comprehensive
information about your system. If you still think that there is a driver
problem, then you might report to to the alsa developers' list: you will
be expected to append the result of alsa-info.sh to any report.

ael

PS. Best to remove any pulseaudio when trying to sort of audio problems.

[ael]

On Thu, Mar 25, 2021 at 07:10:08PM +0530, Susmita/Rajib wrote:
> Were you talking of card0 while talking about cardn?

Among any others. "n" was to be understood as a variable ranging over
integers.

> While files do you want to peruse more? Just inform and I shall upload them.

You really need to learn how to read files yourself.

> The alsa-info file is attached herewith for your kind perusal. I am

I have only taken the briefest of glances. I am afraid that I know
nothing of pulseaudio, and since it is installed and doing something to
the ALSA system, I cannot help. Someone else here might be able to assist.

But if you are trying to track down a problem, remove complications like
pulseaudio and then see whether things work. You can put it back later
if that is what you want to do: at least you will know that it is a
pulseaudio problem if that is the case.

I was bit surprised to see the codec shown as "Realtek Generic" without
identifying the particular chip: perhaps I missed that.

I see
name 'Speaker Playback Volume'
value.0 0
value.1 0
which suggest that the speakers are "off". Maybe that is how pulseaudio
leaves them? But if you have been trying to get sound to the speakers,
that looks like the first place to start. If you didn't have pulseaudio
there, I would tell you to read the man page for alsamixer.

ael

[Susmita/Rajib]

On 25 Mar 2021 18:01:14 +0000, ael <law_en...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> Re: [?]Are Realtek Audio Drivers for Linux available for use - Suggestion
>
> To: debian...@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Re: [?]Are Realtek Audio Drivers for Linux available for
> use - Suggestion
> From: ael <law_en...@ntlworld.com>
> Message-id: <[🔎] YFzP6raY...@shelf.conquest>
> In-reply-to: <[🔎]
> CAEG4cZVFtVt-7ykjGhvtNzXR...@mail.gmail.com>

... ... [snipped] ... ... [snipped] ... ...

> You really need to learn how to read files yourself.

At the backdrop of a difficult national situation, we don't have sufficient
institutions nearby from which to learn reading the man pages and the
Linux command line system. Man is like a jigsaw puzzle, without
example codes, written by aspergers afflicted.

I have found a book, The Linux Command Line A Complete Introduction,
2nd Ed, William E. Shotts Jr. Problem is that without a teacher, I
don't know where to begin. So I am reading from the beginning.

>
>> The alsa-info file is attached herewith for your kind perusal. I am
>

> I have only taken the briefest of glances. ... [snipped] ... ...

Please have a look in depth ...

> ... [snipped] ... ... I am afraid that I know

> nothing of pulseaudio, and since it is installed and doing something to
> the ALSA system, I cannot help. Someone else here might be able to assist.

I have told you that I have no qualms in removing it, if everything it
does could be done from the command line with alsa. In fact, removed
it. But alsa is so limited to terminal. Man page. Complex codelines.
Setting up duplex playback-recording simultaneously is a real pain
with man pages.

> I was bit surprised to see the codec shown as "Realtek Generic" without
> identifying the particular chip: perhaps I missed that.

All information that you want of the card are on these threads:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=149074, the alsa-user list:
https://www.mail-archive.com/alsa...@lists.sourceforge.net/msg33005.html
and the debian-user list:
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2021/03/thrd2.html#00669

If desired, i could copy outputs to the Google Drive link.

> I see
> name 'Speaker Playback Volume'
> value.0 0
> value.1 0
> which suggest that the speakers are "off". Maybe that is how pulseaudio
> leaves them? But if you have been trying to get sound to the speakers,
> that looks like the first place to start. If you didn't have pulseaudio
> there, I would tell you to read the man page for alsamixer.

Exactly where to begin from, and where to look at, any inputs?

Best.
Rajib