[SOLVED] odd audio problem after upgrade w/ VIA VT82xx

Question

Everything was working splendidly until I did pacman -Syu the other day.
Now, sound plays VERY faintly (so much so that you can barely hear it on full volume), and there's audible (but faint) static in the background.  It's ALL sound -- doesn't matter what program I use or whether it goes through ALSA, OSS, or Pulse.  The weird part is that the static gets stronger when my machine does work: if I shut down, for example, the static seems to go along with the disk write noise.  Also, you'd think it'd either work or not work instead of halfway working.
Volumes are all set properly.  I ran alsaconf to no avail.  I get no errors in dmesg, or when I run a program to play audio.
I'm assuming the culprit is the 2.6.30 kernel upgrade, but I'm not entirely sure, as like I said, I upgraded all packages.
Here's some relevant info:
$ uname -a
Linux myhost 2.6.30-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Jun 19 21:25:17 UTC 2009 i686 AMD Athlon(TM) XP 2500+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
$ lspci | grep audio
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_seq_dummy 2696 0
snd_seq_oss 31168 0
snd_seq_midi_event 7012 1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq 53744 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_via82xx_modem 11820 0
snd_via82xx 24060 3
snd_mpu401_uart 7524 1 snd_via82xx
snd_ac97_codec 106088 2 snd_via82xx_modem,snd_via82xx
snd_pcm_oss 40352 0
snd_mixer_oss 17540 1 snd_pcm_oss
ac97_bus 1540 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_rawmidi 21824 1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device 6768 4 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
snd_pcm 73768 5 snd_via82xx_modem,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 21068 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 58404 17 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_via82xx_modem,snd_via82xx,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm,snd_timer
snd_page_alloc 8844 3 snd_via82xx_modem,snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
soundcore 6784 1 snd
gameport 11280 4 snd_via82xx,analog,ns558
$ dmesg | grep VIA
VIA 82xx Audio 0000:00:11.5: PCI INT C -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 22
VIA 82xx Audio 0000:00:11.5: setting latency timer to 64
Any ideas?  I'm stumped, and I miss my audio!
Last edited by toxite (2009-07-01 02:11:48)

Answer 1

Sound is back... Thanks!
Now that it is working.. what is DXS? I cannot find anything useful about it, yet.
EDIT: found it
linux-2.6.git / Documentation / sound / alsa / ALSA-Configuration.txt
1787        dxs_support    - support DXS channels,
1788              0 = auto (default), 1 = enable, 2 = disable,
1789              3 = 48k only, 4 = no VRA, 5 = enable any sample
1790              rate and different sample rates on different
1791              channels
1792              [VIA8233/C, 8235, 8237 only]
1804        Note: VIA8233/5/7 (not VIA8233A) can support DXS (direct sound)
1805          channels as the first PCM.  On these channels, up to 4
1806          streams can be played at the same time, and the controller
1807          can perform sample rate conversion with separate rates for
1808          each channel.
Last edited by diegonc (2009-07-01 04:13:38)