No sound on powerpc, soundcard not detected

Question

I am running Lubuntu 13.10 on, among other machines, a Mac iBook G4.

I hear the signature sound on turning the machine on, but there is no sound when playing audio or video.

robert@lubuntu-ibookg4:~$  aplay -l
aplay: device_list:268: no soundcards found...

I have read the advice here, and everything appears in order: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ#Why_do_I_have_no_sound.3F

My sound does not appear to be muted*.

Modules:

snd-powermac is loaded.

The following are blacklisted: snd-aoa, snd-aoa-fabric-layout, snd-aoa-soundbus, snd-aoa-i2sbus, snd-aoa-codec-tas.

(* The above link gives the advice: "You need to check more than just your master volume, for example the volume of the PCM channel maybe set to zero". However, I do not know how to check the "PCM channel". I have installed gnome-alsamixer, but it does not appear to open properly i.e. the GUI opens but without any controls, just a blank window).

Any help gratefully received.

Many thanks.

Solution

The problem was that I had failed to consider that I might have both the wrong sound module loaded AND one of the volume controls muted. Thus when I tried with the other sound modules I did not at the same time re-try with alsamixer. (Reading above, see that alsamixer would not show any controls with snd-powermac loaded).

The solution was to ensure that these modules were loaded:

snd-aoa
snd-aoa-fabric-layout
snd-aoa-soundbus
snd-aoa-i2sbus
snd-aoa-codec-tas

and this one blacklisted:

snd-powermac

i.e. the opposite of the configuration installed by default.

Details here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ#Why_do_I_have_no_sound.3F

How?

1. In /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.local.conf comment out the blacklisted modules that are in fact required to be loaded:

   blacklist snd-aoa blacklist snd-aoa-fabric-layout blacklist snd-aoa-soundbus blacklist snd-aoa-i2sbus blacklist snd-aoa-codec-tas

and uncomment the following:

# blacklist snd-powermac

2. In /etc/modules add:

snd-aoa snd-aoa-fabric-layout snd-aoa-soundbus snd-aoa-i2sbus snd-aoa-codec-tas

Then, from a terminal I opened alsamixer, which now displayed normally. I toggled "PCM" to unmuted by selecting it and typing "m", then crucially I did the same with "Headphone". Without this last step there was still no sound, although what this has to do with it I don't know as I don't have any headphones attached.

Anyway, that worked.

Comments

[Lucio]

your first link is broken