Solaris: Fixing sound card woes

Symptom:
System cannot play any kind of audio files. All attempts to play audio files
fail with can't find audio device dev/audioctl does not exist error message.

Resolution:

1. With mixerctl command:
   
   
   • check if a driver has been installed for the sound card, and
     
   • if a driver has already been installed, check the default or primary audio device.
   
   eg., % mixerctl
   mixerctl: device /dev/audioctl does not exist
   
   That means, the primary audio device is not configured properly.
   
   /dev/audio is a symbolic link, points to the sound card device on the machine. It exists only if there is a supported sound device on the machine. When the audio device(s) are installed on the system, they appear under /dev/sound directory.
   
   % ls -l /dev/audio*
   No match
   
   
2. The driver might have installed already, but not loaded. Try to load it with devfsadm command. By default, devfsadm tries to load every driver in the system and attach to all possible device instances. Also it creates logical links to device nodes in /dev and /devices and loads the device policy, if the driver load succeeds.
   
   eg., # devfsadm -v
   devfsadm[1739]: verbose: removing link /dev/syscon -> ../../devices/pseudo/pts@0:4
   invalid contents
   devfsadm[1739]: verbose: symlink /dev/syscon -> ../devices/pseudo/cn@0:syscon
   
   % mixerctl
   mixerctl: device /dev/audioctl does not exist
   
   In this example, the driver for the sound card is not loaded even with devfsadm. The relevant driver might not have installed on the machine. So, the next step is to install the driver for the audio device.
   
   
3. Get the audio driver for your OS version and chipset from: http://www.tools.de/solaris/audio/ and install.
   
   If you are not sure about the audio device information and the driver to download
   for your device, the steps are as follows to get that information:
   
   To get the information like device-id and vendor-id, check the output of prtconf -pv for "Audio device".
   
   eg., % prtconf -pv
   ...
   Node 0x1d80f8
   assigned-addresses: 8100fd10.00000000.00001c00.00000000.00000100.8100fd14.00000000.00001880.
   00000000.00000040
   class-code: 00040100
   compatible: 'pci8086,2485.1028.f3.2' + 'pci8086,2485.1028.f3' + 'pci1028,f3' + 'pci8086,2485.2' + 'pci8086,2485' + 'pciclass,040100' + 'pciclass,0401'
   device-id: 00002485
   devsel-speed: 00000001
   fast-back-to-back:
   interrupts: 00000002
   max-latency: 00000000
   min-grant: 00000000
   model: 'PCI: 8086,2485.1028.f3.2 - Audio device'
   name: 'pci1028,f3'
   power-consumption: 00000001.00000001
   reg: 0000fd00.00000000.00000000.00000000.00000000.0100fd10.00000000.00000000.
   00000000.00000100.0100fd14.00000000.00000000.00000000.00000040
   revision-id: 00000002
   slot: 00000000
   subsystem-id: 000000f3
   subsystem-vendor-id: 00001028
   unit-address: '1f,5'
   vendor-id: 00008086
   ...
   
   In this example, device-id = 2485 and the vendor-id = 8086.
   
   Searching for device "2485" at http://www.pcidatabase.com/index.php, showed the following result:
   
   
   
   

   Device Id	Chip Description	Vendor Id	Vendor Name
   0x2485	AC97 Audio Controller	0x8086	Intel Corporation

   
   So, audioi810 driver from http://www.tools.de/solaris/audio/, has to be installed since it supports AC97 Audio Controller on Intel.
   
   
4. After installing the audio driver, reboot the machine once to let the
   system configure everything properly for you during the system startup.
   
   
5. Once the machine is up, check the status of the primary audio device again
   with mixerctl.
   
   % mixerctl
   Device /dev/audioctl:
   Name = SUNW,CS4231
   Version = 02,ICH3:82801CA
   Config = i810
   
   /dev/audioctl doesn't support the audio mixer function
   
   % ls -l /dev/audio*
   lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 00:23 /dev/audio -> sound/0
   lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr 24 00:23 /dev/audioctl -> sound/0ctl
   
   % ls -l /dev/sound/*
   lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 49 Apr 24 00:23 /dev/sound/0 -> ../../devices/pci@0,0/pci1028,f3@1f,5:sound,audio
   lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 52 Apr 24 00:23 /dev/sound/0ctl -> ../../devices/pci@0,0/pci1028,f3@1f,5:sound,audioctl
   
   
6. To quickly check if the newly installed driver is functioning properly,
   play any of the audio clips that we can find under /usr/demo/SOUND/sounds/
   with audioplay utility.
   
   eg., % audioplay /usr/demo/SOUND/sounds/train.au
   
   If you cannot hear any audio from the system, check /var/adm/message
   for error messages from the audio device driver. Also check prtconf -D output, to make sure the audio driver (audioi810 from above examples) has attached to your hardware.
   
   
7. If the audio files play too fast with any media player, read the following for the workaround (straight lift from: http://www.riddleware.com/solx86/solarisonintel/msg37434.html; thanks to "gnu noob" for posting the problem/solution at LinuxQuestions.org):
   
   The AC'97 standard defines that the AC'97 codec has to run with an internal sample rate of 48kHz, but some mainboard manufacturers seem to overclock their chipsets / AC'97 codec. On such an overclocked AC'97 codec the internal sample rate is significantly higher than 48kHz, and audio plays back too fast.
   
   If you install the latest version of the audio drivers, you'll find a driver property "ac97_codec_clockrate" for the audioi810 driver in /platform/i86pc/kernel/drv/audioi810.conf, to workaround the problem with such an overclocked AC'97 codec.
   
   You'll find some instructions in the audioi810.conf file how to measure the exact internal clock rate used in your system's AC'97 codec.
   
   It appears that the latest version of the linux audio drivers are having a timing loop at i810 audio driver initialization time, to measure the AC'97 internal clock rate, so that the user doesn't have to configure a device specific clockrate.

Note:

1. With more than one audio devices installed on the system, make sure the primary audio device (ie., the symbolic links /dev/audio and
   /dev/audioctl) is pointing to the right audio device ie., /dev/sound/x (where x = any integer).
   
   
2. The primary audio device can be changed by modifying the /dev/audio
   and /dev/audioctl symbolic links. For more information, please read Solaris
   documentation at http://docs.sun.com
   
   
3. For a lot of applications you can select which one of multiple audio devices
   should to be used by setting the environment variable AUDIODEV: e.g.
   
   eg., % env AUDIODEV=/dev/sound/0 audioplay /usr/demo/SOUND/sounds/train.au

Acknowledgements:
J.Keil (http://www.tools.de/solaris/audio/)
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