[12.10] Sound quietly on Laptop

[thyriel]

Hi,

some strange behavior i came across regarding Sound in Xubuntu 12.10 on an Alienware M17x R3 Laptop.
Using the internal Speakers, even on loudest settings (also checked alsamixer) is not nearly als loud as it is in Windows.
Id also checked if there is any loudness Plugin or so running in Windows, and its not, so id guess its something in the used driver or so.
Beside that, sound isnt as good as it is windows, it just has a lot more "power" there.

lspci:

Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Barts HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6800 Series]

lsmod |grep snd

snd_hda_codec_hdmi     31423  1 
snd_hda_codec_idt      59761  1 
snd_hda_intel          32515  7 
snd_hda_codec         111547  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep              13272  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                80163  4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_seq_midi           13132  0 
snd_rawmidi            25382  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event     14475  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                51255  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              24411  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device         14137  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd                    61991  23 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore              14599  1 snd
snd_page_alloc         14036  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

aplay -l

card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

In the configuration in Xfce i have set "Barts HDMI Audio (Radeon HD 6800 Series)" to Off and "Built in Audio" to Analog Stereo Output".

In Windows its running as "IDT High Definition Audio CODEC"

Glad if anyone could help me on this

[thyriel]

no one an Idea ?

[Chiapo]

Here's how I tweaked an HP Envy with Beats Audio to sound louder.

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-859769.html
After editing the one file, you should be able to adjust volume for all channels in PulseAudio-volume-control.
Subwoofer included.

I found the link on AskUbuntu.

Good luck!

[thyriel]

Pretty much forgot about this until i found it in my bookmarks again *shame*

I managed to get it running correctly

added to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
options snd-hda-intel model=auto

Also tried before with model=dell and model=alienware both resulting in no sound at all, but somehow auto works great

[Temüjin]

So without the model=auto line, it doesn't work at full volume? If so, you should report a bug so that other folks with this laptop know how to work around it (and maybe devs will suggest hard-coding the quirk into ALSA so no workaround is needed).