Sound and microphone on Sony Vaio VPCS11E7E with Ubuntu 10.04

Italiano | English

UPDATE (08-20-2010): Locking the package is no more required.

What do you need

I strongly advise you to at least do all the security updates before starting, so that you will have the latest Lucid kernel.

In a terminal type:

sudo apt-get build-dep --no-install-recommends linux-backports-modules-alsa-$(uname -r)
sudo apt-get install fakeroot
mkdir mic ; cd mic

in order to download the libraries and the programs needed to compile. As you can see I also created a mic directory, so it will be easier to get rid of the no more useful files.

Compile and install

apt-get source linux-backports-modules-alsa-$(uname -r)
wget -c http://vaio-f11-linux.googlecode.com/files/vaio-f11-mic-linein-linux-2.6.35.patch
cd linux-backports-modules-2.6.32-2.6.32/
patch updates/alsa-driver/alsa-kernel/pci/hda/patch_realtek.c ../vaio-f11-mic-linein-linux-2.6.35.patch

all in the same terminal as above! So we downloaded the sources, the patch and we applied the patch to the sources.

Add a line like this to your debian/changelog:

so that apt will think that our version is newer than the one in the repos.

We are ready to compile:

fakeroot debian/rules binary flavours="generic"

since I don’t know how to not compile linux-backports-modules-wireless, it will take a couple of minutes.

When it’s done:

sudo dpkg -i ../linux-backports-modules-alsa-2.6.32-*
rm -rf ../../mic

Finished?

Almost.

  1. You may want to lock the current package in order to prevent apt to replace ti with the one from Canonical. Using Synaptic browse to the package you just installed and then PackageLock Version. (Useless it seems)
  2. Ubuntu kernels are made so that you will have to redo this howto at every major release of Lucid kernel. If you haven’t understand what I just said, «yesterday it was working» is a good clue anyway.

Source: http://code.google.com/p/vaio-f11-linux/wiki/EnableMicrophone

24 pensieri su “Sound and microphone on Sony Vaio VPCS11E7E with Ubuntu 10.04”

  1. I tried to make it twice, but with no progress with mic. Maybe the point is my system 2.6.32 and i need old patch instead vaio-f11-mic-linein-linux-2.6.35.patch? Most strange thing is I can see mic in the mixer and even change levels, but it still not working with recording etc. Maybe it muted?

    1. I was able to see mic in the mixer too and even to adjust level, but no sound before patching. I can tell you for sure that if the patch is working with kernel 2.6.35, then it’s working with backported alsa modules too (my pc is the living proof :D) and viceversa.
      Keep in mind that the patch is intended for the ALC275, so if you have a Vaio with a different sound card it will most likely not work. This will also be included in 2.6.36 (at the moment we have a rc2) so you will soon know for sure if this patch works on your system.

  2. new version – 2.6.32.25
    It uses ‘linux-backports-modules-2.6.32’ instead ‘linux-backports-modules-alsa-2.6.32-25-generic’
    and i cant make your instruction done

    1. Is it in proposed/backports? I can’t see neither linux -25 nor modules for it (I never enable those repos due to a bad story with Ubuntu 8.04). Maybe when they come to lucid-updates modules will be renamed as they was with -24. Anyway, tomorrow I’ll take a look 🙂

  3. I did the procedure with maverick beta. The patch is correcly applied on the package source linux-backport-modules-alsa of the 2.6.35 kernel. When I try to compile I don’t receive any errors, but nothing is really compiled, and produced packages does not contain any kernel modules 🙁

    Why? How can I tell the build system of this package ti build the modules?

    Thanks 🙂

    1. I planned to test how is Maverick doing, but I’m not going to publish anything “official” until it actually comes out. So… a week and I’ll reply to your comment 😀

      1. Yeah, maverick is driving me mad… alsa backports is empty, nvidia 260 fail to load customedid… Actually I don’t know what to do 🙂

    1. Social Media For Business – How Can Your Company Benefit From Social Media Posted in Uncategorized Oct25 To get competitive advantage small businesses must adopt social internet marketing now and in the future. Internet marketing is certainly evolving every single day. Organizations should strengthen their marketing strategy frequently, creating changes since general trends change in the web. Why social media for business

    2. Origin-based vs destination-based. We have a manufacturing company located in Arizona (orgin-based). Our product is delivered to various states and installed by Arizona employees. Do we collect Arizona sales and use tax or the destination state sales and use tax.

  4. Grazie per la guida dettagliata ma non funziona. Uso Ubuntu 10.10 e ho seguito le tue istruzioni, sostituendo 2.6.32 con 2.6.35. Il nome del mio pc è diverso (VPCF12C5E) ma il sistema audio dovrebbe essere lo stesso.

    Hai consigli, per favore?

    Grazie ancora.

    Ciao,
    Nicola

    1. Non a caso c’è scritto “Ubuntu 10.04” 😉
      Tale pacchetto in maverick è ancora vuoto, quindi è normale che la procedura non funzioni. Senza PC sotto mano (rotto) non posso testare, ma fondamentalmente le cose che puoi fare sono queste:
      * fare la procedura su una 10.04 e copiare il modulo compilato a mano;
      * compilarti i driver di alsa a mano e includere la patch;
      * compilare un kernel e includere la patch.
      Purtroppo non ho mezzi/voglia di testare questi metodi, se vuoi provare ti tocca spulciare per la rete le procedure.

      1. Ti ringrazio molto per la risposta. Sinceramente speravo che far funzionare il microfono fosse più semplice e trovo particolarmente scomodo dover passare a Windows ogni volta che devo usare Skype. Purtroppo adesso non ho il tempo/voglia per testare soluzioni.
        In futuro, probabilmente, ci riproverò…

        Grazie ancora.

        Ciao,
        Nicola

      2. In un momento di pazzia ho disinstallato la 10.10 e installato la 10.04 (che è anche LTS). Purtroppo nemmeno lo stesso non riesco a far funzionare la procedura che sembra eseguirsi correttamente ma non produrre il risultato desiderato. Hai altri suggerimenti, per favore?

        Grazie mille.

        Ciao,
        Nicola

      3. Tieni presente che la patch è per i Vaio con scheda audio ALC275. O per le ALC275 in generale, non sono sicuro.
        Se hai una scheda audio diversa, allora è solo normale che la patch non funzioni. Prova a dare “lspci” da terminale, cerca la periferica e verifica che sia la stessa. In entrambi i casi non saprei come aiutarti, ma almeno se è un’altra scheda audio hai la speranza che esista una patch specifica funzionante 🙂

Lascia un commento

Il tuo indirizzo email non sarà pubblicato. I campi obbligatori sono contrassegnati *