# No Sound with Headphones:  Realtek ALC861-VD on Toshiba A135.



## gladiola (Oct 12, 2013)

Equipment:  Toshiba Satellite A135-S4527; Realtek ALC861-VD;
FreeBSD 9.1; X11/XOrg environment.

I have sound through speakers, but not through headphones.  I have
plinked around with several device hints, to no avail.  After several hours 
of testing my audio by trying to play "Nyan Cat" through mplayer, I humbly 
ask for your help.

I read several threads, and experimented with treatments that
looked like:

`hint.hdaa.0.cad0.nid27.config="as=1 seq=0"`

I suspect that I am picking the incorrect combinations of key/value
pairs.  I am inexperienced with reading the verbose dmesg and trying to set
values by identifying devices with those nid numbers.  I did not
record my toubleshooting; nor did I do it in a systematic manner.
I barely understand what the strings of values in the hint sequence
mean.

My system's conditions include:

1.  Headphones that are plugged in and mechanically functional.  I
tested this by using a BIOS beep.  I can hear that beep through the
headphones and the laptop speakers.

2.  Sound from the mplayer video plays through the speakers and can have
its volume controller by mixer.

3.  Dmesg verbose looks like attached "verbose12OCT2013.txt" that is in
verbose_dmesg.tar.gz.

When I read it, it seems to me that nid values are being assigned and
reassigned in a way that I do not understand.  For instance, I can
see that "headphones" are there, near nid27.  However, later on in
the dmesg, I read "[DISABLED]" next to them.  Also, with the ASCII
graphics in the dmesg, it seems as though devices are being grouped
and associated.  The word "associated" acutally seems to come up; I
do not understand how or why this seems to be.

I suspect that my failure to understand those assignments and
associations is part of why I am doing a poor job of picking the
needed key/value pairs for the device hint code.

4.  `cat /dev/sndtat` yields:

FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm: 32bit 2009061500/i386)
Installed devices:
pcm0: <Realtek ALC861-VD (Analog)> (play/rec) default
pcm1: <Realtek ALC861-VD (Front Analog Headphones)> (play)

5.  /boot/loader.conf looks like:

`sound_enable="YES"
snd_hda_load="YES"
snddetect_enable="YES"
mixer_enable="YES"`

* * * * *
How can I get those headphones working?

Any suggestions you can provide might be helpful.  If you have a
device hint string to suggest, then could you please also briefly
explain why you chose those values?  Thanks.


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## fernandel (Oct 21, 2013)

Try to ask in mailing list.
I have for example 717 views of my post but no one answer . Don't wait to my views number .


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## zspider (Oct 22, 2013)

It's probably intended to work, but does not for some reason. The only way you may get an answer is to flag down a dev.  A year ago I gently tugged on a dev's coattails about a similar issue, he never answered, but it mysteriously fixed itself around 9.1-RELEASE-P1. 

One morning I decided to try using a 9.0 module with 9.1 and it worked, that was suitable till the working 9.1 module appeared. You should try something similar.


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## Junkie (Oct 22, 2013)

Could you please show your sysctl configuration?
Try to change `sysctl hw.snd.default_unit=1`


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## gladiola (Oct 24, 2013)

*Aok.*

That sysctl hack worked. Thanks.


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