Wow! It has been about 7 months since I migrated to Ubuntu Dapper in my laptop, BenQ Joybook S52, with on sound. During that time, I live with a USB sound card. As I mentioned in the past, this issue has been posted about 19 months ago. Fortunately, this issue has big progress last week or two. Congratulation for all you having BenQ Joybook S52 and S53 series!

For now, my operating system is Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft. It comes with sound drivers from ALSA 1.0.11. I supposed it might be too old since discussion in the issue only confirmed to work with ALSA 1.0.14rc1 with full debugging option. Let's see what I did.

1. Install all essential packages.

   sudo apt-get install build-essential fakeroot linux-headers-$(uname -r) alsa-source kernel-package
   

2. Download the latest ALSA driver.

   wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-driver-1.0.14rc1.tar.bz2
   

3. Extract the archive.

   tar xjf alsa-driver-1.0.14rc1.tar.bz2
   

4. Copy all debian changed to rebuild it.

   tar xjf /usr/src/alsa-driver.tar.bz2
   cp -Rp modules/alsa-driver/debian alsa-driver-1.0.14rc1
   

5. Replace debian/rules by follows.

   #!/usr/bin/make -f
   
   # Written by Steve Kowalik <> for the New Alsa-Source.
   # Loosely based on the rules file from pcmcia-cs and the old alsa-source.
   
   KSRC ?= /usr/src/linux
   KDREV ?= unknown
   KVERS ?= unknown
   ALSA_DEBUG_LEVEL ?= detect
   
   ifeq ($(KDEP),)
           KDEPC =
   else
           KDEPC = $(KDEP),
   endif
   
   # See if we can work out the compiler used
   ifeq ($(origin CC),default)
           ifneq "$(wildcard $(KSRC)/include/linux/compile.h)" ""
                   CC = gcc-$(shell grep LINUX_COMPILER $(KSRC)/include/linux/compile.h | sed 's/.* \([0-9]\+\.[0-9]\+\).*/\1/')
           else
                   CC = gcc
           endif
   endif
   
   # Special case gcc 2.7.2
   ifeq ($(CC),gcc-2.7)
           CC = gcc272
   endif
   
   # If they didn't set $(KVERS), see if we can do it for them.
   ifeq ($(KVERS),unknown)
           ifneq "$(wildcard $(KSRC)/include/linux/version.h)" ""
                   KVERS = $(shell head -1 $(KSRC)/include/linux/version.h | sed 's/.*"\(.*\)"$$/\1/')
           endif
   endif
   
   # Clear root command if already root
   ifeq ($(shell id -u),0)
           ROOT_CMD=
   endif
   
   # Use updates/ subdirectory so that the modules in alsa-modules-$KVERS
   # are given priority (by depmod) over modules under kernel/.
   CONFIGURE_OPT = --prefix=/usr \
                   --with-kernel=$(KSRC) \
                   --with-build=$(KSRC) \
                   --with-moddir=/lib/modules/$(KVERS)/updates/alsa \
                   --with-sequencer=yes
   
   ifneq (,$(findstring 2.2.,$(KVERS)))
           MODULELOADERDEP = modutils (>= 2.3.5)
           PCMCIAMODULESSUG = kernel-pcmcia-modules-$(KVERS) | pcmcia-modules-$(KVERS)
           # See SF bug #550435
           CONFIGURE_OPT += --disable-verbose-printk
   else
           ifneq (,$(findstring 2.4.,$(KVERS)))
                   MODULELOADERDEP = modutils (>= 2.3.5)
                   PCMCIAMODULESSUG = kernel-pcmcia-modules-$(KVERS) | pcmcia-modules-$(KVERS)
           else
                   MODULELOADERDEP = module-init-tools (>= 3.1)
                   PCMCIAMODULESSUG = 
           endif
   endif
   
   
   # Read in config file, generated by debconf.
   ifeq (/etc/alsa/alsa-source.conf,$(wildcard /etc/alsa/alsa-source.conf))
           include /etc/alsa/alsa-source.conf
   endif
   ifeq ($(HOME)/.alsa-source.conf,$(wildcard $(HOME)/.alsa-source.conf))
           include $(HOME)/.alsa-source.conf
   endif
   ifeq ($(CURDIR)/debian/alsa-source.conf,$(wildcard $(CURDIR)/debian/alsa-source.conf))
           include $(CURDIR)/debian/alsa-source.conf
   endif
   
   ifeq ($(ALSA_NOPNP),y)
           CONFIGURE_OPT += --with-isapnp=no
   else
           CONFIGURE_OPT += --with-isapnp=yes
   endif
   
   ifeq ($(ALSA_DEBUG),y)
           CONFIGURE_OPT += --with-debug=$(ALSA_DEBUG_LEVEL)
   endif
   
   ifneq ($(ALSA_CARDS),)
           CONFIGURE_OPT += --with-cards=$(ALSA_CARDS)
   endif
   
   ifneq ($(ALSA_CARD_OPTIONS),)
           CONFIGURE_OPT += --with-card-options=$(ALSA_CARD_OPTIONS)
   endif
   
   ifneq ($(ALSA_OPTS),)
           CONFIGURE_OPT += $(ALSA_OPTS)
   endif
   
   ifneq ($(CONCURRENCY_LEVEL),)
           MAKE_OPT = -j $(CONCURRENCY_LEVEL)
   endif
   
   VERSION = $(shell dpkg-parsechangelog | grep ^Vers | cut -d\  -f2)
   ifneq ($(KDREV),unknown)
           ifeq ($(findstring :,$(KDREV)),:)
                   VERSION := $(subst :,:$(VERSION)+,$(KDREV))
           else
                   VERSION := $(VERSION)+$(KDREV)
           endif
   endif
   
   echo-vars:
           @echo "I've been configured using:"
           @echo " - Kernel source of $(KSRC)"
           @echo " - Kernel version of $(KVERS)"
           @echo " - Kernel revision of $(KDREV)"
           @echo " - C compiler of $(CC)"
           @echo " - Make options of $(MAKE_OPT)"
           @echo " - Version of $(VERSION)"
   
   configure: configure-stamp
   configure-stamp:
           @if [ ! -x /usr/bin/$(CC) ]; then echo "You don't have the compiler that your kernel was built with installed"; exit 1; fi
           CC="$(CC)" ./configure $(CONFIGURE_OPT)
           touch configure-stamp
   
   build: build-stamp
   build-stamp: configure-stamp
           $(MAKE) $(MAKE_OPT) compile
   
   install: install-stamp
   install-stamp: build-stamp
           $(MAKE) $(MAKE_OPT) DESTDIR=$(CURDIR)/debian/$(shell dh_listpackages) install-modules
   
   control-munge:
           for i in control postinst postrm ; do \
                   cp -p debian/$$i debian/$$i.orig; \
                   cat debian/$$i | sed \
                           -e 's/_KVERS_/$(KVERS)/g' \
                           -e 's/_KDEP_/$(KDEPC)/g' \
                           -e 's/_MODULELOADERDEP_/$(MODULELOADERDEP)/g' \
                           -e 's/_PCMCIAMODULESSUG_/$(PCMCIAMODULESSUG)/g' \
                           -e '/^Suggests:space:*$$/d' \
                           > debian/$$i.tmp; \
                   mv -f debian/$$i.tmp debian/$$i; \
           done
           touch control-munge
   
   clean-control-munge:
           for i in control postinst postrm ; do \
                   if [ -f debian/$$i.orig ]; then \
                           mv -f debian/$$i.orig debian/$$i ; \
                   fi ; \
           done
           -$(RM) control-munge
   
   clean: clean-control-munge
           -make mrproper
           $(RM) configure-stamp
           $(RM) build-stamp
   
   binary_modules: binary-modules
   binary-modules: configure-stamp build-stamp control-munge install-stamp
           dh_testdir
           dh_testroot
           dh_installdirs usr/share/bug/alsa-modules-$(KVERS)
           dh_installchangelogs debian/changelog.ALSA
           # alsa-modules-i386 adds changelog.alsa-driver.Debian
           if [ -f debian/changelog.alsa-driver.Debian ] ; then \
                   dh_installdocs debian/changelog.alsa-driver.Debian ; \
           else \
                   dh_installdocs ; \
           fi
           dh_install debian/bug/control usr/share/bug/alsa-modules-$(KVERS)
           dh_strip
           dh_compress
           dh_fixperms
           dh_installdeb
           dh_shlibdeps
           dh_gencontrol -- -v"$(VERSION)"
           dh_md5sums 
   ifeq "$(origin KPKG_DEST_DIR)" "undefined"
   ifeq "$(origin KMAINT)" "undefined"
           dh_builddeb --destdir=$(CURDIR)/..
   else
           dh_builddeb --destdir=$(KSRC)/..
   endif
   else
           dh_builddeb --destdir=$(KPKG_DEST_DIR)
   endif
   
   binary:
           @echo "Binary target not supported. Use binary-modules or make-kpkg."
           exit 1
   
   # Targets that kernel-package uses.
   kdist_configure: configure-stamp
   kdist_config: configure-stamp
   kdist_image:
           $(ROOT_CMD) $(MAKE) -f debian/rules binary-modules
           $(ROOT_CMD) $(MAKE) -f debian/rules clean
   kdist_clean: clean
   kdist:
           $(ROOT_CMD) $(MAKE) -f debian/rules binary-modules
   
   .PHONY: configure build clean binary-modules binary_modules binary kdist_configure kdist_config kdist_image kdist_clean kdist
   

6. Build the package.

   fakeroot ./debian/rules binary_modules KSRC=/usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)/ KVERS=$(uname -r) ALSA_NOPNP=n ALSA_DEBUG=y ALSA_DEBUG_LEVEL=full ALSA_CARDS=intel8x0 ALSA_CARD_OPTIONS= ALSA_OPTS=--with-oss
   

7. You shoudl get alsa-modules-2.6.17-10-386_1.0.14rc1-0ubuntu1_i386.deb in parent directory so just install it.

   dpkg -i alsa-modules-2.6.17-10-386_1.0.14rc1-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
   

8. Reboot your laptop. After that you are able to unmute the speaker by following command.

   $ sudo su -
   # echo 1 > /proc/asound/card0/codec97#0/ac97#0-0+regs
   

Yes!!! It works! Thanks ALSA and Conexant.

Tags: linux, alsa, ubuntu