1-2: Install Xubuntu, install proprietary drivers for ATI
3. aplay -l lists audio devices:
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC883 Analog [ALC883 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 1: ALC883 Digital [ALC883 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: ATI HDMI [ATI HDMI]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
...from this, you can see that determine that HDMI out will be plughw:1,3 (that is, card 1, device 3). As mentioned above, it has to be plughw, not just hw.
4. Run sudo alsamixer -c 1
5. There's no option to raise/lower volume, but you can un-mute by hitting 'm'. If you see a box at the bottom of the terminal window with 'mm' in it, you're muted. If it contains '00', you're un-muted.
6. Hit esc to quit.
7. Run aplay on a .wav file to test, like so: sudo aplay -D plughw:1,3 <soundfile>. If your device number was different, use that.
8. Assuming that all works, edit /etc/asound.conf (which may not exist yet), put this in it:
pcm.!default {
type hw
card 1
device 3
}
Again, use your device numbers. Now the 3200 HDMI is your default audio out.
Still didn't help, continuing
- navigate to "/etc/pulse/" and open "default.pa".
- add a line at the very bottom like this:
load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:1,3
- save and exit this file, type in these commands to reset PulseAudio:
pulseaudio -kpulseaudio -D
- verify using pavucontrol (type "sudo apt-get install pavucontrol" to install it, and once installed, just type "pavucontrol" in the terminal. You should be able to look in the next tab and see both your standard analog device, as well as the one we added in. Right click the new one and choose make default (if that is what you desire).
It seems this helps a lot of people, but I needed a few more steps (you may need them as well, so follow these if the above still doesn't work.
- double click the speaker icon in the notification area (upper right corner near shut down button).
- make sure that under "file/change device", you see the device that corresponds to the one you found in step two (ex- mine is "SB [HDA ATI SB]"). If it isn't the right one, select the right one.
- go to "edit/preferences" and with the little menu that pops up, just go ahead and put a check mark next to everything. Now, close the pop up, as well as the volume control menu.
- reopen the volume control menu by clicking on the speaker in the upper right again.
- in the tab labeled "switches", make sure to uncheck the headphone option and to have checked iec958 and iec958 capture (important, although I'm not sure why).
- in the original tab (playback), make sure that master volume is at a good volume (and not muted).
Update for AMD Radeon HD 7660D (ALC887-VD), Ubuntu 12.04:
- update system with latest fglrx drivers
- update with latest alsa kernel drivers
- continue with step 3 described above onwards...
Reference / source links:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=843012
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1033620.html
http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/HDA_Analyzer
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/AlsaInfo
http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshootingProcedure
http://askubuntu.com/questions/187587/hdmi-audio-output-problems-with-radeon-card
