[ltp] sound weirdness with X60s + ubuntu 7.04

[Anirudh Ramachandran]

Hello,

I recently got an X60s, and have been unsuccessfully trying to fix a
sound issue with linux. I have some reason to suspect it might *not*
be a problem with linux, but I'm posting anyway in the hope that
someone has a fix.

After getting rid of some windows space and installing ubuntu 7.04
(kernel 2.6.20-13-generic) on the x60s, I noticed that sound was not
working. However,  the device is detected correctly by alsa and audio
apps "seem" to think they're playing music... only there's no sound.

----------

avr@moria:~[05:29]$ lspci | grep -i audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High
Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)

avr@moria:~[05:29]$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: AD198x Analog [AD198x Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: AD198x Digital [AD198x Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

------------

This is when I started suspecting it's a hardware issue (like that
wireless on/off button near on the front edge... a friend spent almost
one day recompiling kernels before he realized the switch had
accidentally been tripped). I found this thread after a little
googling:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.15/+bug/59852

Though for an older kernel version, it made sense. I went to BIOS, saw
that modem was already 'enabled', rebooted, and still no sound. *I
went to windows and noticed that sound wasn't working there either*.
However, subsequent boots into windows always had sound working.

A couple of reboots later, sound started magically working. When I
diff'ed lsmod output between the two boots (sound works and does not
work) is that the 'Used by' number for snd_hda_intel is more, but a
later test showed that sound works even when 'Used_by' is the same (0)
as when it did not.

So to wrap up: This does not make any sense... it's erratic, and a
reboot without any change to sound/soundcard settings cause it to stop
working. Also, I noticed that suspend to RAM doesn't cause it to stop
working, while suspend to disk does.

I don't think it's a hardware problem (when it works, it works well),
a loose connection (any amount of motion while sound works is fine),
or an issue with modules not being loaded (the lsmod outputs are
identical with/without sound, except for the 'Used by' number).

Any help at all is appreciated.

thanks in advance,
anirudh