C-Media CMI8738/CMI8768 77% volume on some speakers

Hi all,
As above I am a total newbie to linux in general and Manjaro in particular, Manjaro was recommneded to me for ease of installation and it was very easy. However, a few small niggly issues have arisen that I would love to resolve. Please forgive the lengthy post as I feel the more information the better.

First my setup:
Dell Optiplex 790 i5-2400 CPU, 16GB RAM Nvidia GeForce GT730 GPU
Samsung 42" TV connected via HDMI to PC
CMI 8738 PCI sound card
Analogue 5.1 speaker system (3.5mm jack connections)
3.5mm lead from TV to line-in to play sound from TV to 5.1 speakers (works perfectly in Windows 7)
Manjaro Linux Plasma 21.0.7 with 5.10.49-1 kernel, all updates done and totally fresh installation, nothing addes or removed as yet.

My first issue:
There is no line-in option in the audio configuration for the sound car, so that I can get my TV to play through my 5.1 speakers. Can someone please advise what needs to be done/installed in order to get access to the line-in option?

My Second issue:
in the Configure Audio Devices" option all 6 speakers show correctly, however, the front left, front right, rear left and rear right are at 77% volume while the sub-woofer and the centre speaker are at 100%. If I push the first four (front and rear L+R) to 100% and then go out, when I go back into the same settings, then the speakers are back to 77%.
When I run the command inxi --audio this is the output I get:
[mark@DELL-Manjaro ~]$ inxi --audio
Audio:
Device-1: NVIDIA GK208 HDMI/DP Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
Device-2: C-Media CMI8738/CMI8768 PCI Audio driver: snd_cmipci
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.49-1-MANJARO running: yes
Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes
[mark@DELL-Manjaro ~]$

I do also have PipeWire installed by default however, it seems it is not running, although it was yesterday when I first ran inxi --audio.

So please, any assistance for the two above issues would be most appreciated.
Thanking you.
Hi all, thank you, but I no longer need assistance with this as I an no longer continuing with Linux. I am simply too new and experiencing too many frustrations and issues.
Thank you

:+1: Welcome to Manjaro! :+1:

Please read this:

and after you’ve read that give Linux another try in the future.

:crossed_fingers:

Good day Fabby,
Thank you for your reply and encouragement.
I hear you. What you have said is exactly why I have persisted till now with Linux, so I tell you what, if someone provides a working solution to my issues above, I will definitely continue with Linux, in what ever form.
Thank you

1 Like

:+1: Welcome to Manjaro! :+1:

  1. Please read this:
    How to provide good information
    and post some more information so we can see what’s really going on. Now we know the symptom of the disease, but we need some more probing to know where the origin lies… :grin:
  2. An inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width would be the minimum required information for us to be able to help you. (Personally Identifiable Information like serial numbers and MAC addresses will be filtered out by the above command)
    Also, please copy-paste that output in-between 3 backticks ``` at the beginning and end of the code/text.

:+1:

Hi Fabby,
Thank you again for your reply. I will have to reinstall Manjaro as I have been testing some other flavors of Linux, so I will post that command output in a few moments, my PC does not take long to install Manjaro, thank goodness.

1 Like

OK, installed and updated, nothing added or removed. Herewith the results of the command you requested:

[mark@DELL-PC ~]$ inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width       
System:
  Kernel: 5.10.49-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0 
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10-x86_64 
  root=UUID=5b134c4c-dc45-4ff5-ac89-0beb3aa46fcb rw quiet apparmor=1 
  security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3 
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.22.3 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM 
  Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Dell product: OptiPlex 790 v: 01 serial: <filter> 
  Chassis: type: 6 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Dell model: 0HY9JP v: A02 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: A22 
  date: 07/03/2018 
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard serial: <filter> 
  charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
Memory:
  RAM: total: 15.59 GiB used: 1.21 GiB (7.7%) 
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:
  Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-2400 bits: 64 type: MCP 
  arch: Sandy Bridge family: 6 model-id: 2A (42) stepping: 7 microcode: 2F 
  cache: L2: 6 MiB bogomips: 24755 
  Speed: 1596 MHz min/max: 1600/3400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1596 2: 1597 
  3: 1596 4: 1596 
  Flags: acpi aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon avx bts clflush cmov 
  constant_tsc cpuid cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept est 
  flexpriority flush_l1d fpu fxsr ht ibpb ibrs ida lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear 
  mmx monitor msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm 
  pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts rdtscp rep_good sep smx ssbd sse 
  sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc 
  tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid x2apic xsave xsaveopt xtopology xtpr 
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
  Type: l1tf 
  mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT disabled 
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT disabled 
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
  Type: spec_store_bypass 
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
  Type: spectre_v1 
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, 
  IBRS_FW, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
  Type: srbds status: Not affected 
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GK208B [GeForce GT 730] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nouveau 
  v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1287 class-ID: 0300 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: 
  loaded: nouveau unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,nv,vesa 
  display-ID: :0 screens: 1 
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1360x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 359x203mm (14.1x8.0") 
  s-diag: 412mm (16.2") 
  Monitor-1: HDMI-1 res: 1360x768 hz: 60 dpi: 216 size: 160x90mm (6.3x3.5") 
  diag: 184mm (7.2") 
  OpenGL: renderer: NV106 v: 4.3 Mesa 21.1.4 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GK208 HDMI/DP Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0e0f class-ID: 0403 
  Device-2: C-Media CMI8738/CMI8768 PCI Audio driver: snd_cmipci v: kernel 
  bus-ID: 04:02.0 chip-ID: 13f6:0111 class-ID: 0401 
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.49-1-MANJARO running: yes 
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 0.125.0 running: no 
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.31 running: no 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Dell driver: e1000e 
  v: kernel port: 5040 bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:1502 class-ID: 0200 
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global 
  broadcast: <filter> 
  IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global 
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link 
  WAN IP: <filter> 
Bluetooth:
  Message: No bluetooth data found. 
Logical:
  Permissions: Unable to run lvs. Root privileges required. 
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found. 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.02 TiB used: 8.52 GiB (0.8%) 
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Seagate model: ST9120822AS 
  size: 111.79 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 1.5 Gb/s 
  serial: <filter> rev: E scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EZEX-00WN4A0 
  size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s 
  rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: 1A01 scheme: MBR 
  Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: TSSTcorp model: DVD+-RW SH-216BB rev: D100 
  dev-links: cdrom 
  Features: speed: 48 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes 
  rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running 
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 111.49 GiB size: 109.18 GiB (97.93%) used: 8.52 GiB (7.8%) 
  fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A 
  uuid: 5b134c4c-dc45-4ff5-ac89-0beb3aa46fcb 
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%) 
  used: 288 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: NO_LABEL 
  uuid: 7224-C9FB 
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found. 
Unmounted:
  ID-1: /dev/sdb1 maj-min: 8:17 size: 931.51 GiB fs: <superuser required> 
  label: 2ND_Drive uuid: 6EDE4639DE45F9BB 
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 3 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900 
  Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 8087:0024 class-ID: 0900 
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 3 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900 
  Hub-4: 2-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 8 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 8087:0024 class-ID: 0900 
  Device-1: 2-1.2:3 info: Logitech Unifying Receiver type: Keyboard,Mouse 
  driver: logitech-djreceiver,usbhid interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s 
  power: 98mA chip-ID: 046d:c534 class-ID: 0301 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 24.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 35.0 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 169 Uptime: 8h 5m wakeups: 4 Init: systemd v: 248 tool: systemctl 
  Compilers: gcc: N/A Packages: pacman: 1187 lib: 326 flatpak: 0 Shell: Bash 
  v: 5.1.8 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.05 
[mark@DELL-PC ~]$ 
  1. No sound on TV:

    Install the nVidia proprietary drivers instead.

  2. some speakers at 77%, some 100%
    Execute:

    alsamixer 
    

    and use the ← → ↑ ↓ keys on your keyboard to bring them all to 77%.

:crossed_fingers:

Hi Fabby,
Thank you for your reply.
As Follows:
I am not looking to send sound from my PC to my TV but the other way round, when I watch TV the sound should play through the computer speakers using a 3.5mm jack cable connected to line-out on my TV and line-in on my PCI sound card, which it does perfectly in Windows. As I stated there is no line-in or any other form of input device in my volume controls in Manjero.
2: I have done that (found out about alsamixer on another question in this forum) and the sound stays the same, there is no difference in volume, so somewhere something is not communicating with my sound card to control the volume.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to help you any further then except an edit to your title.

For the future: please limit your post to one question per topic so you will attract the right experts. “Newbie with sound problems” isn’t a catchy title for the Gurus out there…

:sob:

Hi Fabby,
Thank you for your reply. Are you saying change the title of my post and only post ONE issue, then create a NEW post with my other issue?

That’s what I would do…

:man_shrugging:

Ok will do. May I ask one final question? I have just run inxi --audio and I see the following:

Audio:     Device-1: NVIDIA GK208 HDMI/DP Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Device-2: C-Media CMI8738/CMI8768 PCI Audio driver: snd_cmipci 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.49-1-MANJARO running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
           Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.31 running: yes 
[mark@DELL-PC ~]$

Are all three servers necessary? I have seen some posts in this forum which suggest they may conflict with one another.

My output:

inxi --audio
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel CM238 HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP104 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.49-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.31 running: yes

and everything is just fine.

:man_shrugging:

OK thanks. Will as you suggested.

If the blue Line-In socket for the audio card works in another OS it should be possible to get it working
This audio card has hardware mixing for audio capture inputs similar to Soundblaster cards
C-Media CMI8738 | Alsa Opensrc Org

please post response to this command to show all the ALSA controls for the card

amixer --card=1

If there is a control in ALSA for Four Channel Mode try turning it off to increase audio level

Cmipci | Alsa Opensrc Org
When “Four Channel Mode” switch is off, the output from rear speakers will be FULL VOLUME regardless of Master and PCM volumes. This might damage your audio equipment. Please disconnect speakers before your turn off this switch.

1 Like