ALSA PowerMac issues
ALSA support on PowerMac mostly works on G4 or newer hardware, but is somewhat broken on OldWorld and G3 hardware:
ALSA BTS: 0000306: Burgundy: compiles, but no sound comes out (use Guest login to view)
Because this situation threatens to leave early PowerMac users in the dust, over what is a rather trivial issue to fix, I've been actively solliciting ALSA and PPC kernel developer help to permanently fix ALSA on all PPC subarchitectures, via repeated messages to the Debian PowerPC mailing list and via a series of bug reports on the ALSA Bug Tracker.
Current status of ALSA support on PowerMac
This table attempts to summarize the status of support for ALSA sound on PowerMac hardware.
Information gathering is still work in progress and done via the Debian wiki, based on data provided by users in response to my posts on the Debian PowerPC mailing list.
n/a = not applicable. |
# = see note below. |
? = untested. |
Chipset |
Platform (machine ID) |
Master Volume |
Speakers |
Headphones |
CD |
Line Input |
Microphone |
Beep |
AWACS |
601, 603, 604 (Old World) |
yes |
# |
yes |
yes |
yes |
yes |
yes |
Screamer |
G3 beige |
yes |
# |
# |
# |
? |
? |
yes |
Burgundy |
G3 iMac classic (iMac,1) |
yes |
# |
# |
yes |
? |
yes |
yes |
? |
G3 iBook clamshell |
|
|
|
|
|
|
no |
tumbler |
G4 Quick Silver |
yes |
yes |
yes |
yes |
? |
? |
yes |
? |
G4 iMac flowerpot |
|
|
|
|
|
|
yes |
snapper |
G4 pBook (PowerBook 3,4) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
yes |
tumbler |
G3 iBook2 (PowerBook 4,1) |
yes |
yes |
yes |
yes |
n/a |
n/a |
yes |
snapper |
G3 iBook2 (PowerBook 4,3) |
yes |
yes |
yes |
yes |
n/a |
n/a |
yes |
Snapper |
G4 pBook (PowerBook 5,6) |
yes |
yes |
yes |
no |
n/a |
yes |
yes |
snapper |
G4 iBook2 (PowerBook 6,5) |
yes |
yes |
yes |
yes |
n/a |
yes |
yes |
snapper |
G5 desktop (PowerMac 7,2) |
yes |
yes |
yes |
yes |
no |
n/a |
yes |
snapper |
eMac 700 |
yes |
|
|
|
|
no |
no |
intrepid |
Mac Mini |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
daca |
? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
keywest |
? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NOTES
AWACS (601, 603, 604, 604e a.k.a. Old World)
- Beeping goes to both the internal speaker and the audio output, because the circuitry to mute the internal speaker is not detected by the driver. As such, getting beeps exclusively to the audio output requires disconnecting the cable going to the internal speaker.
Screamer (beige G3)
- CD playback requires selecting the CD source as recordable.
- Output jack doubles as speaker/headphones.
- Input jack doubles as line/microphone.
Burgundy (iMac G3)
As of kernel 2.6.13 (ALSA 1.0.9a):
- Most of the mutes don't work, or their state cannot be saved.
- Headphone detection induced auto-muting of the speakers doesn't work.
- Controls for the stereo speakers and for the headphones are reversed (wrong offset in the control matrix?).
Snapper
G5 desktop
As of kernel 2.6.12 (ALSA 1.0.9):
- The 3 outputs (line/headphones/speakers) work correctly, along with auto-detection of an insterted plug on the first two output.
- The digital input is not working yet.
G4 PowerBook alu post-february-2005 (PowerBook 5,6)
As of kernel 2.6.13 (ALSA 1.0.9a):
- Sound is dead when returning from a power suspend.
- Analog CD control is not available.