[ashmaston]

Hello there,

I've bought and received my new motherboard in order to build my first HTPC. Here is my build :
- ASUS P5N7A-VM
- Intel Core2Duo E8400
- 4Gb RAM DDR2 PC26400
- 1Tb SATA2 Seagate HDD
- Box Antec MicroFusion 350

Everything should go smoothly... Eh no... I must say that pretty nothing is working. My plan was to built a system based on Ubuntu. I've downloaded :
- Ubuntu 8.04 (hardy) i386 Desktop

My first problem is coming from the Nvidia drivers. I could not manage to find somithing working. Each time i install some Nvidia stuff Linux goes nuts and can't detect my GPU chipset. I tried to install the drivers using the Ubuntu utils, nvyng-core, manually using the ones i found on the Asus CD, the last one available on the nVidia website. Each time result is the same. I start X-server and everything is messy. I reboot the computer and the GPU is not detected anymore. Other thing is i could not find any Linux driver on the nVidia website for the nForce 750i chipset...

I read in these forums that some people manage to build the smae kind of system without any trouble. I'm looking for one of this generous person who can just eplain to me what he did step by step. I start to think that some of the hardware was not good so i made a try on Windows and i could install everything : nForce driver, Graphic driver...

Thank you,
Ash

[harryzimm]

Have you tried installing the drivers using envy.

download envy

Code:

sudo apt-get install envyng-gtk

then run it

Code:

sudo envyng -t

choose install nvidia driver and follow the instructions.

cheers.

[ashmaston]

Thanks Harry !!
That was a quick answer... Anyway, i've heard a strange noise im y HDD so i switch it with an another one... And everything is working. Strane i could install Ubuntu, compile the driver... it was just not working after a reboot. I changed the hard drive and that's ok. Does this not sound weird

Thanks a lot,
Ash

[watzen]

wow, thats pretty much the exact setup as I've been looking at. It does seem like a very compatible setup, please report back how it works out with all connections (optical,hdmi) and how the performance is. noise levels with the chassie?

[BLKMGK]

Okay, I just set this board up and posted a good bit about it when I did. What are you looking to do - HDMI sound or SPID or what?

I loaded Ubuntu 8.1 myself, that repository has the later NVIDIA drivers so that part was easy. for HDMI sound though you need the later ALSA which can be easily installed using script found here -> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=962695

Sound still didn't work so I used the .asoundrc settings found here -> http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=257...tcount=268 by one of our members. MP3 still produce no sound however, dunno' why yet.

That ought to do it. I believe you WILL still need to turn off Compiz desktop effects, my screen dims after a bit and drops out of full screen. <ahem> Still working little kinks out of my setup like the screensaver so stay tuned but overall yeah this is a DAMNED nice motherboard!

[pike]

no sound with MP3 ? goes for all stereo audio (or any audio that isn't passthru'd) I take it ?

have this issue with a friends htpc, I had to change 'Audio Output Device' from 'default' TO same as passthru device below > 'iec958', only one problem, then you loose ANALOG audio capability

not sure how to best solve this yet

[ashmaston]

Hello guys,

I promise that i will tell you everything about how it works, how it is noisy and so on... But right now i'm back to square one. Everything was running great. I made a couple try on videos with xbmc, install few skins...

So it was time to make the sound work over hdmi. I looked at some posts here, including the great big thread from BLKMGK. I've updated the Alsa driver using a script found on the Ubuntu forum. Everything was pretty ok, unless the driver who won't compile with 2.6.24 kernel family... Anyway there are workaround.

After the new drivers install, i had to reboot the computer and boom ! No GPU detection, back to low level graphics.
I don't think that install the new version of the audio drivers have something to do with that. I will let the computer at rest for few minutes to check if the Asus folks did not have underestimate any temp. issue with the chipset.
If anybody has an idea...

Thanks you,
Ash

[Chaos_666]

Hi there

@pike
the .asoundrc in this thread worked for me with mp3 too.

Maybe someone could check and see if this works.
Can not believ i am the only where this works.

THX
Chaos

[ashmaston]

Hey guys,

I followed exactly what harry said and it works perfectly well... I think i had an issue with my x-server config file.. Anyway, i'm back on track.
Next step, the sound. I've checked and i have the last version of Alsa driver. I've tried every configuration proposed in that thread and i still have no sound through hdmi.
I'm running Alsa driver 1.0.18a. Tried .asoundrc suggest by chaos and BLKMGK. Still no sound.

May be i'm making an other mistake... Should i unload the driver or something like this ?

Thanks,
Ash

[BLKMGK]

no sound with MP3 ? goes for all stereo audio (or any audio that isn't passthru'd) I take it ?

have this issue with a friends htpc, I had to change 'Audio Output Device' from 'default' TO same as passthru device below > 'iec958', only one problem, then you loose ANALOG audio capability

not sure how to best solve this yet

Yeah, I think that is it exactly - all stereo tracks. I had this issue with a TV show tonight as well. Honestly losing analog would be fine for me as the only cable I've got hooked up from this box is an HDMI cable straight to the TV set. I REALLY like this motherboard! I will be playing with this more soonest but the box is no longer in my possession - girlfriend likes it though!

Ashmaston - when you bring up the ALSA Mixer check the version and also make sure none of the digital outputs are muted - muted is the default. Then in XBMC in the sound settings look to see what you have and post it here. I'm not near the machine I've been playing with so I cannot recall how it is setup at the moment but everything works for me except stereo sound (argh).

P.s. Ashmaston - still on 8.04? What rev video driver according to the NVIDIA utils?

[Snowflake]

@ashton:

The first post in this thread with XBMC Live 8.10 worked perfectly for me, with the exception of the audio. I did resolve the audio issue, and posted how back into the thread. My system is very similar to yours, except I have the Fusion Black 430 case.

I'm just starting to work on getting the IMON display working, I haven't quite figured that out yet.

[j0bro]

Hi all,
I also have the ASUS P5N7A-VM with a C2D E8400 running Ubuntu 8.10 and XBMC 8.10. It is connected *only* with HDMI to my Sony amp which in turn dispatches the HDMI video to my 42" LCD TV.
All I needed to do was to compile ALSA 1.0.18a to get the NVIDIA HDMI audio driver, enable the iec958-1 device in Ubuntu's Volume preferences and enter 'hdmi' as the default & passthrough devices in XBMC. Works like a charm, AC3, DTS sound, all is routed to the Sony amp and plays wonderfully.

[BLKMGK]

j0bro - are you getting MP3s to play as well?

Appreciate the feedback!

[j0bro]

j0bro - are you getting MP3s to play as well?

Appreciate the feedback!

Absolutely, they play back just fine. To get here, I followed the instructions on this page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto to get ALSA 1.0.18a running. Afterwards, I set the GNOME Sound Preferences settings to use the newly found NVIDIA HDMI driver for output. This also required me to enable the iec958-1 switch in the GNOME Volume Control.
In XBMC, I chose digital out for sound and typed 'hdmi' in both input boxes to get all sound working over HDMI.

Hope this helps,
-- Jeroen

PS: Note that with the original ALSA version, I had to add the line

Code:

options snd-hda-intel model=6stack-dig

to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base to get any sound working.

[ashmaston]

Hi there,

In one word, everything is working... I did not try sound setup from joro yet. I also wait for a solution to setup correctly my logitech dinovo mini. Besides that is there a solution to control the sound over the gnome sound control utilities. Any Device i select remain to have no effect on the sound level.

One other thing, is i can't manage to have XBMC shutting down my computer. I am using the MediaStream skin. I've tried several method, from just setup the shutdown in the XBMC menu to edit an xml file by hand. Each time same result , i hit the shutdown button and nothing happen, i am just going back to the xbmc main menu.

Thanks a lot,
Ash