Island Linux Bits and Bytes of Technology

During the installation of Ubuntu 7.10 on a Compaq Presario C500 laptop I ran into an issue with the sound not working. I could not find any useful information while searching the forums. Many tips and advice spoke of editing the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base file to load an Intel specific module to no avail.

The installation went without any hitches and was remarkably fast. After installing the Ubuntu Linux operating system I rebooted. The first sign that something was not working correctly came just after the GRUB boot loader screen. Here is what I saw:

[   11.537043] PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 7 of bridge 0000:00:1c.0
[   11.537113] PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 8 of bridge 0000:00:1c.0
[   11.537178] PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 7 of bridge 0000:00:1c.2
[   11.537243] PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 8 of bridge 0000:00:1c.2
[   11.537357] PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 0 of device 0000:06:00.0

I typed in "lspci -v" and found out the onboard audio is an Intel 82801G HDA controller (rev 01):

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30a5
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 21
        Memory at d0340000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [60] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable-
        Capabilities: [70] Express Unknown type IRQ 0

A quick online search for "Ubuntu 7.10 82801G sound issue" found a few promising results that did not fix the issue at hand. Back to the original "Cannot allocate resource" clue. A quick look with dmesg confirmed the original clue and offered a little advice:

[   11.537030] PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
[   11.537036] PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq".  If it helps, post a report
[   11.537043] PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 7 of bridge 0000:00:1c.0
[   11.537113] PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 8 of bridge 0000:00:1c.0

Maybe if I tell the kernel to use "pci=routeirq" the sound will work...

I edited the /boot/grub/menu.lst file and added the following lines AFTER the section tag "### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST":

# default boot parameters, set pci=routeirq for sound to work (as per dmesg output)
kopt=pci=routeirq

Time to update the GRUB. From the command line type in:

sudo update-grub

Now I just need to reboot the laptop... (crossing fingers)

A short while later I hear the Ubuntu "knock" then the login screen is shown. A quick dmesg command confirms that adding "pci=routeirq" has fixed my lack of sound; problem solved!:

[   49.883177] PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
[   49.883183] PCI: Routing PCI interrupts for all devices because "pci=routeirq" specified
[   49.883194] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:02.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[   49.883205] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1b.0[A] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[   49.883215] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1c.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[   49.883225] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1c.2[C] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
[   49.883235] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.0[A] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
[   49.883244] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.1[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 21
[   49.883252] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.2[C] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
[   49.883259] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.7[D] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[   49.883268] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.1[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 21
[   49.883275] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.2[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 21
[   49.883283] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.3[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 21
[   49.883290] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:06:00.0[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
[   49.883298] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:08:08.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16

Notes

The "PCI: Cannot allocate resource region x of bridge 0000:00:xx.0" messages still come up on the boot just after the GRUB even when the fix is enabled.

Related Articles

Intel 82801G Headphone and Sound Issue

Leads, Resources, and possible Alternative Solutions

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto
http://jjinux.blogspot.com/2007/10/linux-ubuntu-710-on-compaq-presario.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=341065