[GUIDE] ALC889a (with analog 5.1 surround)

[will1384]

1. If I am patching the AppleHDA do I still need the VoodooHDA enabler? Yes

2. My current DSDT file has pinconfiguration entries in it in the
HDEF section. do I leave them there or should I remove them?Patching AppleHDA and using VoodooHDA will work, with or with out
the DSDT audio section, if the DSDT audio section is correct leave
it alone, using AppleHDA and VoodooHDA seams to ignore anything
in your DSDT

[Elventanis]

I had a chance try this a little bit before I left for party, which sucks by way, lol.

The sound seems to be coming from the front speakers. I will test further when I get back home.

I already got further than I had before. Thank u again foe all your help and guidance. Thx

[Elventanis]

Will, here is the update on how this went.

1. I am getting sound from the Front Center, Front Left, Front Right and the Sub Woofer.
2. The Rear Left and Right do not have any sound at this point.

Based on your previous information about Surround Sound for Mac, I am assuming that is normal.

Just wanted to say Thank You again for getting this fixed for me.

If Apple releases 10.6.3 and I upgrade to that, I am assuming I may need to patch the AppleHDA again right?

I will read other parts of this thread and see if I can get anything from the rear speakers.

On the 1st post, there was some information about Spotlighting the Audio/Midi and messing around with the speaker setup. Any ideas on how I get to this screen to see what is possible?

Thank you again

[Elventanis]

Will, I figured out how to get to the Midi/Audio Setup. The 5.1 channel sound is not enabled there, so still need to do some digging I suppose.

Anyhow, when I did the AppleHDA Patching, it showed me some information and reported that I had Realtek 885, as opposed to to 889a. If I go into the About Mac, and more information, the Audio is saying 885 there as well. Is that normal? Thx

[Elventanis]

ALC889a might have different pin configuration so I'm not sure about that. However, it looks like your codec is a variant of the ALC885 which has native OSX support so I think you don't need to do any binary patching.

You don't need HDAenabler or any audio injector. Just patch dsdt for audio injection. Then edit the two plist files:

AppleHDA.kext/Contents/Plugins/AppleHDAHardwareConfigDriver.kext/Contents/Info. plist
AppleHDA.kext/Contents/Plugins/AppleHDAPlatformDriver.kext/Contents/Info.plist

Check out the guide by THe KiNG I linked earlier. Should be able to do it yourself. I've made a quick edit for your codec (ALC885 address 3). Just rename them to Info.plist and copy to their respective kexts.

And yes, it's based on the original AppleHDA.kext which came with SL build 10a432 so it's 64bit compatible.
@Mormegil

I came across your posts here on how to enable the 5.1 sound for Snow Leopard. With the Help of Will on this forum, I was able to successfully get Sound working on my ALC889a, but I don't have the option to enable 5.1 in the Audio/Midi config. My back speakers are currently not working.

I am using the VoodooHDA kext as well. What do I need to change in my info.plist that would allow me to enable the 5.1 sound. Would you be able to guide me on this. Thx

[will1384]

Will, here is the update on how this went.

1. I am getting sound from the Front Center, Front Left, Front Right and the Sub Woofer.
2. The Rear Left and Right do not have any sound at this point.

Based on your previous information about Surround Sound for Mac, I am assuming that is normal.

Just wanted to say Thank You again for getting this fixed for me.

If Apple releases 10.6.3 and I upgrade to that, I am assuming I may need to patch the AppleHDA again right?

I will read other parts of this thread and see if I can get anything from the rear speakers.

On the 1st post, there was some information about Spotlighting the Audio/Midi and messing around with
the speaker setup. Any ideas on how I get to this screen to see what is possible?

Thank you again

I got digging for info myself, come to find out that there are quite a few different versions of VoodooHDA,
made by different people, based on the original file made by some one else, one of them that works for me,
although no surround, is the file here

VoodooPS2 and VoodooHDA (now 0.2.2 with prefPane) drivers for snow leopard 32/64 bit
(http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=175372&mode=threaded&pid=1234651)
and another,

Voodoohda Driver, Fully working! (http://www.projectosx.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=355)

and some people had say removing "AppleHDA.kext" helps, just make sure to
keep a backup

UPDATE

I just removed "AppleHDA.kext" and the file that gets created buy AppleHDA Patcher, "ALCinject.kext"
leaving only "VoodooHDA.kext" and ran "Kext Utility" to clean up, and rebooted, the sound works, still
no surround sound, but one less step

and found another "VoodooHDA.kext", seams to work well and the volume is slightly higher

VoodooHDA (32-/ 64-bit, recompiled by Prasys) (http://www.kexts.com/view/70-voodoohda_%2832--_64-bit,_recompiled_by_prasys%29.html)

[Elventanis]

Thats Weird, So the Voodoo Kext fixes this without having the AppleHDA etc. I will try it later on I suppose.

From everything I have been reading, it seems that we have to get the 3 colored outputs to register with teh Mac to get the 5.1 sound working. When we do that we should have 3 line outs available with 2 channels each. That should be the 5 speakers plus the Sub. I am thinking there has to be a tweak out there somewhere to make all those lines work.

I am going to test today, byt removing the 3 lines and adding them one at a time to see which ones are working. I am assuming only one is working still or maybe 2. The Green one seems to be the problem one based on what I read.

I will post something for prasys as well as see if he can give me some more information. Thx

[Elventanis]

Will, I played around with setup and no luck with the 5.1 sound yet. I tried the 2 versions of Voodoo, and other than what you mentioned about the volume, there was no real difference.

I removed the Voodoo Kext file and the sound no longer worked. Put that together with your note about removing AppleHDA and ALCInject, I suppose I am wondering what the AppleHDA patcher actually provided?

I had a posted a couple of questions out there on another forum, but so far I have not got anything back. If I get any more progress I will update this again. I will keep checking daily so if you have any further break thrus I will look out for them. Thx

[Elventanis]

Will
Here is another update. I removed the AppleHDA and ALCInject, and my sound switched back to the rear speakers again. I had nothing coming out from the front speakers.

I then tried some LegacyHDA and HDAenabler kexts, unfortunately after a restart I had no output devices at all. So that was a no go.

I put all the working files back in and the front speakers are back up and running.

In looking at the various 5.1 setups out there, I am thinking we are not able to do this cause our output device is showing up as

Line Out / Line Out / Line Out / Line Out

I think it should be listed as

Line Out
Line Out
Line Out
Line Out

in the Audio section of System Preferences.

If it was listed this way, we may be able to create an aggregate sound section that puts all these together to allow us to enable 5.1 sound

Let me know if that makes sense. I am thinking there has to be information out there on how to fix this somewhere.

[wind99]

Did someone sucess with alc889a in AMD ga-ma78-s2h?
i already try with legacy, applehda, and voodo..
still not happen anything. :(

[gorg]

Did someone sucess with alc889a in AMD ga-ma78-s2h?
i already try with legacy, applehda, and voodo..
still not happen anything. :(

Νο. Only managed sound in Leopard with alcinject. In Snow Leopard I get sound only via VoodooHDA but the preference pane is still inaccessible (kp when I select the Input tab).

[wind99]

Ya, same with me.
i only get the tab.
there is no sound in voodo. i only get the preferences. but not appear the sound.
do you have the sound when u using voodo?

[sethyr]

Did someone sucess with alc889a in AMD ga-ma78-s2h?
i already try with legacy, applehda, and voodo..
still not happen anything. :(

I've tried everything too. So I would appreciate help too :\

[ANARCHiNTOSH]

hi mormegil, ive made a launchable bash script to patch AppleHDA
automaticly. Thanks so much for writing this guide its been really
useful, and the result sounds much better than LegacyHDA + HDAEnabler.
(no squeaky noise)

get it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?zj3moonzmeq

If the plists ever need updating, it will be easy to update them in my
script, because they are not hardcoded. Also, the script will automaticly
label the patched AppleHDA red. The script wont install the kext, as i thought
that would be a bit too intrusive, so use kextutility or kexthelper.

theres a similiar post at http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=196771&view=findpost&p=1416418
with more details.

[X58-Agility]

hi mormegil, ive made a launchable bash script to patch AppleHDA
automaticly. Thanks so much for writing this guide its been really
useful, and the result sounds much better than LegacyHDA + HDAEnabler.
(no squeaky noise)

get it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?zj3moonzmeq

If the plists ever need updating, it will be easy to update them in my
script, because they are not hardcoded. Also, the script will automaticly
label the patched AppleHDA red. The script wont install the kext, as i thought
that would be a bit too intrusive, so use kextutility or kexthelper.

theres a similiar post at http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=196771&view=findpost&p=1416418
with more details.


I followed up on your work over at "insanely...", very impressed. I am working with your instructions right now to get my sound working. Looking forward to some sweet sounds :cool:

[X58-Agility]

10.6.3, Classified (760), no sound working.

[X58-Agility]

Needless to say I didn't get my sound working. Because I am going to use this computer for professional editing I went and picked up a "TASCAM US-122 MK II".

[dannymichel]

also, someone told me that i'd have to re-do this every time mac updates applehda

[dannymichel]

is there a way to get 5.1 on alc889a without having to edit or remove the applehda file. it's my understanding that some mac updates use the applehda file.