Audio Subsystems

The majority of ThinkPad's have Audio controllers.

Cirrus Logic

The Cirrus Logic Crystal audio chips have been used in vast amounts of ThinkPad's.

ISA only

• CS4236B
  • ThinkPad 380 / 380D / 380E / 380ED
• CS4237B
  • ThinkPad 380Z
  • ThinkPad 560X / 560Z
  • ThinkPad 600 / 600
  • ThinkPad 770 / / 770E / 770ED
• CS4248
  • ThinkPad 750 / 750C / 750CS / 750P
  • ThinkPad 755C / 755CS

OSS drivers

The ISA CS4236B and CS4237B sound chips are supported by the cs4232 kernel module, but it is suggested to use ALSA if possible. Use the following options line when loading the cs4232 module:

options cs4232 io=0x530 irq=5 dma=1 dma2=0

There is no OSS Linux driver for the CS4248, try ALSA instead.

ALSA drivers

The ISA CS4236B and CS4237B sound chips are supported by the snd-cs4236 kernel module. Use the following options line when loading the snd-cs4236 module:

options snd-cs4236 snd_index=0 snd_port=0x530 snd_cport=0x538 snd_isapnp=0 snd_dma1=1 snd_dma2=0 snd_irq=5

The ISA CS4248 sound chip is supported by the snd-ad1848 kernel module. Use the following options line when loading the snd-ad1848 module:

options snd-ad1848 snd_index=0 snd_port=0x4e30 snd_irq=10 snd_dma1=0 snd_thinkpad=1

PCI only

• CS4229 (CS4299?)
  • ThinkPad A21e, A22e
  • ThinkPad i Series 1200
  • ThinkPad i Series 1300

This is an AC97 codec chip

OSS drivers

Since this is an AC97 codec chip, it should work with the i810_audio kernel module. No special module options should be needed.

ALSA drivers

Since this is an AC97 codec chip, it should work with the snd-intel8x0 kernel module. No special module options should be needed.

ISA and PCI

The reason for having both a legacy ISA chip and newer PCI chip is that the PCI chips cannot provide legacy SoundBlaster compatibility for DOS applications (games).

In such cases, if possible only the PCI driver should be loaded.

• CS4297A / CS4281
  • ThinkPad 240X
• CS4297 / CS4280
  • ThinkPad 570 / 570E
• CS4239 / CS4610
  • ThinkPad 600E
  • ThinkPad 770X / 770Z
• CS4297A / CS4624
  • ThinkPad 600X
  • ThinkPad T20 / T21 / T22 / T23
  • ThinkPad A20m / A21m / A22m
  • ThinkPad A20p / A21p / A22p
• CS4297A / CS4281
  • ThinkPad X20 / X21 / X22 / X23 / X24
  • ThinkPad TransNote

IBM MWave

There are no MWave Audio drivers for Linux, but you might be able to get sound by first booting into DOS, loading the DOS MWave Audio drivers, and then using loadlin to boot into Linux where you can try loading the SoundBlaster drivers.

ThinkPad's with MWave Audio (MDSP2780):

• ThinkPad 755CD / 755CDV / 755CE / 755CV / 755CX
• ThinkPad 760C / 760CD / 760E / 760ED / 760XD
• ThinkPad 765D

TODO

Link to resources for sound related problems, such as the "no sound after suspend" problem