Boot with alsa on HD install???
Forum: HD Install
Topic: Boot with alsa on HD install???
started by: Matchew1579
Posted by Matchew1579 on Feb. 10 2005,03:19
I am loving DSL!! Only distro I could get to work with this laptop. I just got this for free from a woman I work with! (Thanks Shurla)I have a Compaq Armada 1585 DMT with a P1 148 mHz and 48 MB of ram.
I can't get my sound card to work!!!
Sound Card is ESS 1878
I know that after installing alsadebs with the myDSL utility, I have to boot with the "dsl alsa" boot command. How do I do this on a HD install? Do I need to edit a config file or what?
Any help is appreciated,
Matt
Posted by tempestuous on Feb. 11 2005,15:38
Matt,I have an ESS es1879 soundcard in my Sony VAIO.
Don't worry about ALSA, just use the OSS audio drivers already in DSL.
ALSA drivers are more sophisticated and should be less resource-hungry for modern sound cards. But there's little difference for old sound cards like the es18xx series.
Furthermore, boot parameters like "alsa=xxx" are more for live CD users. On hard drive installs it makes more sense to save your hardware settings permanently in /etc/modprobe.conf. Unfortunately, ALSA still won't work on hard drive installations without the aforementioned boot parameter (I know, I've tried it extensively) and this adds extra time to an already long bootup sequence.
So here's how to load the OSS driver manually - I learned this from a much older DSL post -
modprobe sb io=0x220 irq=5 dma=1 mpu_io=0x330 isapnp=0
modprobe opl3 io=0x388
Obviously, use irq & i/o settings correct for your Compaq.
But since you have a hard drive install, the more "correct" (Debian) way of achieving this OSS setup permanently is to create a sound module configuration file in /etc/modutils. I suggest you call this file "sound" or "ess" or "sb" (es18xx cards are fully soundblaster compatible, so the OSS driver is "sb"). Here's what the file should contain -
alias sound-slot-0 sb
options sb io=0x220 irq=5 dma=1 mpu_io=0x330 isapnp=0
alias synth0 opl3
options opl3 io=0x388
# USE THIS NEXT LINE IF THE SOUND "STUTTERS"
# options sound dmabuf=1
Next run the command -
update-modules
This will add the information to the global driver file /etc/modprobe.conf
Reboot. Enjoy.
Craig S
Posted by Matchew1579 on Feb. 12 2005,03:10
Thank you for the in-depth assistance. Only one question...how do I get the irq and i/o settings??
Thanks again,
Matt
Posted by tempestuous on Feb. 12 2005,13:06
1. These settings should be listed in your bios. My bios is accessed during bootup by pressing F2.And while you're there, double check that the bios is set for "PnP OS = NO" - this is important for all Linux distributions.
or 2. run the command -
cat /proc/interrupts
Hopefully you will see an irq listed for "ES18xx"
or 3. just use trial and error - irq 5 and io 0x220 seem to be fairly standard.
First load the settings manually, as per my last post. Try to play an mp3 file using mpg321.
or, since you already have ALSA installed ...
4. try to run -
alsaconf
This will autodetect your hardware settings and set up the ALSA configuration. If it works, you're up and running with ALSA. Your /etc/modprobe.conf file will then be similar to this -
alias snd-card-0 snd-es18xx
alias sound-slot-0 snd-es18xx
options snd-es18xx isapnp=0 dma1=1 dma2=0 irq=5 fm_port=0x388
It may still appear that sound doesn't work, because mixer settings are muted by default with ALSA. Run -
alsamixer
and unmute the master volume by pressing "m".
If you want to be able to play midi files, things get more complex. You need to install an ALSA utilitly called "sbiload" which is used to load soundfonts into the opl3 hardware synthesizer of the ESS chip.
Posted by Fuzzhead on May 28 2005,02:47
I have an older laptop, and just finished installing DSL onto it. Specs are 233MHz w/64 MB RAM...I have wireless working too, and am posting from the laptop right now... The problem now, is the sound doesn't work. I want to use XMMS to play an mp3 song but I get an error message about no having proper output config, or sound card configuration required.
I did the command for IRQs, but don't see anything about a sound card... here is the output from the command.
-------------------------------
CPU0
0: 266777 XT-PIC timer
1: 1466 XT-PIC keyboard
2: 0 XT-PIC cascade
6: 119 XT-PIC floppy
8: 1 XT-PIC rtc
10: 0 XT-PIC usb-uhci
11: 842072 XT-PIC Texas Instruments PCI1250, Texas Instruments PCI1250 (#2), ath0
12: 24845 XT-PIC PS/2 Mouse
14: 10733 XT-PIC ide0
15: 33 XT-PIC ide1
NMI: 0
LOC: 0
ERR: 0
MIS: 0
----------------------------------
What tools/commands are available to help resolve the sound issue?
Thanks,
Fuzzhead
=8^)
Posted by ke4nt1 on May 28 2005,03:19
A very nice run-thru on sound card setup, tempestuous..well said.. well done.. good work..
nice to have someone else knowlegable about soundcards on-board..
73
ke4nt
Posted by cbagger01 on May 28 2005,04:59
Fuzzhead,Provide us the exact Model Name/Number for your computer and it may be possible to learn the correct sound specifications.
Posted by pyrael on June 06 2005,23:41
I don't know if this will help you or not, but It might help someone, I just foud the module.conf file for my Compaq armada 7730MT, which there seems to be no way to get into the BIOS on. (Ive tried every key imaginable!!!!!) The only thing I figured out was that pressing the <del> key boots my CD Rom lol. Any way, I got the same thing on my laptop when I did cat /proc/interrupts. ---NO Sound card. I found this modules.conf file on The Linux Laptops Homepage < http://home.sprynet.com/~ecsi/ecsi-dev/linux-stuff.html >Try this configuration:
alias sound-slot-0 sb
options op13 io=0x338
options sb io=0x220 irq=5 dma=1
Hope that helps
Posted by blackfrog on June 09 2005,05:55
i had the exact same problem, i went as far as apt-get install'ing alsa, then removing it, then i had downloaded the sources to alsa and was going to compile from sources, when i ran into the problem of not having the kernel source, so i came here to find info on how i could get it and found this post and made the file exactly like you said (mind you im on a dell latitude xpi m166st cd laptop - p1 166 mmx w/ 48mb but it has onboard ess 1887 sound) and low and behold.....it didnt work x.x
however, i decided to mess with it and see if i could get it working so i searched arount the net for a bit and ran into < this > post on some yahoo forum which eventually led to me figuring out based on this forum and that one what to do to ----KIND OF---- get it working
so
for those under a similar situation, i just added a file called /etc/modutils/ess which contained the following:
| Code Sample |
alias sound-slot-0 sb options sb io=0x230 irq=5 dma=1 dma16=3 mpu_ip=0x388 esstype=1887 isapnp=0 alias synth0 opl3 options opl3 io=0x388] # use next line if it stutters # options dmabuf=1 |
and then ran "update-modules", then rebooted, and then i had to run "modprobe sb"
after all that, sound in the terminal mode works, that is, i get beeps when i hit tab (i didnt used to) but xmms wont play so i dunno im gonna keep fiddling with it and hopefully get something goin here
on a side note, where can i get the kernel sources to dsl 1.2 kernel (im assuming its custom?) if i decided to recompile alsa?
thanks for the distro, happy coding
Posted by blackfrog on June 10 2005,04:49
okay so i ended up reinstalling dsl on my hard drive, but have sound working so heres how i did itfirst, when booting dsl, i had to use floppy disk cause my cd drive (interally scsi) wont boot on its own, and i used the boot prompt "fb800x600 alsa" to boot it (800x600 laptop screen, sound enabled)
once it booted, i ran the hard drive install script, but at the end when it asked me to reboot, i mounted my hard drive (hda1) from that funny lil mounting thinger in the corner, then typed in "sudo nano /mnt/hda1/etc/lilo.conf" and added "alsa" to the end of the line with all the hdx kernel params in it. then i unmounted hda1 and reboot my computer, removing cd and floppy
once inside my new install, i immediately opened a terminal, changed to root with "sudo su" and did "modprobe sb io=0x230 irq=5 dma=1" and then boom sound works
so to make this stick after reboot, i added a file called /etc/modutils/ess that contained the following:
so then i added this info to
| Code Sample |
| alias sound-slot-0 sb options sb io=0x230 irq=5 dma=1 options dmabuf=1 |
and then ran "update-modules"
then i rebooted and now xmms plays mp3s and audio cds (mp3s are stuttery tho - need to upgrade my ram i guess :P) and in console only mode mpg123 plays flawlessly
so im a happy camper now
Posted by tempestuous on June 14 2005,12:10
blackfrog,You have done well to troubleshoot your audio hardware resource settings.
It's worth noting that your eventual success was probably due to NOT including certain module parameters - dma16/mpu_io/esstype/isapnp.
The dma16 setting, especially, may have caused lack of output because your soundcard might not be full-duplex.
Another point - I don't believe your boot parameter "alsa" is achieving anything - because the driver module you have (successfully) configured has nothing to do with ALSA. It's loading the OSS sb driver. ALSA drivers all have the "snd-" prefix. Yours would be snd-es18xx.
It might be worth checking that your sound is playing at the correct speed (mine wasn't with OSS drivers) but otherwise your sound card is "happy" under OSS, so there's no need to install ALSA. But if you want to try ALSA, it's available for download as a mydsl package. No need to compile it or obtain via apt-get.
Posted by cbagger01 on June 14 2005,16:35
Actually, the "dsl alsa" boot command DOES do something.It prevents the autoloading of the default OSS sound drivers.
Typing "dsl alsa" without actually using the alsadebs.dsl extension will produce almost the exact same effect as typing "dsl nosound" or "dsl noaudio".
If DSL is loading incorrect OSS drivers, then you should continue to use either "dsl nosound" , "dsl noaudio" , or "dsl alsa" and then load the correct driver after bootup either via manual typing or via /opt/bootlocal.sh script.
Posted by tempestuous on June 15 2005,14:05
cbagger01, thanks for the info about "noaudio". I just read through the main bootup script and I see that it instructs hwsetup to ignore audio devices. Very useful.I suppose the other possible way of fixing an incorrectly loaded driver would be to unload it first?
By trying to talk blackfrog out of using the "alsa" boot option, my less-than-positive attitude towards the Knoppix alsa-autoconfig script is showing. No need for anyone to rush to its defence, I know it suits many people.
Posted by clivesay on Aug. 18 2005,13:15
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