16-bit aria soundcard with DSL?
Forum: Multimedia
Topic: 16-bit aria soundcard with DSL?
started by: Oostertoaster
Posted by Oostertoaster on June 18 2005,20:58
Hello all,I have recently revived my legacy PC with DSL. I was wondering if it is possible to get sound with the hardware I have.
I have a 16-bit Aria soundcard (I don't have the IRQ or base address handy, but I can get them later.) This sound card is able to emulate a soundblaster, but it is not a soundblaster itself. I have tried the following:
modprobe sb (followed by IRQ, base address, etc.)
However, it doesn't work. Does DSL support this card?
P.S. The aria card is connected through the ISA bus, and is not plug and play (as far as I can tell.)
I'd appreciate any help you can give me.
Posted by tempestuous on June 19 2005,05:37
In a section relating to obsolete cards, there's a mention of "Sierra Aria" cards at < http://www.tdl.com/~netex/html/Sound-HOWTO-3.html >Even if this is not your card, the information that follows might help you "....These cards usually work better using the MSS/WSS or MAD16 driver".
I think the MSS/WSS (Microsoft Sound System / Windows Sound System) driver is the ad1848, as suggested here -
www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO/sound.html
Posted by Oostertoaster on June 19 2005,20:31
I have tried the suggestions laid out above, but each time modprobe spits out the following lines:Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/sound/sb.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/sound/sb.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/sound/sb.o: insmod sb failed
this happens for modprobe sb, as well as the other modules you suggested. Is there some way I can get DSL just to scan the ISA bus and detect the soundcard? Another possible issue is that this soundcard is a "jumperless" model, and you have to set the IRQ, DMA, and base address from a line in the config.sys file under windows, so it may not have the IRQ and DMA that I believe it to have.
Any other ideas?
Posted by tempestuous on June 20 2005,02:30
It's probably time to replace that card with a $5 Creative SoundBlaster ... but it sounds like you want to solve this challenge.I agree that you're close, and it's probably just a matter of loading the driver (sb, ad1848, or mad16) with the correct settings.
Can you obtain the documentation with that card?
Or do you know what the original Windows config.sys settings were?
If not, the full ALSA driver package contains a utility - "alsaconf" which does a great job of detecting and configuring ISA sound cards.
ALSA can be installed in DSL with the alsadebs.dsl, after first installing gnu-utils.dsl and dsl-dpkg.dsl.
I'm not entirely certain that this package (sourced from Knoppix, I think) contains alsaconf, but if not, you could install alsa-base deb from < http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/ >
Installing one driver package over another might mess things up, but you should at least be able to run alsaconf and take note of the hardware settings it detects.
Then you can wipe everything and do a clean re-install.
Posted by Oostertoaster on June 20 2005,13:19
Yes, I am definitely just tinkering with this old computer for the challenge of it, and as a chance to get more familiar with linux through all of this tinkering 
I do know the original config.sys settings. I am at work now, so I don't remember them exactly something like
io=0x290
irq=11
dma=5
However, the config.sys file also has settings for soundblaster emulation, which is mildly confusing, they are
io=0x220
irq=5
dma=1
Now, the most confusing part is that the card is jumperless, as I said above, meaning that the config.sys actually sets these values into the card when I boot-up into windows. I will try the ALSA package when I get home from work, but shouldn't modprobe work if I know the correct settings? Or does modprobe not work because the card is jumperless, requiring programming at boot-up?
Posted by tempestuous on June 21 2005,04:07
From the info you have just provided, this is what I would try -For MSS/WSS mode -
modprobe ad1848 io=0x290 irq=11 dma=5 (isapnp=0 ??)
or
modprobe mad16 io=0x290 irq=11 dma=5
For SB emulation mode -
modprobe sb io=0x220 irq=5 dma=1 (isapnp=0 ??)
In the linux kernel source, there's a good document - /Documentation/sound/README.OSS which mentions that older jumperless sound cards may need to be initialised by the (DOS/Windows) driver before they will work. Quoting from the section "What if your card was not listed above?" -
"...there is a chance to get the card to work by booting DOS before starting Linux (boot DOS,hit ctrl-alt-del and boot Linux without hard resetting the machine). In this method the DOS based driver initializes the hardware to use known I/O, IRQ and DMA settings. If sound driver is configured to use the same settings, everything should work OK."
Also, the Linux utility - "isapnptools" might do the same thing.(?)
It's all sounding difficult.
Posted by amer on June 21 2005,17:26
i have a soundblaster and the sound isnt working, says make sue rnothingings blocking wound card, configured correctly, or correct outputno outputs work :-/