Another RedHat Sis7210 configuration problem
 

Hi

I am new to linux. I have got Asus motherboard P4SGX-MX-UAYZ. It has got Sis 7210 chip. I have been trying to setup sound on it, both on Mandrake 9.1 and RedHat 9.0. Obviously i haven't been successful (otherwise i wouldn't be writing this:-) ). Currently i want to configure sound on RedHat.

RH9 detects the sound chip, but i don't get any sound. I have tried to compile the driver provided by asus, but i can't compile it successfully. I have also been trying alsa, but still getting problems.

With alsa, i downloaded driver/lib/utils 1.0.Orc1. It compiles ok, but when i do modprobe snd-intel8x0 (as the page on alsa site suggests), i get this

/lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/sound/pci/snd-intel8x0.o: init_module: No such device
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/2.4.20-8/kernel/sound/pci/snd-intel8x0.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/sound/pci/snd-intel8x0.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/sound/pci/snd-intel8x0.o: insmod snd-intel8x0 failed

I have checked the path /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/sound/pci/ and the file snd-intel.... is there.

I have been looking at some other threads on this site as well, but havent found much help for RH9.

Anyone can help me???

Regards,

Salman.

Hi again.

You can guess the level of my frustration. I can't get the name of my sound card right:-( Its Sis 7012!

Might want to try the OSS module, the alsa version you have might not accomodate for it:

modprobe i810_audio

Cheers,

Finegan

I've just had a brief mess around with Mandrake 9.2 and it appears to correctly detect the card upon installation.

If you haven't got access to 9.2, you could recompile your kernel to a newer version 2.4.22 or 2.4.23, apply the apci patch first, disable apm support in the kernel setup and enable all apci options except debugging. Then add the line:

alias sound i810_audio

to module.conf and select oss/free in aRts. That works for me!:D

There's a more detailed version here.

Cheers
Amos

Thanks for responding:-)

Finegan, i tried modprobe i810_audio, but nothing happens.

I have decided to get a newer kernal. Am reading articles on that. At the moment, i don't know how to "apply the apci patch first, disable apm support ..." etc. Any ideas would be helpful.

Cheers.

You're looking at some older news, acpi isn't a patch anymore, its in the kernel. Acpi and apm are right next to each other in the kernel config, by default I think apm is checked.

If you modprobed i810_audio and it just returned a new line, it loaded... without errors. It found the device. Open up a mixer, there are plenty of GUI ones under Gnome/KDE's multimedia menu, and make certain its not muted. Then just try and play a sound.

Cheers,

Finegan

There is a volume contron in RH9, similar to windows. There is nothing muted in there. I go to Preferences->Sound and try to play some sound events wave files. Dont get any sound.

While compiling kernal, on "make zImage", i got the following error.

Root device is (3, 7)
Boot sector 512 bytes.
Setup is 2532 bytes.
System is 1162 kB
System is too big. Try using bzImage or modules.
make[1]: *** [zImage] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.4.23/arch/i386/boot'
make: *** [zImage] Error 2

I am going to increase the ext3 partition size and try this again. Actually i am not sure if thats what i need to do. Please keep the suggestions comming in.

Cheers.

The howto you looked at is a little old...

make bzImage

zImage compression is either outright broken or just depricated now.

Cheers,

Finegan

My first attempt to compile the kernel has failed, as expected:-)

When i try to boot up using the newly compiled kernel, i get this error:

Bad file or directory type.

I have tried to add proper lines to grub.conf, as the howto i was looking at suggested, but i can't get it right.

Can you plz suggest something i can look at for compilation? Also, any suggestions for my original problem (i.e. soundcard)?

Cheers.

The first time I had to compile a kernel to achieve acpi support for a SiS7012, it wouldn't work without the acpi patch (2.4.18?), so last time I recompiled I went through the same steps (2.4.21).

I've just installed Slackware 9.1 and by choosing to use the supplied bareacpi.i kernel I now have a working soundcard without having to recompile.:D

If you go here, you'll find a step by step guide to recompiling the Mandrake kernel. This is what I've used both times, although Slackware doesn't like the line:

"Make a new initrd firstly, by typing in mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.4.19-1custom.img 2.4.19-1custom and pressing Enter. "

but still works, without it. I really must get round to finding out what it means.:p

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Amos

Hi again.

Just to update people who tried to help... The following events have occured (not in that order)

My CD drive died. My mouse stopped working for some time, and my Windows then crashed. I had to rush my machine to my vendor (as i am not very good at fixing hardware issues).

I got hold of Mandrake 9.2, but the soundcard still doesn't work.

I am so tired with all this that i have stopped working on Linux. Will probably start working on it after a few weeks. At the moment, i just want to enjoy the moments when my computer works smoothly, without any hardware problems:-)

I will be back...

Salman.

Hello from Santiago de CHile!

I have the same souncard.

I resolve this problem in my RedHat 9 : (NOTE : Always i have installed the kernel sources)

Step 1.
- First download alsa sources from http://www.alsa-project.org (alsa-driver, alsa-lib, alsa-utils, alsa-oss)

Step 2.
- unpack alsa-lib and compile. (./configure && make && make install)
- Compile alsa-oss (./configure && make && make install)

Step 3.
- Unpack alsa-driver
- ./configure --with-isapnp=no --with-sequencer=yes --with-oss=yes
- touch include/linux/workqueue.h
- make install
- run the ./snddevices script

Step 4.
-- Check if you have unresolved simbols with depmod -ae. If you get errors repeat step 3.

Step 5
-- run ldconfig

Step 6.
- unpack alsa-utils and compile. (./configure && make && make install)

Step 7
- run alsaconf ( here this must be configure your modules.conf )
- run alsamixer ( your channels are muted by default )
- run alsactl store

Step 8
- reboot
- cd /etc/init.d/alsasound start
- startx

Here my ALSA configuration in modules.conf

alias char-major-116 snd
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0
alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0
options snd-intel8x0 snd_ac97_clock=0 snd_enable=1 snd_index=0

Enjoy!

If this guide was useful please send me a email to : leo.nunez@gmail.com

Cheers!

Bye!