Hi all,

I'm totally new to Linux (using Mandrake 8.1), and haven't been able to get the sound to work. I have a MicroStar International (MSI) Pro266 Master (MS-6366) that comes with the VIA8233 chipset and AC97 integrated sound. I'm pretty clueless on how to proceed here, but pasted below is some config information I thought might be useful (any ellipses are mine). Thanks!


[me@localhost me]$ cat /etc/modules.conf
pre-install pcmcia_core CARDMGR_OPTS=-f etc/rc.d/init.d/pcmcia start
alias usb-interface usb-uhci
probeall scsi_hostadapter ide-scsi
alias eth0 tulip
above snd-card-via8233 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-via8233


[me@localhost me]$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [card1 ]: VIA8233 - VIA 8233
VIA 8233 at 0xb400, irq 12


[root@localhost me]# lsmod | less
Module Size Used by
...
...
snd-seq-oss 28944 0 (unused)
snd-seq-midi-event 3216 0 [snd-seq-oss]
snd-seq 41856 0 [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi-event]
snd-seq-device 3984 0 [snd-seq-oss snd-seq]
snd-pcm-oss 18624 1
snd-pcm-plugin 15792 0 [snd-pcm-oss]
snd-mixer-oss 4800 0 [snd-pcm-oss]
snd-card-via8233 5952 1
snd-pcm 31616 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-pcm-plugin snd-card-via8233]
snd-timer 8528 0 [snd-seq snd-pcm]
snd-ac97-codec 25056 0 [snd-card-via8233]
snd-mixer 24544 0 [snd-mixer-oss snd-ac97-codec]
snd 35248 1 [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq snd-seq-device snd-pcm-oss snd-pcm-plugin snd-mixer-oss snd-card-via8233 snd-pcm snd-timer snd-ac97-codec snd-mixer]
soundcore 4208 4 [snd]

[root@localhost me]# cat /proc/ioports
...
...
b400-b4ff : VIA Technologies, Inc. AC97 Audio Controller
b400-b4ff : VIA 8233 - AC'97

cat, less, and knowing where the io info in /proc is, and you're new to Unix? Okay... I'll roll with that.

The biggest newbie error to Alsa sound is that the mixer is muted by default. You have the mixer module loaded, and if all of those modules bound, then you should have sound. If you're not going on runlevel 5, with X always started by default, then kill X, go to a regular tty and cat /dev/random to /dev/audio (or /dev/sound, I can never remember), and make sure the speakers aren't up too loud.

If you get screech, then its just KDE (I'm assuming, that's Mandrake's default desktop) screwing up your sound in its settings somewhere.

Cheers,

Finegan

That's it! The KDE sound mixer (KMix) was muted by default. In fact, it seems to always do this every time X is started; is there some way to have it remain in an un-muted state?

BTW, I don't really need to do it now, but I couldn't get the cat of /dev/random to /dev/sound to work; on Mandrake 8.1 there is a /dev/sound subdirectory that has these files:

[me@localhost me]$ ls -l /dev/sound
total 0
crw------- 1 me audio 14, 3 Dec 31 1969 dsp
crw------- 1 me audio 14, 0 Dec 31 1969 mixer
crw------- 1 me audio 14, 1 Dec 31 1969 sequencer
crw------- 1 me audio 14, 8 Dec 31 1969 sequencer2

Should one of these devices be the destination for /dev/random? (What is /dev/random anyway?)

Thanks very much Finegan!

I'm not to hot on what devices alsa modules create, but the GUI's mixer usually gets in the way of something or other, so my test when I have loaded modules and no sound is to go to a tty and just cat /dev/random at the sound device. I listed off for you the usual sound devices of the OSS modules, sorry. There should be a file tab of some sort on that KDE mixer, and the option to save settings. Its kind of counter-intuitive as nearly everything else of I know I KDE is saved to whatever you happen to change it to at that moment.

Cheers,

Finegan