Slots, it isnt PCI, AGP, PCI-E or ISA... what is it ?

qwijibow · 01-17-2005, 02:35 PM

Hey guys, i have a chaintech VNF3-250
Nforce3 Chipset, Amd64 cpu.

the motherboard came will a small card for Digital 5.1 audio output,
its nota pci or pci-expres card, its about half the length, just under of a pci slot.

what is it ?

ALSa doesnt detect it, but im not sure if thats simply decause ALSA doesnt support if, or because the driver for the bus its pluged into isnt loaded.

it diesnt show up in lspci or cat /proc/pci.

if i knew its name, i could research it alot better,

I have a nVidia onboard sound card, so i do have the normal sterio sound, but if i can get this working, i might upgrade my speakers to a 5.1 configureation.

the manual simply calls the mystery card a "Chaintech Multimedia Card)
it has 3 different sound outputs, and a game port (looks like a serial port for joysticks)

the manual also mentions a "CMR Multimedia Raiser Slot" which could be the slot im talking about, is this just a brand name, or the offcial name for this type of bus / slot ?

Peacedog · 01-17-2005, 06:04 PM

It's probably an ac97 based cnr. The cnr is a communications network riser, don't quote me on that. It's based around a technology that died a couple of years ago that seems to be making a comeback called amr, or audio modem riser. Its a card and slot for a modem/audio device. The kicker is that the modems seem to be all winmodems that don't work with linux.

With all that said, it should show up from lspci, if it isn't you may need to enable it in your bios, or maybe even disable the onboard card to get it to show up.

If you can get it to show up, and my guess about what the card actually is turns out to be correct, you'll most likely have to blacklist the modem module to get the sound functioning. Hope something here helps.
good luck.

qwijibow · 01-17-2005, 06:52 PM

There is no modem on the device.

My onboard sound card is....

Code:

0000:00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce3 250Gb AC'97 Audio Controller (rev a1)
        Subsystem: Chaintech Computer Co. Ltd: Unknown device f646
        Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 23
        I/O ports at fb00
        I/O ports at fa00 [size=128]
        Memory at fdffb000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

could it be possible that the onboard card / this *unknows* card are detected as the same cound device ?

for example the card adds an extra few output channels to make 5.1 surround sound ?

the card is very tiny, very little hardware on it. its pretty much just a slot, and 4 audio outputs and joystick socket.

my whole lspci output is (without the verbose option used above)

Code:

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 250Gb Host Bridge (rev a1)
0000:00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 00e0 (rev a2)
0000:00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation nForce 250Gb PCI System Management (rev a1)
0000:00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK8S USB Controller (rev a1)
0000:00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK8S USB Controller (rev a1)
0000:00:02.2 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK8S USB Controller (rev a2)
0000:00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce3 250Gb AC'97 Audio Controller (rev a1)
0000:00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK8S Parallel ATA Controller (v2.5) (rev a2)
0000:00:0a.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK8S Serial ATA Controller (v2.5) (rev a2)
0000:00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 250Gb AGP Host to PCI Bridge (rev a2)
0000:00:0e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 250Gb PCI-to-PCI Bridge (rev a2)
0000:00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
0000:00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
0000:00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
0000:00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV36 [GeForce FX 5700LE] (rev a1)
0000:02:07.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8029(AS)
0000:02:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

as you can see, it doesnt apear to exist.

Peacedog · 01-17-2005, 07:01 PM

Some folks are experimenting with these slots/cards. It could be proprietary. Are you certain there is nothing resmbling a modem or nic chipset?
good luck.

qwijibow · 01-17-2005, 08:33 PM

Definatly No NIC or Modem.

the card is made by Chaintech, and came with the motherboard (also chaintech)

the motherboard was adtervised as having onboard 5.1 surround sound.
but when i opened the box, i found the onboard sound device with the normal line-in / line-out audio jacks, and the card ive described.

when i run alsamixer, i am given the following volume levels..
Master, PCM, Surround, Center, LFE, Line, CD, Mic, IEC958, Aux, Capture

the info displayed is Card: Nvidia CK8S, Chip C-Media Electronics id 83.

the cip seems to have more outputs than a standard line-out can transport.

if only i had speakers compatable with digital output i could test my theory, i dont want to buy speakers for this decide untill i know it works

Peacedog · 01-18-2005, 07:00 AM

I would take a peek around the bios and look for some settings about the card. You can use two cards with alsa, but, sometimes it can be a bear to setup.

I believe that card should show up on the pci bus. You might try a pnpdump to be certain though. You might also contact chaintech for more info, as I have been unable to google anything of use.
good luck.