sound drivers in Linux

thirumalesh · 10-24-2007, 01:18 AM

Hi friends,

I want to install sound(audio)drivers in my linux 2.6.9-5.EL system.what is the procedure for this.first i did sound card detection that said no sound cards found in system,now what to do?actually wat is a sound card?

thanks in advance.......

leosgb · 10-24-2007, 01:33 AM

Hi,

It seems that you dont even know what you are trying to do

no problem!

First of all a sound card is a device that converts the digital audio samples (say, a MP3 file) that are in your computer into sound waves (analog signals) that will be sent to your speakers. Or vice-versa (when it is connected to a microphone for instance).

Now, to the driver question: first you need to find out what is your sound card model so you can check if it is supported.

To do that, in my Gentoo system I do:

Code:

lspci -v

Then you need to look for something that looks like a sound card. This is my output:

Code:

00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
        Subsystem: nVidia Corporation Unknown device cb84
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 23
        Memory at febd8000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask+ 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable-
        Capabilities: [6c] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping

See the part that says "audio" in there? This is what you are looking for in your output. Find it and then we can go on from there. Post the whole entry for the sound card like I did.

Good luck.

thirumalesh · 10-24-2007, 03:55 AM

Hi,

Thanks for ur response this is the output for audio device when i did lspci -v

00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 27de (rev 01)
Subsystem: Unknown device 17aa:1007
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 201
I/O ports at d000 [size=256]
I/O ports at cc00 [size=64]
Memory at fea3b800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
Memory at fea3b400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

Please guide me....

keratos · 10-24-2007, 08:52 AM

Hi

This is the intel AC'97 audio chip. Usually an onboard (built into the motherboard) chip.

This should be covered by the ALSA intel sound chip drivers.

Have you tried the alsaconf command? This configures ALSA for you.

Incidentally, you can check what drivers (modules) are installed for sound using the command "lsmod|grep snd". Here is mine:

Code:

# lsmod|grep snd        
snd_intel8x0           33692  0 
snd_ac97_codec        101668  1 snd_intel8x0
snd_pcm                75656  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              22020  1 snd_pcm
snd                    52068  4 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore               7520  1 snd
ac97_bus                2304  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_page_alloc         10120  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm

Also, what kernel are you using? Post the output of the command "uname -r"

keratos · 10-24-2007, 08:53 AM

Hi

This is the intel AC'97 audio chip. Usually an onboard (built into the motherboard) chip.

This should be covered by the ALSA intel sound chip drivers.

Have you tried the "alsaconf" command? This configures ALSA for you. Run it as the "root" user !

Incidentally, you can check what drivers (modules) are installed for sound using the command "lsmod|grep snd". Here is mine:

Code:

# lsmod|grep snd        
snd_intel8x0           33692  0 
snd_ac97_codec        101668  1 snd_intel8x0
snd_pcm                75656  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              22020  1 snd_pcm
snd                    52068  4 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore               7520  1 snd
ac97_bus                2304  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_page_alloc         10120  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm

...using the Intel AC97 drivers !!

You may need to update your kernel and alsa package.

What kernel are you using? Post the output of the command "uname -r"

thirumalesh · 10-24-2007, 11:58 PM

Hi,

I have tried lsmod|grep snd it is giving nothing,simply commomd prompt is coming again.

I also tried alsaconf it is saying "no PnP or PCI sound cards or available".....and also searching for ISA sound cards but that is also not available.

leosgb · 10-25-2007, 12:30 AM

Ok, in that case you will need to tell us what is your distribution and kernel, as said before:

[code]
uname -r
[\code]

And then you just tell us what distro you are using: Suse, Gentoo, Red Hat, ...

thirumalesh · 10-25-2007, 01:38 AM

Hi,

This is o/p of uname -r
2.6.9-5.ELsmp
And I am using Redhat Distribution.....

keratos · 10-25-2007, 02:43 AM

This is a VERY old kernel. Upgrade to the latest. Do you know how to do this?

Also, what is the output of "lspci". this lists PCI devices (should list the soundcard).

You need to upgrade the kernel in my view. This is VERY old.Do you have synaptic on Red Hat? I can't remember the utility for installing development packages (kernel).

thirumalesh · 10-25-2007, 05:37 AM

Hi,

Just now i have downloaded synaptic-0.57.2-1.el4.rf.i386.rpm,and
synaptic-0.57.2-3.rf.src.rpm

when i am doing
rpm -ivh synaptic-0.57.2-3.rf.src.rpm

it is giving following warnings.

warning: synaptic-0.57.2-3.rf.src.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 6b8d79e6
1:synaptic warning: user dag does not exist - using root
warning: group dag does not exist - using root
warning: user dag does not exist - using root
warning: group dag does not exist - using root
warning: user dag does not exist - using root
warning: group dag does not exist - using root
warning: user dag does not exist - using root
warning: group dag does not exist - using root
########################################### [100%]
warning: user dag does not exist - using root
warning: group dag does not exist - using root

after this i did
rpm -ivh synaptic-0.57.2-3.el4.rf.i386.rpm
o/p is

warning: synaptic-0.57.2-3.el4.rf.i386.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 6b8d79e6
error: Failed dependencies:
apt >= 0.5.4 is needed by synaptic-0.57.2-3.el4.rf.i386
libapt-pkg-libc6.3-6.so.2 is needed by synaptic-0.57.2-3.el4.rf.i386

so now I am trying to install apt package ....

and the o/p of lspci is

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 2770 (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 2772 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 27c8 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 27c9 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 27ca (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 27cb (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 27cc (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 27de (rev 01)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 27b8 (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 27c0 (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 27da (rev 01)
01:05.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)

keratos · 10-25-2007, 08:10 AM

Yeah this is normal because the dependencies are not satisifed and your opted not to install as root (forced).

You are also trying to install what we call the SOURCE packages. These come in "C" code and will need compiling via makefiles and development languages packages.

Youre' getting into a mess here.

STOP!

Download the kernel BINARIES from your repository via HTTP or FTP.

I run PClinux so cannot give you the name of the Red Hat server.

Can someone help him?

Once downloaded, install using "rmpi -i <packages>" list them all on one line.

I urge you to do this rather than what you are doing currently !

leosgb · 10-25-2007, 11:10 AM

I would recommend installing apt. Then you can use apt-get (just go over some tutorials on the web) and use it as your pakcage management system. To me it doesnt make much sense to install anything from a download. Let me manager do this for you. It will verify dependencies and will make the installation correctly.

We already know your sound card and the current advice is to update your kernel. Install APT first. Then we continue.

Good luck.

keratos · 10-25-2007, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by leosgb

I would recommend installing apt. Then you can use apt-get (just go over some tutorials on the web) and use it as your pakcage management system. To me it doesnt make much sense to install anything from a download. Let me manager do this for you. It will verify dependencies and will make the installation correctly.

We already know your sound card and the current advice is to update your kernel. Install APT first. Then we continue.

Good luck.

I dont agree and this thread is starting to confuse him.

apt-get currently has over 19 dependencies according to Red Hat repository info. He will have to download those dependencies and any sub dependencies they rely on.

THE simplest is to download kernel packages from the kernel dev tree.

Red Hat kernel RPMs and tutorial can be found here: http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/Lin...pmInstall.html

You'll LEARN a lot too!

My personal view is that whilst apt-get is useful in future, it will require a lot of work just to get three packages which you can download very easily from the above.

p.s. the latest kernel is 2.6.35 so try and acquire this.

My post above is old. but demonstrates the PROCESS if not the currency (i.e. latest)

There are lots of ways you can do this!