Question #3

PLEASE DON'T FLAME ME!

I have searched high and low for a resolution to the infamous sound problem that the Thinkpad 600 series has in linux.

I even chose FC3 because I read here that it didn't have this problem. Mark Alford is either a liar or very lucky.

I have found tons of solutions all over google and on LQ. None of them seems to fix what I am experiencing.

When KDE is starting, I get a message that says

------------------------------------
Sound server informational message:
Error while initializing the sound driver:
device /dev/dsp can't be opened (No such file or directory)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device.
------------------------------------

If you are a LQ veteran, you are probably tired of hearing about this, but I'm a rookie and I'm stuck! Any help?

TIA

tried makeing the dsp device?

mknod /dev/dsp0 c 14 3
chmod 777 /dev/dsp0
ln -s /dev/dsp0 /dev/dsp

-geir

Tried it now...



still looking for ideas.

check out this site:
http://jeremy.zawodny.com/misc/thinkpad-600e-sound.html

Good article. Followed the instructions.

On boot when it tries to load the module:

----------------------------------
FATAL: module cs4232 not found
aumix: error opening mixer
----------------------------------

Hmmm...

you probably need to recompile your kernel to include support for this card
there are a lot of good tutorials on kernel compiling in these forums

That's using the old and deprecated OSS drivers. Use the snd-cs4236 Alsa driver instead. We have been over this a zillion times, so please use the search function of these forums and you'll get some enlightenment.


Håkan

{soapbox=true}
Hakan, I see you have been on this forum for a very long time. Perhaps this is old hat to you, but your eagerness to help a rookie like me is underwhelming. You don't seem to have read the second and fifth sentences in the post that I started this thread with.

Searches invariably turn up exorbitantly long and frustrating threads about other rookies and their dozen or so fruitless attempts at this. Or I found very short threads that obviously chased the newbie away because some old pro spouted off about how all the guy had to do was discombobulate the rinkshank gaffeter and kaboodle BEFORE he skittled the gootbriar and add the skeed to vobit and he should have sound (easy, right?)

I know the subject has been discussed ad nauseum, but I have searched high and low and found ZIP in the way of concise, step-by-step instructions on how to get the alsa driver for this laptop working. That's what I was hoping this thread would turn out to be. It seems that isn't going to happen.
{soapbox=false}

For those who are trying to help me instead of fuss at me:

I have added this to my modprobe.conf (AKA modules.conf or conf.modules) per the alsa web site:

# ALSA portion
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-cs4236
# module options should go here

# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

# card #1
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


At ONE point lsmod reported to me that the soundcore and other sound modules were loaded. I haven't been able to replicate that and I don't know what I did.

Right now there are no sound modules reported by lsmod, and modprobe snd-cs4236 results in:

FATAL: Error inserting snd_cs4236 (/lib/modules/2.6.9-1.667/kernel/sound/isa/cs423x/snd-cs4236.ko): No such device

I don't know, but I would imagine that this is the same problem that Arts is reporting to me when KDE loads (as in the problem I started this thread with).

So what's next?

TIA

BTW - A respectable graphical text editor (i.e. easier to use than emacs) would be nice. Can anybody suggest one?

I happen to be in the same boat. I have tried so many things out and yet I cant get my thinkpad 600e sound working. While I know its frustrating to be going over the same stuff over and over, the truth is that we have new converts to linux everyday. The main attraction for going open source is the community spirit and I would really appreciate any help.

There is a How-To by Hakan @ how-to for sound on 600E but I am a complete newbie and have no idea what the instructions mean. I am assuming it means compiling or configuring the kernel and if someone could point me in the right directions with instructions for a 3 year old, I'd be eternally grateful

gedit is a good one

this question for both litlmary and jogi: what kernel are you using?
in order to find out type this in a terminal:

uname -r

OK. This is what you need to do to follow the instruction given by hw-tph to build kernel modules for this card:
1. Open a terminal
2. cd /usr/src/linux (this should take you to your kernel source directory)
3. su (enter your root password when requested)
4. make oldconfig (this will set the configuration to match your current kernel so you don't have to reconfigure too much)
make menuconfig (directions for general use are at the top of the window, pretty easy)
5. down arrow to Device Drivers and hit ENTER
6. down arrow to Plug and Play Support and hit Y be sure there are * in the ISA-Plug and Play box too
7. hit ESCAPE
8. down arrow to Sound and hit ENTER
9. if the box is empty by Sound card support, press M (this will compile this a module for your kernel)
10. down arrow to Open Sound System and hit ENTER
11. down arrow to OSS sound modules and hit M
12. down arrow to Crystal CS4232 based (PnP) cards and hit M
13. down arrow to MPU-401 and hit M
14. down arrow to PSS (AD1848, etc) and hit M
15. hit ESCAPE until you are asked if you want to save your new kernel configuration then select Yes
The following will all be done from the root command prompt:
16. make (this will take a long time...probably an hour or so...and compile your new kernel)
17. make modules
18. make modules_install
19. make install
20. reboot (when Grub starts just pick the kernel you just built)

NOTE: if you don't have the source for your kernel (or whatever kernel you want to use), get it first

I am running Knoppix 3.9 and the kernel is 2.6.11

Thanks Cedar, am going to try that out later this morning and give you feedback but how do I know if the kernel source is already on my thinkpad?

well, I have run into series of hitches. First off, there is no linux folder in the /usr/src. So I CD'd into usr/src and tried make oldconfig.

What I got is :

root@tp600e:/usr/src# make oldconfig
[ -f /usr/src/linux/.config ] || zcat /proc/config.gz > /usr/src/linux/.config
/bin/sh: /usr/src/linux/.config: No such file or directory
make: *** [oldconfig] Error 1
root@tp600e:/usr/src#


What to do next???

jogi-
in a terminal as root:
ltlmary-
the above is for debian-based systems like Knoppix, I don't remember how to do it for RedHat-based systems like Fedora. I think it's like this at a root prompt:
if this doesn't work, I'm sorry.