Hello:

I have a Compaq Armada 7800 with AC-97 compatible ES-1879 onboard sound. I configured Alsa with the Puppy wizard (Puppy 3.0). There is now a volume control on the taskbar and I can run the mixer, but the master control stays muted and will not change.

The ES-1879 is an ISA sound device. I suspect that my problem is missing sound support in the kernel and that I need to load the kernel driver for the ES-18xx device. I did something similar about 10 years ago in Turbo Linux, but I can't figure out how to do it any more. I haven't had to alter or recompile the kernel in any distro since that time.

Thanks for the help!

To load a module use the command as root 'modprobe nameofmodulefile' without the quotes, and the exact name of the file. Success is a no output response from your system. You probably need the module soundcore loaded first.
On my system that module is in the path of /lib/modules/2.6.22.18-desktop586-1mdv/kernel/sound/isa it may be in a different location on your distro.

Before you try and load it, run the command '/sbin/lsmod | grep snd' to see if you have any sound stuff loaded, or just '/sbin/lsmod' and look through the output.

Usually you do not need to recompile the kernel just for a sound module.

Thank you Cliff-

After looking through the loaded modules, I do indeed have the driver "snd-es18xx" loaded. I think the problem is that the resources in BIOS are set differently than the defaults, thus I don't have the right irq, base address, etc, for modprobe. The next problem with the Compaq Armada 7800 is that the BIOS Setup program was on a special partition on the hard disk when the PC was new. That partition has long since been deleted, and I now have no way to get into the BIOS without hunting down the Setup program and reloading it. That was one of many of Compaq's 'superior' design decisions <grin>.

The bottom line is that I will either find the right resource values by accident or I just won't have any sound with Linux. It's not that big a deal because the sound on an Armada 7800 is just plain horrible.

Thanks again for your time. I appreciate the response.

-glablj

I was a hardware instructor for several years ( way too many ). The partition on the HD would have held diags, and possibly some way of entering the BIOS. Any machine I have aver seen uses a hot key sequence just after booting begins to enter the BIOS. You can hide the message so it is not visible on the monitor, but he hot key sequence should still work.

That said, if you don't know what it is, hardware documentation will tell you. That can be found on the manufactures web site. I have an old Compaq laptop I run Xubuntu on. I found the doc for in on Compaq's ( Now HP's ) web site.

That will get you into the BIOS. You can restore defaults with most BIOS's .

However, I would suspect that won't fix it either. ( Just a guess, try that first.)

I had to install aslaconfig and run it to get sound going on the old lappy.

If sound ever worked, I suspect it did, then we can get it going here also. There are some other things we can try, but we need to sort out the BIOS thing first. Let me know if you can not locate the hot key sequence. I can have a look, I'll need the exact make model etc.

Hi Cliff-

I definitely appreciate your helpfulness.

The notebook is a Compaq Armada 7800 "6266/T/5000/D/M/1"

On that and several other models from that period, the Setup program for BIOS was stored exclusively on the hard disk. There is no Setup program stored in non-volatile memory on the PC itself so, without the Compaq supplied Setup, there is no access to BIOS. You are correct in that there was a key sequence to get into Setup, however. But the key sequence does nothing without the external Setup. It was, IMO, a stupid cost savings idea on Compaq's part. Many years ago, when I wiped out the Setup partition the first time, I had to reload it from the PC setup CD that came with the machine. At that time I learned that it also had to run in x86 Real Mode for Setup to run. Back then I changed some configuration settings to accommodate Linux. After setting it up, I wiped out the partition to get the maximum amount of hard disk space. So, I've done this to myself <grin>. That PC setup CD has long since disappeared.

I could retrieve it from the Compaq Web site here. I don't really feel like going through that, however. The machine has no floppy drive. I would have to build a bootable CD with the Setup program on it, or wipe out my Puppy installation to put in back on the hard disk in Compaq's special partition, and I'm just not that ambitious.

The sound still works perfectly under Windows, which finds the BIOS settings without a problem, but modern versions of Windows simply won't run on the old girl. And, she has the worst sound of any notebook I've ever heard. For example, when you move the mouse, you can hear noise in the sound. Some video operations create noise in the sound as well. Many years ago I got it working under Red Hat 8.0...that process sucked. I have no intention of repeating it.

After it's all said and done, with that much effort required to get it working, it wouldn't even be gratifying. So I'll just drop it. But I sure do appreciate your responses and helpfulness <smile>. You help make the Linux community a good one to belong to.

Best,
-glablj

I did what camorri described here above but being a newbie I don't know what the
answer I got tell me to do.

snd_mixer_oss 0
snd_hda_intel 0

all the others have numbers in that place.
Does it mean I have to get some module somewhere?

Nooby,

I read your post. It would be best if you started a new thread, rather than use someone elses. That said, I'll see if I can help.

From what I can see, you are using Ubuntu, is that correct? 8.04? Also correct?

Loaded modules. Please post the results of the command '/sbin/lsmod grep | snd' ( without the quotes ).

Hardware. Please post the results of '/sbin/lspci'

From what you posted, it looks like you have something loaded, since this is ALSA, you need soundcore and snd also loaded. Here is what my sound ( Alsa too ) looks like.

Note, your sound module is not being used, that '0' is bad news. Soundcore and snd need to be loaded first. Then you load the snd_hda_intel module. Then bring up a mixer, make sure you are not muted, and turn up the volume. Try to play a .wav file.

You can use aplay in a terminal. That is the best way to test as it avoids the need for codecs to decode files like mp3's.

That was the one I made a "copy" from but I have no clue on how one make a copy of it.

I have ubuntu 8.04 too but just now I try to get Puppy Linux 4.0 sound going
but I need to get ubuntu going too. Most likely it is the same problem
cause they behave very similar. None of my many linux distros have sound.

Yes I thought of starting a new thread. Most likely me have one in the Puppy
section of the forum.

So how do I get those modules that are missing or what it now is.

Re drivers for linux I thought of this one.

not sure if that one is for Realtek al888

I'm in windows now and unserstand why I failed to download it. They use java on that page
and in Puppy my seamoneky had no java installed I guess. I need to download noscript add on
but not sure of if seamoneky browser allows NoScript?
are there alternatives to this one. I mean at realtek or somewhere
they don't use java and such?
http://www.opendrivers.com/driver/27...-download.html