AC'97 Sound + rc.modules
 

Hi,

I know this has been covered extensively before (the AC'97 Realtek onboard sound issues) but I can't seem to find anything about my problem. I downloaded the current drivers for my mobo's onboard sound (GA-7VA motherboard), I did all the steps I'm supposed to , but I can't find the module it built to add into rc.modules (I think thats the file, I'm at work and can't remember : )

Could any one please tell me where it would have built the file or am I just a confused newb who doesn't understand the modules concept? Or just point me towards the appropiate HOWTO or thread.

BTW I'm using Slackware 9.0 with a recompilied kernel with sound enabled (I did that yesterday : )

Thanks in advance,

Jacob
(1st ever post : )

Gidday Jacob :)
and welcome to LQ!

As I don't know your motherboard
the output of
lspci -vv
would be handy ... just in case.

As a rule of thumb your module would
have ended up in
/lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/sound ...

Cheers, and regards from windy Wellington,
Tink

Yeah I'll post the output of that command when I get home, just a couple more question. Whats the deal with conf.modules, modules.conf and rc.modules?

I downloaded one driver and it spat out all these XXXXXXXXX is depricated. Yet i still see people post threads and replies about the two later files. The other driver did everything fine, i just had to rename the folder in the /usr/src/ directory where I kept the kernel source (it was looking for linux-2.4.18-3, i renamed the directory to that from linux-2.4.20-5 ; is this bad or going to cause a problem?).

Creating a symlink to the directory would be a better solution, do this,
...to get something resembling this,
Welcome to LQ Jacob, and, GO THE ALL BLACKS!!!! for the world cup ;-)

Thanks mate,

With a symlink will this affect all programs (and commands like cd /usr/src/linux-X.X.XX) and when I compile programs I can do this everytime (if they are looking for a different directory containing the source); like if I use a symlink is there going to be anyfiles missing in the folder it is looking at if it is different than the one it was intending to?

Hehe, this is alot better than struggling on my own to comprehend the HOWTO, etc that I get; they all seem out fo date anyway.

Thanks guys.

Heh ...

Don't become lazy, though ;)

As for the modules.conf, conf.modules
and rc.modules ...

rc.modules "forcefully" tries to load
stuff. The other two (one old, one more
modern ;}) primarily hold information on
mappings and module options ...

for instance if you had two ethernet cards,
you could put
alias eth0 tulip
alias eth1 eepro100
or similar things into there...
or if you wanted to force certain settings
you'd add an option line with the params
it requires...

Cheers,
Tink

P.S.: What's the ALL BLACKS?
<duck&cover> :}

So If I had two ethernet cards I would add it into rc.modules?
And would I ever utilise the other two?

Thanks,

Jacob

PS: :) I won't get lazy, I would much rather learn by myself with HOWTO's and guidance than get step-by-step instructions......whats the point in trying to learn linux if I don't even understand what I'm typing in

Oooops sorry, my last post lacked
precision...

the alias stuff goes in /etc/modules.conf

in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules
you'd just put the calls to actually load them
(if needed).


Cheers,
Tink

With the addition of hotplug support to slack9 you should only use rc.modules if hotplug fails to detect the hardware, or if it has problems with the hardware, in the second case add the module to /etc/hotplug/blacklist and uncomment it in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules, both hotplug and rc.modules use modprobe, which reads /etc/modules.conf and applies any options specified therein.

Most will look in /usr/src/linux by default, the ones that don't can be told to by passing an option with ./configure or by editing the Makefile, a symlink allows you to have multiple kernel sources with the current running source being the linked directory.

I have hotplug in my recompilied kernel ((like this in make menuconfig <*>, not this <M> or <>), I do anything with my sound. Its onboard sound on my Gigabyte GA-7VA mobo, should hotplug detect/configure/do anthing with this?

thanks,

Jacob

It may be the problem.
To start we really need to see the Multimedia audio controller info from 'lspci -vv', once we determine exactly what modules are required we can start playing around with the settings to get it working well.

OK , I'll have to wait till I get home then,

Thanks everyone

If only I didn't have to boot into WinXP to get onto the internet :)

lspci -v
 

This is the bit about my onboard audio from lspci -v (I cut it down cos it lost all the formatting when I opened it with Notepad in WinXP).

BTW this is what I have done so far with the ASLA drivers.

1. Compiled my kernel with sound support
2. ./configure
3. make (or install, sorry I'm in WinXP and can't access the readme from here, but anyway I did what it said in the readme)
4 ./snddevices

The readme then says to add the appropriate lines to modules.conf , this is where my problem lies.

Firstly, I can't find where the XXXX.o files have been stored (there is no /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/sound, in the ...../drivers directory there is scsi,usb,etc yet no sound directory). I also don't know what to add into the modules.conf or rc.modules (or if I have to add anything).

Also at the moment the file modules.conf is empty , is this a problem?

Thanks in advance,

Jacob

OOps
 

Here is the output :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)

Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology GA-7VAX Onboard Audio (Realtek ALC650)
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 11

I/O ports at ec00 [size=256]

Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you need more of the file just say so, its just that in Notepad'n'Wordpad its unformatted so I just tried to cut the bit out that I thought was required.