Dear All,

I'm going to ask the same questions that many others have ask, and all in the same thread; for, in asking one, I've found them all.

1) Why does ALSA not recognize my lspci-listed sound chip?
2) What are udev and hotplugging and OSS?
3) What's the difference between "no-name-kernel" and "slack-kernel" source?
4) Why does the GNOME settings daemon fail as root?
5) Why does GNOME fail altogether when I am not root?
6) Who's Pat, and does he like GNOME?

I have been reading posts and compiling things and changing settings in an effort to get my sound working. Now I fear I've broken my computer, and I've peered into vast abyssal planes of complexity that I can't meaningfully order. Here are a couple of links I peeked at and got scared of:

Is Gnome broken in Slackware 10.1?
ALSA + Gnome Volume Control?

My immediate concern is that when I try to log in as a normal user under GUI multi-user mode w/ GNOME, the screen blinks as if mocking me and then puts me back at the login screen. I can log in as root with GNOME, as I am now.

Next, I want to know where in the scheme of things, from kernel source configuration, through hardware chips and software packages, among GUIs and distros, and inside the caring souls of gurus and apprentices, has my sound gone?

Finally, how can I help? I feel guilty asking so many and such varied questions. I must know something by now about linux of use to someone, and if I could contribute meaningfully to the linux community, I'd like to. Is there like, a masonic heirarchy I could slip into?

- Ben

Quote:

1) Why does ALSA not recognize my lspci-listed sound chip?

My guess (based on the next question), is that you compiled your own 2.6 series kernel and messed up. Just a shot in the dark, though. If that's right, you might want to try recompiling. I like to make just about everything realted to ALSA a module. I leave out all the OSS (except for ALSA's OSS emulation, of course). You'll also need to include the specific driver for your card (again, I'd go with a module).

Of course, my guess may be way off. You didn't explain the problem you are having very well. Is this a full install of Slackware? Which version? What have you done besides install the system?

Quote:

2) What are udev and hotplugging and OSS?

udev
Here's a good place to start: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/util...tplug/udev-FAQ

Here's where to learn about controlling it: http://www.reactivated.net/udevrules.php

And here's the homepage: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/util...plug/udev.html

My basic explaination is that udev is a daemon (system process) that dynamically (on the fly) creates devices in /dev. This is better than the old method, where every device you would ever possibly need was placed in /dev. Udev also controls permissions and ownership of devices that it creates. That's somewhat tricky for some people, so read the second link to better understand it all.

Udev is used with 2.6 series kernels. It creates device nodes in /dev. The devices aren't very useful without drivers, though. That means that after the devices are automatically created with udev, the drivers (modules) need to be loaded with something like................

hotplug

Here's the homepage: http://linux-hotplug.sourceforge.net/

Hotplug automatically loads the modules (drivers) needed by devices. This is pretty slick, depending on how you use your computer. If you are running a desktop where you have some devices (i.e. iPods, SD cards, digital cameras, USB drives, etc.) that you only plug in occasionally, there is really no need to have the modules for them loaded into memory when they are not present. Equally cool is the fact that hotplug will load module dependencies, as well. For example, load the module parport_pc, watch the module paraport also get loaded.

OSS

OSS (or more correctly OSS/Free) is the Open Sound System. It was the default sound system in the Linux kernel until ALSA (the Advance Linux Sound Architecture) came along. There are a lot of applications that are built on OSS. In order to make a smooth transition into using ALSA as the default sound system in Linux, ALSA provides OSS Emulation. This means that most apps that are built to use OSS can use ALSA (via OSS emulation) without any problems. I personally (and I think many would agree) think that it is a bad idea to try and use ALSA and OSS at the same time. Simply leave out OSS and let ALSA's OSS emulation handle everything. Of course, some prefer OSS. If you want to try it out, compile your kernel the other way around (with OSS and no ALSA). I recommend ALSA if for no other reason than that looks to be the only sound system included with Linux in the future.

Quote:

3) What's the difference between "no-name-kernel" and "slack-kernel" source?

By "no-name-kernel" I assume you mean the kernel source downloaded from http://kernel.org or one of the official mirrors. If so, there is no differnce at all. If you would like some confirmation of this, simply unpack the source from http://kernel.org and use diff to compare it to the kernel source from Slackware. Note that you need to make sure that you download the same version as the Slackware source you are comparing it to.

Quote:

4) Why does the GNOME settings daemon fail as root?

Did it always fail, or is this a new development? I don't recall ever having GNOME fail right out of the box. What changes, if any, have you made to your system?

In the future, GNOME will not be included with the Slackware distribution. As such, you may want to consider installing an alternative implementaion of GNOME for Slackware. Some choices are:

http://www.dropline.net/gnome/
http://gsb.sf.net
http://gware.sf.net

Not sure if one of the bottom two are the one created by the forum member Linuce, but I seem to recall (I think it was him) that he made a GNOME fro Slackware that a lot of people like.

Quote:

5) Why does GNOME fail altogether when I am not root?

See #4

Quote:

6) Who's Pat, and does he like GNOME?

Check out http://www.slackware.com/about/ . Pat is Patrick Volkerding. Does he like GNOME? Well, he doesn't like building it, we know that much. For now, 10.1 looks to be the last release of Slackware that will include GNOME.

Dear Shilo,

Thank you for your time and consideration! I'm over my adrenaline-induced fear and frustration. Here's my info:

Slackware 9 - my sound was working.
Slackware 10 - my sound was working.
Slackware 10.1 + 2.4 kernel - sometimes sound, with tinkering.
Slackware 10.1 + 2.6 kernel - no sound.

I'm currently on the 2.6 Kernel.
ALSA: built-in
OSS: excluded
PnP: all options built-in
PCI hotplugging: built-in with IBM and ACPI modules
VIA 82C686A/B, 8233/8235 AC97 Controller and Modems: built in.

# lsmod
Module Size Used by
#lspci
...
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
Subsystem: C-Media Electronics Inc: Unknown device 0301
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 22
I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2
...
# alsaconf
...
No supported PnP or PCI card found.
...
#alsamixer
...v1.0.8... Seems to work, which is an improvement over a previous snd_ctl_open error. With all channels at 100 and unmuted, there's no sound.
...

Let me know if you need more information. Sound is not my concern right now, however. Not being able to log in as a normal user is. It's not GNOME. KDE won't work either. It might be udev's permissions...? The problem started after I installed udev-0058. I read your above note and link on rules, and tried slapping in the rules and permissions that come with LFS 6.0 (I've sucessfully built LFS partitions in the past, both 5.1 and 6.0). It didn't fix the problem. Nor am I sure udev is the problem; I've changed so much in the past 48 hours. I'm going to see what happens in non-GUI mode.

- Ben

Sounds simple, then. You need to recompile your kernel. Looks like everything was working until you compiled the 2.6 kernel.

Easier to see what's going on if you build them as modules. Also, PCI hotplugging, though it sounds similar to hotplug, is not needed (though it isn't the source of your problem, either). PCI hotplugging is for swapping out PCI cards while your system is running. You won't be needing that.

So you're saying that you built EVERYTHING into the kernel? I think this is a generally BAD idea. It can be done, but for what gain? Any gains that you would see by having a monlitic vs. a modular kernel are negated by the immense frustration you will feel when your system doesn't work.

What I would do is go get the 2.6.11.11 package from /testing in -current. Use "tar -xvzf" to blow it up. Go in and find the config file. Copy that to /usr/src/linux-2.6.11.11/.config (I am assuming that this is the 2.6 kernel you are trying to get working, you never said). Go about recompiling your kernel and start slow. The only things I'd change from the default are:

a) Change the processor to the processor you are using
b) compile the filesystems you use into the kernel instead of as modules so that you can avoid having to use initrd.

That's it. Once you get that going, then start making more changes to the kernel.

Or, that could be your problem. I think -current is only at udev-054. I'd rip out the UDEV you installed and change to either the udev from 10.1 or the udev from -current.