Slackware 13.1 VIA VT1708S Audio Driver

sudox · 06-23-2011, 01:28 AM

I'm trying to bring my Slackware system back to life as my XP HDD is dying... I've got everything working except for my audio. I got a new motherboard (ASRock P43DE3) and it has a VIA VT1708S as the onboard audio. Is there any way I can get this working without rebuilding the kernel? If I have to rebuild the kernel can someone help me do that? Thank you in advance!

camorri · 06-23-2011, 08:39 AM

You can download the source from VIA at this link -->http://www.via.com.tw/en/support/drivers.jsp

They did not state the name of the driver, this is the info that comes up:

Quote:

Download version 1.4
OS supported Source packages
Chips supported VIA HD Audio Codec VT1708
Notes This driver is a patched ALSA driver supporting VIA’s VT8237A, VT8251, and CX700 (M/M2) South Bridge chips and the VIA VT1708 HD Audio Codec. This driver source code has been tested and installed in Fedora Core 4/5 and Mandriva 2006.0/2007.0. For Fedora Core 6 and newer kernels (2.6.19-rc6 version users), follow the installation guide to patch the VIA HD Audio driver.

I don't know if there is a driver or not available for Slackware. This route would avoid rebuilding the kernel.

If you decide to rebuild the kernel, here is the link I followed with success-->http://blog.tpa.me.uk/slackware-kernel-compile-guide/

There are others, problem is I do not know if the driver for your card can be built in. I'm no kernel expert.

Hope this helps.

sudox · 06-23-2011, 10:16 PM

I downloaded the driver, but I get the following error when I try to ./configure (not also, as I forgot to mention it before, I'm using 64-bit Slack):

Code:

checking for directory with kernel source... /lib/modules/2.6.33.4/source
checking for directory with kernel build... /lib/modules/2.6.33.4/build
checking for kernel linux/version.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/autoconf.h... no
The file /lib/modules/2.6.33.4/source/include/linux/autoconf.h does not exist.
Please install the package with full kernel sources for your distribution
or use --with-kernel=dir option to specify another directory with kernel
sources (default is /lib/modules/2.6.33.4/source).

camorri · 06-24-2011, 06:48 AM

I still no not know the name of the module, although the source code I pointed out is to patch an existing driver.

I did some looking around my system, and found this

Quote:

/lib/modules/2.6.37.6/kernel/sound/pci/hda/snd-hda-codec-via.ko

Is it possible this is the module you need? You could try a modprobe snd-hda-codec-via and see what happens. It can hurt. If it loads, try your sound again. If not, nothing lost.

For the ,/configure error, did you follow the instructions contained in the patch? Beyond that, I can not give you more help.

sudox · 06-25-2011, 10:23 PM

I have an older kernel... I'm going to look up how to update my kernel see if that will help....

allend · 06-25-2011, 11:40 PM

Slackware 13.1 had alsa 1.0.23 which appears to have had some bugs with VIA VT1708S. You may need to consider an alsa upgrade or even upgrading to Slackware 13.37.