sound card config with alsa

aherrys · 10-28-2004, 01:50 AM

Hi all,

I posted the exact same question on the software forum but no answer so far. So I try my luck here. Apologies for the double postings. Here we go.

I just installed slackware 10 on an AMD k6 with a Creative sound blaster 16 PCI in it. At first I just installed only the neccessary packages to get the system up and running and then I started building things up on top. (the purpose is to learn slackware)
When I get to the gnome part, I basically installed everything that is needed for the gnome to come up. However the sound part seems to be not functioning.
The error message I get is:
alsa_sound: no sound card found!
So I search the internet and found that I need to run alsaconf. However after I run it said that No supported PnP or PCI card found. So no luck there. I know that the card is there and running and even it is recognized hardware-wise by the system. The /proc/pci has this on its list:
Bus 0, device 19, function0:
Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq 5880 AudioPCI (rev 2).
IRQ 9.
Master Capable. Latency=32 Min Gnt=12.Max Lat=128.
I/O at 0xec00 [0xec3f]

And also the card run fine under RH 9 (or RH 7.2)
I tried to modprobe the driver (es1371) that I know work on RH but even with the driver loaded, still the card cannot be found by Alsa.

Do I miss anything here ?

BTW I have a custom kernel and only have the following configuration enabled on the sound part:

CONFIG_SOUND=m
CONFIG_SOUND_ES1371=m
CONFIG_SOUND_OSS=m
CONFIG_SOUND_TRACEINIT=y
CONFIG_SOUND_DMAP=y

others parameters are set to no (not set). This configuration works on RH

Thanks in advanced for all your help.

Bruce Hill · 10-28-2004, 02:05 AM

Here's the instructions for your card from ALSA

You may only need to issue as root ->
"modprobe snd-ens1371;modprobe snd-pcm-oss;modprobe snd-mixer-oss;modprobe snd-seq-oss"

Read those instructions and if you need more help post back.

In Slack you can look in /var/log/packages and see if you have
the ALSA packages installed. You'll either need them or install
the source from ALSA.

aherrys · 10-28-2004, 05:17 AM

OK. I looked through the configuration of my machine and discover something disturbing. As I mention previously that I do a custom made kernel. What I did before I make a custom made kernel was to put a -custom at the EXTRAVERSION parameter on my Makefile. So the module compile process will put the libraries of the new kernel under a separate directory (/lib/modules/kernelversion-custom).

What I found disturbing is when I looked at the files list of the alsa-driver package that the libraries files are hardcoded to install under the original directory (/lib/modules/kernelversion). So that is why I cannot do the depmod snd-ess1371 etc., eventhough I already install the packages, because the modules are located in wrong directory !

Well it turns out that the problem probably rooted in a deeper place than I thought. Let me straight this out first (by learning more on what makes slackware ticks,...

coming from RH environment it seems that there is a LOT to learn...

)

Thanks for your help

Bruce Hill · 10-28-2004, 05:37 AM

Don't fret, you've not destroyed your system. We share something in common,
I think, and that is a desire to learn Slackware Linux. So, rather than giving you
a quick fix for your problem, here is a link to my favorite Kernel-Build HOWTO .

Within it you will read

Quote:

Assign Unique Name

We have so far extracted and patched the Linux sources. During our preparation we also determined what hardware is installed in the system so that we will know which modules will need compilation. Before we proceed to actually configuring the kernel there are a couple minor but important details to complete.

Inside the Linux source directory is the default Makefile. This file is used by the make utility to compile the Linux sources. The first few lines of the Makefile contains some versioning information:

VERSION = 2
PATCHLEVEL = 4
SUBLEVEL = 22
EXTRAVERSION = -1

Note that there is an additional EXTRAVERSION field. To prevent overwriting any existing kernel modules on the system we will change this EXTRAVERSION to something unique. When the final installation steps are run, kernel module files will then get written to /lib/modules/$VERSION.$PATCHLEVEL.$SUBLEVEL-$EXTRAVERSION.

Since I don't know which guide you used to build your kernel, I don't know
what steps you took, or why you decided to do an EXTRAVERSION. That isn't
exactly how I do mine, but it matters not. Read the stuff in Kwan Lowe's guide,
and then see what you need to know from there.

All is not lost, you just need to get your modules in the right path.

aherrys · 10-29-2004, 02:44 AM

Well, I read through the docs you gave me. It is a good one. However most of it I know already. I used to customize my kernel under RH. And RH's Makefile always has -custom as its EXTRAVERSION entry. That's why when I try to compile kernel with Slackware I do the same.

By itself, adding the EXTRAVERSION would not create any problem (My machine works with no problem with the new customize kernel) However the problem starts when I am installing pre made packages from slackware, because those packages are somehow hardcode to install in a certain directory. I am trying to look for any way to tell the installpkg utility to install it in the directory I want. May be I just better off using the source.

In the mean time I probably will re-format my Linux and reinstall afresh. Other than this alsa driver I don't know what other things that I have installed in the wrong directory.

You mention that you don't put any entry for the EXTRAVERSION. So you clobber your library directory ? May be I should try that.

Thanks for the help

Bruce Hill · 10-29-2004, 04:50 AM

Sorry but I didn't understand your post at first. I basically compile the kernel following DrOzz guide and don't use any EXTRAVERSION.

After I make the bzImage I copy it and System.map to /boot with their new kernel version as their name, or if it's the same version, I just name it something appropriate. This doesn't change the module path, and the only module I have to add afterwards is that stinking Nvidia module. (NB: There is a method I've read to keep from having to add it when you recompile, but I've not tried it. Just about 3 mintues of my time, so I just install it again.)

For instance, on this system, I installed Slack-10.0 with the default 2.4.26, then I compiled 2.6.7 and this is what I have in /boot

Code:

mingdao@james:~$ ls -alc /boot
total 3760
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     536 2004-10-29 16:45 ./
drwxr-xr-x  23 root root     536 2004-10-29 16:47 ../
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root      37 2004-09-18 16:10 README.initrd -> /usr/doc/mkinitrd-1.0.1/README.initrd
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root      22 2004-09-22 21:49 System.map -> /boot/System.map-2.6.7
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  660359 2004-10-23 07:29 System.map-2.6.7
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  620999 2004-09-18 16:10 System.map-ide-2.4.26
-rw-r--r--   1 root root     512 2004-09-24 11:12 boot.0300
-rw-r--r--   1 root root     512 2004-09-18 16:26 boot.0800
-rw-r--r--   1 root root     512 2004-09-21 16:56 boot.0801
-rw-r--r--   1 root root     512 2004-09-23 06:00 boot.2100
-rw-r--r--   1 root root     168 2004-09-18 16:26 boot_message.txt
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   41017 2004-09-18 16:10 config-ide-2.4.26
-rw-r--r--   1 root root    5032 2004-09-18 16:10 diag1.img
-rw-------   1 root root   30208 2004-10-29 16:45 map
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root      19 2004-09-22 21:49 vmlinuz -> /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.7
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 1201631 2004-10-23 07:29 vmlinuz-2.6.7
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 1248111 2004-09-18 16:10 vmlinuz-ide-2.4.26

and this in /etc/lilo.conf

Code:

mingdao@james:~$ cat /etc/lilo.conf
# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
append="apm=power-off"
boot = /dev/hda
message = /boot/boot_message.txt
prompt
timeout = 50
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
  reset
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
 vga=791
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/sda1
  label = Slack-2.6.7
  read-only
image = /boot/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.26
  root = /dev/sda1
  label = Slack-2.4.26
  read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# Windows bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hda1
  label = Windoze
  table = /dev/hda
# Windows bootable partition config ends

I don't think I've clobbered my libraries, but if I did, I wish someone would tell me how to fix 'em.

Edit: The Slack packages that come from Pat at Slackware always work well in my system. Those at other places usually don't. I use CheckInstall when compiling from source, which will make a Slack pack (or rpm or deb) and install it wherever you tell it to do so. That way, if you want to remove it, you just use removepkg, or if you want to install it on another machine, use installpkg. I like where Slackware puts the files, and they follow the Linux File System Standard, which RedHat does not.

I believe you can figure out how you want to do this, and how Pat has Slackware setup, by reading "man pkgtool" which is the software package maintenance tool for Slackware.

aherrys · 10-29-2004, 06:10 AM

Yeah. You are probably right. It won't clobber it but just put whatever modules/libraries etc. that is new and specific to your kernel into the old directory structure (/lib/modules/kernelversion).
The reason why you want to have a separate directory from your old one, so that once you satisfy with your new kernel you can deleted the old directory and have the lib/modules directory that is really clean and only specific to your kernel without having any extra junks laying around.

I think in RH it is the default mode. BUt I hate the way RH uses dependencies on RPMs. It doesn't let you choose which pakcage you want to install by RPM which one is not. Everything has to be RPM, otherwise you'll get bitten by the dependecy problem.

So I guess I have to learn more about the pakcage tools in Slackware, on how to manipulate the pakcages to do what I want. Do you have any good source to learn this ?

Thanks a million.

Bruce Hill · 10-30-2004, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by aherrys
Yeah. You are probably right. It won't clobber it but just put whatever modules/libraries etc. that is new and specific to your kernel into the old directory structure (/lib/modules/kernelversion).

I forgot this. When you run "make modules_install" this will install
newly compile modules to /lib/modules/x.x.x like you see below.
So when installing 2.6.7 they'll go in /lib/modules/2.6.7 rather than
clobbering the old ones.

Code:

mingdao@james:~$ ls -alc /lib/modules/
total 3
drwxr-xr-x  4 root root   96 2004-09-27 17:21 ./
drwxr-xr-x  4 root root 3184 2004-09-27 17:21 ../
drwxr-xr-x  4 root root  416 2004-09-18 16:12 2.4.26/
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root  400 2004-10-23 07:34 2.6.7/

What I've done with ALSA was to "installpkg alsa-driver-1.0.5a_2.6.7-i486-1.tgz"
and afterwards run "alsamixer" as user then "alsactl store" as root.
This got me sound in 2.6.7 and you can get that package from
/testing/packages/linux-2.6.7/alsa-driver-1.0.5a_2.6.7-i486-1.tgz
on the Slackware-10.0 CD2. I didn't re-install the alsa-lib, oss or utils.

I think EXTRAVERSION is only needed when you're patching an
existing kernel, not when installing a new one. I might be wrong.

Please post back and let us know how you got on.

Quote:

So I guess I have to learn more about the pakcage tools in Slackware, on how to manipulate the pakcages to do what I want. Do you have any good source to learn this ?

man pkgtool will give you all you need to know

aherrys · 10-31-2004, 12:11 PM

Quote:

I forgot this. When you run "make modules_install" this will install
newly compile modules to /lib/modules/x.x.x like you see below.
So when installing 2.6.7 they'll go in /lib/modules/2.6.7 rather than
clobbering the old ones.

Of course it won't, because you are compiling a different version of the kernel. (2.6 versus 2.4)

But how about if you dislike the way your 2.6 kernel is setup now, or if you add a new SATA drive (assuming you don't have it previously) and need to build support into the kernel either as static or as modules ? Then you need to do make menuconfig again and other makes... then it will 'clobber' your /lib/modules/2.6.7

But actually I don't think it will. It will just build all the additional drivers/modules on top of the old ones, leaving the old ones intact.

But that exactly the point. That way you will have a /lib/modules/x.x.x directory that have lot of things that you don't even use inside. Adding EXTRAVERSION allows you to ONLY put drivers/modules that you REALLY need inside the /lib/modules/x.x.x. Then once your are happy with your kernel, you can just delete the old version of /lib/modules/x.x.x

Quote:

I think EXTRAVERSION is only needed when you're patching an
existing kernel, not when installing a new one.

You are quite correct. Other than patching an existing kernel, you may also add it if you build a customize version of the existing kernel (like I did). For new kernel version you don't need the EXTRAVERSION

I'll let you know how it goes when I am finish building up the Slack from the ground up (again...

).

Thanks

wnaLinux · 10-31-2004, 03:00 PM

Hi guys I recently installed Slackware 10.0, the sound seems to work but I can't figure out how to tweak it to make it louder. I dont know what sound architecture its using. Any Ideas?
Help Please!

aherrys · 10-31-2004, 10:33 PM

Quote:

man pkgtool will give you all you need to know

No offense...

I look at man pkgtool but not much there at all, even it discourages user to try out options that comes with pkgtool.

aherrys · 10-31-2004, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Hi guys I recently installed Slackware 10.0, the sound seems to work but I can't figure out how to tweak it to make it louder. I dont know what sound architecture its using. Any Ideas?
Help Please!

Well I don't have mine working yet !

May be Chinaman can help you.... but I saw similar problem as yours floating around in this forum somewhere. May be you should search for it.
But you need to know at least what sound card you are using.

Bruce Hill · 11-01-2004, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by aherrys
No offense...:) I look at man pkgtool but not much there at all, even it discourages user to try out options that comes with pkgtool.

What do you need to know about pkgtool? I thought it was very comprehensive.
Did you also read installpkg, removepkg, and upgradepkg?

And I think maybe you misunderstood this statement from "man pkgtool"

Quote:

Most users will not want to use any options when running pkgtool.

To me it doesn't discourage using options, just says most will not want to use them.

Issue as root "pkgtool" and check it out. I use "installpkg" and "removepkg" more
than "pkgtool" - they're easy. You just gotta get your head around it first. Give them
a look see, and then post back for help. Slackware installs all Slackpacks from .tgz
files into /var/log/packages - check it out.

And about the other poster. It's not against the LQ Rules (not yet, anyway) to "hijack"
someone else's thread. However, amongst the larger community of Linux, and with
the old guys in particular, it's considered rude. So I finally just adopted a policy that
I ignore the hijacker's post. He should start his own thread - after first searching LQ
and Google <Linux>.

I think one or both of these documents should be required reading for all of us who
use message boards and forums - whatever those are.

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

How To Ask a Question

wnaLinux · 11-01-2004, 10:28 AM

I looked at my packages but that doesent help me any I just need to know how to tweak my sound up higher.

scuzzman · 11-01-2004, 04:03 PM

alsamixer
should do the trick if that's what you use...