[SOLVED] Trying to follow howto; no /etc/modules file anymore

maschelsea · 08-10-2017, 05:04 PM

I'm trying to follow the guide at http://tldp.org/HOWTO/MIDI-HOWTO-10.html. One of the first things it tells me to do is make some changes to my /etc/modules.conf file. That file no longer exists. I did find a LinuxQuestions post that said that I should make the changes the file suggests to /etc/rc.d/rc.modules, but there's a lot of BASH scripting in there that I don't understand at this point. What should I do?

Code:

For that we need to extend the ALSA section in /etc/modules.conf (or in another location, depending on your distribution) with the following:

 # Configure support for OSS /dev/sequencer and 
 # /dev/music (aka /dev/sequencer2)
 # (Takashi Iwai advises that it is unnecessary 
 # to alias these services beyond the first card, i.e., card 0)
 alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
 alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss

 # Configure card 1 (second card) as a virtual MIDI card
 alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
 alias snd-card-1 snd-virmidi

Didier Spaier · 08-10-2017, 05:59 PM

This document is 15 years old (dated May 2002). I very much doubt that it be still applicable with today's sound systems, at least without much efforts.

maschelsea · 08-10-2017, 07:42 PM

All I really want to know is how to use MIDI from scratch in C++. I have Rosegarden that I can play MIDI in, but the program I want to write needs to be able to create and play a MIDI sequence. That's what I need the guide for...

aus9 · 08-10-2017, 08:05 PM

your config box shows that you are probably wanting to use /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf

as you have not named your distro its a bit hard to guess

alsa now uses udev rules to detect and configure sound devices,

you can see some card info from your libasound* package
https://packages.debian.org/stretch/...-data/filelist

search your package manager for libasound and alsa and you should get multiple hits

bassmadrigal · 08-10-2017, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aus9

as you have not named your distro its a bit hard to guess

This was posted in the Slackware subforum, so it's a good bet that OP is running Slackware.

jmccue · 08-10-2017, 08:20 PM

I would modify file

Quote:

/etc/rc.d/rc.modules.local

to load additional/custom modules. Sorry I cannot help with anything that has to do with MIDI

maschelsea · 08-10-2017, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmccue

I would modify file

to load additional/custom modules. Sorry I cannot help with anything that has to do with MIDI

Now how do I reload /etc/rc.d/rc.modules.local? Do I just need to restart the computer, or can I reload it without restarting?

maschelsea · 08-10-2017, 09:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aus9

your config box shows that you are probably wanting to use /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf

as you have not named your distro its a bit hard to guess

alsa now uses udev rules to detect and configure sound devices,

you can see some card info from your libasound* package
https://packages.debian.org/stretch/...-data/filelist

search your package manager for libasound and alsa and you should get multiple hits

I have added my distro to my profile.

Richard Cranium · 08-10-2017, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maschelsea

Now how do I reload /etc/rc.d/rc.modules.local? Do I just need to restart the computer, or can I reload it without restarting?

Just run it as root. That's all that /etc/rc.d/rc.modules is doing...

Code:

# Run a local (sysadmin-version) of rc.modules if it exists:
if [ -x "/etc/rc.d/rc.modules.local" ]; then
  /etc/rc.d/rc.modules.local
fi

That won't unload anything that you've accidentally loaded, but you can always reboot if that's an issue (or run the rmmod command as root as well).

aus9 · 08-11-2017, 02:21 AM

OOPs sorry about not seeing it was slackware.

I put on goggles....heck I am good looking too

maschelsea · 08-11-2017, 12:06 PM

OK. I only have one sound card, so I deleted the two lines for the second card. My file looks like this:

Code:

root@caitlyn:~# cat /etc/rc.d/rc.modules.local
#!/bin/sh

# /etc/rc.d/rc.modules.local

# The Linux kernel source is the best place to look for documentation
# for the many available kernel modules.  This can be found under
# /usr/src/linux-$VERSION/Documentation/.

# Almost all necessary modules are automatically loaded when needed,
# but there are a few exceptions.  Here's a (not all-inclusive) list,
# so uncomment any of the below entries or add others as needed:
# Note that you could also create/edit rc.modules-$version if you
# only wanted specific modules loaded for particular kernels.

#/sbin/modprobe tun            # Universal TUN/TAP device driver
#/sbin/modprobe sg             # Generic SCSI support for SATA DVD-RW

#Configure support for OSS /dev/sequencer and 
# /dev/music (aka /dev/sequencer2)
# (Takashi Iwai advises that it is unnecessary 
# to alias these services beyond the first card, i.e., card 0)
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss

but when I run it, I get this:

Code:

root@caitlyn:~# /etc/rc.d/rc.modules.local
/etc/rc.d/rc.modules.local: line 22: alias: sound-service-0-1: not found
/etc/rc.d/rc.modules.local: line 22: alias: snd-seq-oss: not found
/etc/rc.d/rc.modules.local: line 23: alias: sound-service-0-8: not found
/etc/rc.d/rc.modules.local: line 23: alias: snd-seq-oss: not found

Now I KNOW that my system has the capability for virtual MIDI, because I've been using it in Rosegarden. I have to issue the following three lines before I can use Rosegarden with MIDI, but otherwise it works for me.

Code:

michael@caitlyn rosegarden $ cat ~/Rosegarden\ MIDI\ startup [root]
jackd -r -m -t 10000 -d alsa -d hw:Loopback -P -o 2 -r 44100 -S -s -m &
alsaloop -C hw:Loopback,1,0 -P pulse &
fluidsynth -a jack -g 1.5 -j -l -m alsa_seq -K 0 /usr/share/sounds/sf2/FluidR3_GM.sf2

So why won't my aliases work?

maschelsea · 08-11-2017, 12:17 PM

Looking at /dev/snd, where my sound devices live, I see:

Code:

root@caitlyn:~# ls /dev/snd
by-path/   controlC2  hwC1D0  hwC1D3    midiC3D2  pcmC0D0p  pcmC1D7p  pcmC2D0c  pcmC2D1p
controlC0  controlC3  hwC1D1  midiC3D0  midiC3D3  pcmC0D2c  pcmC1D8p  pcmC2D0p  seq
controlC1  hwC0D0     hwC1D2  midiC3D1  pcmC0D0c  pcmC1D3p  pcmC1D9p  pcmC2D1c  timer

I'm pretty sure that those midi* files weren't there before I modprobed snd-virmidi. Could this be a clue?

jmccue · 08-12-2017, 07:00 AM

My initial response was "why don't you just load snd-seq-oss?" -- BUT:

The 'alias' bother me, so I looked at a RHEL system people use at Work and I notice on that system there is a file (dist.conf) in Dir /etc/modprobe.d/ that contain statements that start with 'alias'.

So, my guess is you may need to create a file in /etc/modprobe.d/ with those aliases and remove them from /etc/rc.d/rc.modules.local

HTH

Richard Cranium · 08-12-2017, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maschelsea

So why won't my aliases work?

I would be surprised if you are running OSS under linux in 2017.

@jmccue is correct in that

Code:

alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss

belong in a file in /etc/modprobe.d. See

Code:

man modprobe.d

You use /etc/rc.d/rc.modules.local to manually load modules (in other words, not rely on udevd to do it for you). You use configuration files in /etc/modprobe.d/ to configure those modules or otherwise control the modprobe/insmod/rmmod commands.

hazel · 08-13-2017, 06:30 AM

It's worth pointing out that most of the old /etc/thingummy.conf files have been replaced by /etc/thingummy.d directories. You create .conf files for individual instances (for example individual kernel modules) and put them in that directory instead of having one big configuration file.