Creative PCI sound card not functioning

cheque_some · 06-27-2005, 05:37 PM

When I play an audio CD, I can hear audio out my speakers, althouh it is a bit crackly. However, when I try to play an mp3 or an ogg with XMMS or noatun it simply sits at 0:00 even though it says it's playing. I do have the cd-rom drive hooked up directly to the card with an audio cable.

lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82810E DC-133 GMCH [Graphics Memory Controller Hub] (rev 03)
0000:00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82810E DC-133 CGC [Chipset Graphics Controller] (rev 03)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801AA PCI Bridge (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801AA ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801AA IDE (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801AA USB (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801AA SMBus (rev 02)
0000:01:09.0 ISA bridge: Ensoniq ES1371 [AudioPCI-97] (rev 02)
0000:01:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Lite-On Communications Inc LNE100TX (rev 20)

I'm running Debian with kernel 2.4.27.

edong23 · 06-27-2005, 06:59 PM

umm i think you are confused.. i see ensoniq isa card not creative pci. those are 2 different cards completely. do you have support for them int he kernel? post the output of lsmod. and also have you tried alsaconf as root?

cheque_some · 06-27-2005, 08:46 PM

The card I installed is a PCI card not ISA (I don't even think this computer (P3) /has/ ISA slots), and it said Creative on it. Anyhow:

Code:

lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
nls_iso8859-1           2780   1  (autoclean)
isofs                  23092   1  (autoclean)
rtc                     5768   0  (autoclean)
usb-uhci               19504   0  (unused)
usbcore                52268   1  [usb-uhci]
es1371                 23820   1
ac97_codec             11252   0  [es1371]
soundcore               3268   4  [es1371]
gameport                1388   0  [es1371]
ide-scsi                8272   0
scsi_mod               86052   1  [ide-scsi]
tulip                  35168   1
crc32                   2848   0  [tulip]
i810_rng                2368   0  (unused)
agpgart                39108   5
ide-cd                 27072   1
cdrom                  26212   0  [ide-cd]
ext3                   65388   1  (autoclean)
jbd                    34628   1  (autoclean) [ext3]
ide-detect               288   0  (autoclean) (unused)
piix                    7784   1  (autoclean)
ide-disk               12448   2  (autoclean)
ide-core               91832   3  (autoclean) [ide-scsi ide-cd ide-detect piix ide-disk]
unix                   12752 139  (autoclean)

Running alsaconf tells me I have no PnP PCI cards and gives this output:

Code:

modinfo: snd: no module by that name found
modinfo: snd: no module by that name found
modinfo: snd: no module by that name found
Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: (none loaded).
Building card database...
modinfo: snd-opl3sa2: no module by that name found
modinfo: snd-cs4236: no module by that name found
modinfo: snd-cs4232: no module by that name found
modinfo: snd-cs4231: no module by that name found
modinfo: snd-es18xx: no module by that name found
modinfo: snd-es1688: no module by that name found
modinfo: snd-sb16: no module by that name found
modinfo: snd-sb8: no module by that name found

edong23 · 06-27-2005, 11:31 PM

ohhhhh!! sorry you are right about the card being pci, but still ensoniq, chipset creative card maybe but ensoniq, creative driver is for sblive and some of the newer cards... as for you problem with alsaconf... you are using oss. so alsaconf wont work.. as oss is unsupported anymore, and i dont know how to help you.. i give two options. and i am truely sorry, but you either need to recompile the kernel with alsa and not oss, or wait til someone responds to your question that knows about oss. i am sorry that i cannot help you. you seem to have the oss sound module loaded for the card, so i dont know y it doesnt work. but realy alsa is much better.

if you do decide to rebuild you will need to enable support for your card under sound, and remove the oss support and add the alsa support. the module will then be snd-ens1371. if you need further help on reconfiguring the kernel for this, let me know. but i am not going to post it if i dont absolutely have to cause it is a bit of a process.

cheque_some · 06-28-2005, 08:54 AM

Could you post it? I'd really owe you thanks. I'm a bit of a newbie to Linux.

edong23 · 06-30-2005, 06:04 PM

yep but can you wait alittle bit. i cant really do it tonight, or maybe really late tonight. ill try. but ill need to know about your system. like motherboard, cpu, video card, netcard, modem, soundcard

, all that. yo uknow.

cheque_some · 07-05-2005, 01:22 PM

I got a PIII-800. The NIC and soundcard I think you can get from my first post (Soundcard's a Creative Esoniq ES1371) I've just got integrated graphics (i810). There's no modem, and I don't know what motherboard it is. The soundcard and the NIC are the only PCI expansion cards I have in it.

I'm running kernel 2.6.8.

edong23 · 07-05-2005, 11:38 PM

first i would backup the kernel config.
hm. i would say that since i dont have access to you system, then we should leave most of it alone and only alter the soundcard settings. so you will need to get root permissions:
$su
$password
#
then you will need to cd to the kernel source directory, which is /usr/src.:
#cd /usr/src

then if you run ls you will see what is in that directory.:
#ls

look for something like linux-2.6.8, if it is there, then cd into it. (note, usualy just moving to /usr/src/linux will get you to the kernel directory, but sometimes if you have upgraded, the symlink will not be right)
#cd linux-2.6.8

backup the config file:
#cp .config /boot/config-2.6.8

then you will need to get into and change the kernel configuration. so i would suggest menuconfig:
#make menuconfig

then you will want to get to the section that we need to get to, which is sound.
Device Drivers---->Sound---->Advanced Linux Sound Arch..
<*> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
<*> Sequencer support
< > Sequecer dummy client
<*> OSS Mixer API
<*> OSS PCM......[*] OSS Sequencer API

then go to the pci section.
---->PCI devices
bla
bla
bla
<M> (Creative) Ensoniq AudioPCI 1370
<M> (Creative) Ensoniq AudioPCI 1371/1373
bla
bla
<*> Intel/SiS/nVidia/AMD/ALi AC97 Controller

then exit the kernel configurator
then save the new config..
then go ahead and move the new config file out of that directory, so that we can make the kernel like new now.:
#mv .config /boot/config-2.6.8-new

then make the kernel clean
#make mrproper

then copy the config file back... the new one remember..
#cp /boot/config-2.6.8-new .config

then make menuconfig again and look through if you want to make sure

then save the file again by exiting.
then build the kernel.. usually with something like or exactally this:
#make && make modules_install

this will take awhile... along time on an 800mhz system...
then when it is done you have to copy the new image and system map to the /boot directory..:
#cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage-2.6.8-new

you can name the image whatever you want just make sure you can remember it.
then copy the system.map
#cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.8-new

then you will have to configure your bootloader to boot the new kernel. this is dependant on if you user grub or lilo.. so hm i will post what you will have to add to your lilo.conf if you use lilo.:

#pico /etc/lilo.conf

<><><><><><><><>< #dotn add this obviously, i just dont want to have to type the whole thing.
image=/boot/bzImage-2.6.8-new
root=/dev/WHATEVERYOURROOTIS!
label=Sound #OR WHATEVER YOU WANT TO NAME IT, JUST CAN BE TOO LONG.
read-only

then cntl+o to write the file and then cntl+x to exit.
then run lilo to install the new bootloader with you old kernel and the new one.
#lilo

you should see a message that adds at least 2 kernel images, if not something is probably wrong..
reboot and then probalby run alsaconf as root. you might have to modprobe the new kernel modules too, if hotplud doesnt. but it should.

cheque_some · 07-08-2005, 09:36 AM

It looks something like this right now:
<M> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
<M> Sequencer support
<M> Sequencer dummy client
<M> OSS Mixer API
<M> OSS PCM......
However when I try to change those from modules to be built in I get the message "This feature depends on another which has been configured as a module. As a result, this feature will be built as a module. " Is this a problem, can I leave them as modules? All the ones I needed were already modularized.

edong23 · 07-09-2005, 10:53 PM

that all looks fine and probably noesnt need to be changed. but you are using oss drivers, that needs to be stoped. you can do that by compiling them out of the kernel. just go into the oss instead of alsa and unmark them. and continue the rebuild like i said. sorry that i left that part out. i am used to building vanilla kernels that have no config in them. anwya, if you remove the drivers from the kernel and build it then reboot, i beleive that alsa will find the card. you may have to modprobe snd_ens1371. that would be the alsa driver, but i think hotplug will take care of that. you also might be able to add the modules that you have loaded that are for the sound card to the /etc/hotplug/blacklist file and reboot then modprobe, then you might have to edit the startup file yourself. the error you are getting is normal cause something in the above it in the hierarchy is built as a module, but it is better to modularize the sound card drivers anyway. but you have to get away from oss. either way i described will work, but both need some work. tell me if you need more detail, but it should be fairly simple, just long process.

cheque_some · 07-14-2005, 12:07 PM

One last thing, I got the kernel all compiled, but when I try to boot it, I get a kernel panic as it can't read access the hard drive. Looking more closely at GRUB's menu.lst, it appears I need an initrd file. I got the utility mkinitrd, but even after using the man apges I can't figure out the syntax just to make an initrd file. Do you ( or anyone else) know anything about this?

edong23 · 07-14-2005, 11:58 PM

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...el-initrd.html
http://www.linuxforum.com/linux-filesystem/initrd.html
http://www.faqs.org/docs/evms/x3834.html

im sorry for just posting the links, but these are great links. and i am sicker than hell today, just checked my email and saw the response. hope you get it, if not il try to get you later. i have never seen that before though, not on a system that was running before.

alunduil · 07-15-2005, 12:02 AM

Suggestion, did you check xmms etc. to see if in the options they were using the OSS sound driver? If you did, I'm sorry, but I skimmed the posts.

Hope this helps,

Alunduil

Electro · 07-15-2005, 01:31 AM

To use mkinitrd.
mkinitrd image kernel-version

I do not recommend compiling the kernel just to get a sound card working unless the kernel sound support is disabled which it is not. You just need to download ALSA or OSS. Then compile.

Some sound cards may need to convert the sample rate of the audio to something else. You can use artsd or esd if you are using OSS. If you are using ALSA, you have to add a few lines to ~/.asoundrc.

You may need to install ISA utilities to help Linux detect the ISA card. Yes, the sound card that you have is an ISA card.

If the sound card does not work well, I suggest trying to use your on-board sound or buy Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. If you care for either sound quality or hardware mixing Turtle Beach Santa Cruz is a great card.

cheque_some · 07-18-2005, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by edong23
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...el-initrd.html
http://www.linuxforum.com/linux-filesystem/initrd.html
http://www.faqs.org/docs/evms/x3834.html

im sorry for just posting the links, but these are great links. and i am sicker than hell today, just checked my email and saw the response. hope you get it, if not il try to get you later. i have never seen that before though, not on a system that was running before.

I found that first webpage before, and it was just what I was looking for, except the syntax didn't work. Old version, maybe? The other two links were more of an overview of what mkintrd. Thanks anyhow, though.

Quote:

Suggestion, did you check xmms etc. to see if in the options they were using the OSS sound driver? If you did, I'm sorry, but I skimmed the posts.

Hope this helps,

Alunduil

Yeah, I did.

Quote:

To use mkinitrd.
mkinitrd image kernel-version

I do not recommend compiling the kernel just to get a sound card working unless the kernel sound support is disabled which it is not. You just need to download ALSA or OSS. Then compile.

Some sound cards may need to convert the sample rate of the audio to something else. You can use artsd or esd if you are using OSS. If you are using ALSA, you have to add a few lines to ~/.asoundrc.

You may need to install ISA utilities to help Linux detect the ISA card. Yes, the sound card that you have is an ISA card.

If the sound card does not work well, I suggest trying to use your on-board sound or buy Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. If you care for either sound quality or hardware mixing Turtle Beach Santa Cruz is a great card.

So I should type something like:
mkinitrd nameofinitrd 2.6.8

I couldn't get that to work.

I will try compiling/tweaking ALSA again, didn't have much louck with it before.

What makes you sure that my card is ISA. ANd I would definitely be using the onboard sound if that were possible, but this motherboard doesn't have it.