Onboard audio device not detected for ASUS P4S533 MB
 

I recently installed Arch Linux on an old desktop machine. Everything works well except the onboard audio isn't detected at all.

I am using the 2.6.32-ARCH kernel

My lspci output is:

Not really sure what the repeated listing of the modem is about...

I looked through the dmesg output and didn't see anything about audio.

Here are a couple of sections of dmesg output that looked like they could be errors (they may have more to do with the fact that my ps/2 ports aren't working; not sure):

It seems like my onboard audio is getting completely overlooked.

On another note, the manufacturer (ASUS) actually provides Linux audio drivers for my motherboard (model: P4S533). I attempted to install them, but the configuration process involves using make menuconfig, make xconfig, or make config to add the drivers to the kernel (I think) and I'm still a relatively new Linux user and had no clue what I was doing...

Any help would be very appreciated!

I think I found the page and driver you are refering to,
The readme file contains the info you stated above.

You will need the kernel source installed to be able to rebuild the kernel with the C-Media CMI8738/C3DX audio driver/module.

First check to see if it is installed...with ls (list)
If the sources are there, check the linux link to be sure it is pointing to the kernel ver you need.
output on my box...
If you have not compiled a kernel before, you may require devel packages before you can begin.

Like, libqt3-devel, make, c++, and any dependancies they require.

Only then will you be able to continue.

Please post back with your responce.

Regards Glenn

Thank you for the prompt reply Glenn!

This is the output on my box:
I think I have everything I need to compile the kernel. I have qt3, make, and gcc/g++

If I need to download the kernel source, does the exact version matter, or does it just need to be version 2.6.32?(i.e. 2.6.32.8 vs 2.6.32.10)
My goal is to install the audio drivers without affecting the rest of the system.

Thanks again!

OK RyuOni, we'll soon find out if you need the sources, as you describe, they look like it's installed.

Yes the versions need to match or be very close, but newer.

I'm not too sure about ARCH-Linux,

as to the need of creating a link to /usr/src/linux-2.6.32-ARCH.

But Generally I do, and it seems to be standard operation proceedure.

You need root privs to write to /usr and any folder contained there.

If you have sudo setup, that will be fine, otherwise you may su to root.
type "exit" to close it once you're finished.

change directory to /usr/src/
now creat a static link (shortcut) to linux
now cd to linux
type ls, check if Makefile is there. If not, you need the sources.

Also the size of the dir may help,

as a guide mine is 270Mb, not the link, the actual source dir (linux-2.6.32-ARCH)

There is a dev package, but it's only 30Mb.

to be sure of this, type...
with this output we can (if required) hack the Makefile to resemble your installed kernel.
output of my system...
this is the name of mine...
2.6.31.12-1.rt20.2mdv_GamesBox

The first few lines of the Makefile are the ones we want to hack.
EXTRAVERSION =
before...
after...
Yours might look like this...linux-2.6.32-ARCH
save the file and exit the text editor. (you need to be root!)

Now we can go to the readme,

be right back, soon

Alright, I created a static link to my linux-2.6.32-ARCH directory with the ln command. I changed to the linux directory(link) and I do have a Makefile.

The size of my linux-2.6.32-ARCH directory is 41M (using #du -h linux-2.6.32-ARCH)

The output of uname -a on my box is:
So I guess the name of mine is:
2.6.32-ARCH

The EXTRAVERSION is blank in my Makefile initially...
I changed it to:
On to the readme... :)

I think you will need the whole source package. 40Mb is too small to contain all the files.

STEPS TO BUILD DRIVER <edit>edited by Glenn</edit><edit></edit>
================================================================================
<edit>
If you had to install the sources, do...

Code:

---

make oldconfig

---

this will make sure the settings of your installed kernel are applied to the new sources.
Now we can use the readme guide.
</edit>

1. Backup the Config.in and Makefile in the sound driver directory
(/usr/src/linux/driver/sound). <edit>To backup, just rename the files, with a new extension, like .old</edit>

The Configure.help provide help when you config driver in step
4, please backup the original one (/usr/src/linux/Document) and
copy this file.

The cmpci is document for the driver in detail, please copy it
to /usr/src/linux/Document/sound so you can refer it. Backup if
there is already one. <edit> same again, just rename with .old</edit>

2. Extract the tar file by 'tar xvzf cmpci-xx.tar.gz' in the above
directory.

<edit>cmpci-5.68.tar.gz to a dir in your /home/<user> dir, like /home/<user>/downloads or /home/<user>/build

go to that dir and copy the files to the appropriate places

Config.in and Makefile to /usr/src/linux/driver/sound
Configure.help to /usr/src/linux/Document
the folder cmpci with the files cmpci, cmpci.c to /usr/src/linux/driver/sound/

</edit>

3. Change directory to /usr/src/linux

4. Config cm8338 driver by 'make menuconfig', 'make config' or
'make xconfig' command.<edit>just use make xconfig</edit>

<edit>Make use of the find tool to quickly navigate</edit>

5. Please select Sound Card (CONFIG_SOUND=m) support and CMPCI
driver (CONFIG_SOUND_CMPCI=m) as modules. Resident mode not tested.
For driver option, please refer 'DRIVER PARAMETER'

6. Compile the kernel if necessary.

7. Compile the modules by 'make modules'.

8. Install the modules by 'make modules_install'


see how you go with that.

Regards Glenn

Before I begin, I don't actually have a /usr/src/linux/driver/sound directory. I have a /usr/src/linux/drivers directory (no sound/ subdirectory) and a /usr/src/linux/sound/drivers directory. Should I create a /usr/src/linux/drivers/sound directory or use the /usr/src/linux/sound/drivers directory?
Also, I don't appear to have a Config.in file or a Makefile in /usr/src/linux/sound/drivers. I have a Kconfig file.

The first couple of segments in Kconfig are:
Should I backup Kconfig file in /usr/src/linux/sound/drivers and the Makefile in /usr/src/linux?

Also, in make xconfig I found CONFIG_SOUND, but I cannot find CONFIG_SOUND_CMPCI anywhere. I'm not sure what they mean by refer to 'DRIVER PARAMETER'

Thanks!

No, neither, because you don't have all the sources installed.

You will need to download the kernel source, and install the package

Well, after downloading the kernel source, copying the cmpci files into the appropriate places, and going through make xconfig, I attempted to build the kernel (using the instructions found here as a guide).

When it reached the Makefile that came with the cmpci driver files, I got this error:
Isn't the use of Rules.make a convention from kernel 2.4?
If so, should I just attempt to get a Rules.make file from the net and copy it into my linux-2.6.32.10 directory?

As a side note, the kernel does build successfully with the original (dummy) Makefile in the sound/drivers directory.

Hi,

Something went wrong during the make process, I think.

or during make xconfig, like setting a parameter that's no longer supported, that kind of thing.

Could be a bug, maybe try it again with out doing make oldconfig.

There is a file not found for the kernel image (bzImage).

Sure you copied everything? Sorry, gotta check.

On my system bzImage is only found in the source code dir. Not in /boot/

Maybe you don't need it anymore??



I don't know much about kernel ver 2.4, I starting using with 2.6
Use a diff/patch program like kdiff(3) to view the files side by side, the program highlights the differences between 2 (to 3 files).

Maybe you can see whats happening.

Here is the address of the file and line number that triggered the error.
When using the "original (dummy) Makefile",

does it build the modules? And can you install them with any of the commands on the readme?

Regards Glenn

to do this uninstall the new sources and install them again.

then start the process from the beginning again, with backing up files the copying the asus files.

If we get the same error we'll have to look further.

One thing just came to mind, are the asus drivers for kernel 2.6, or 2.4? (sometimes both)

Glenn

we might be out of luck with the package I have....

Here is more bad evidence....very old versions of linux desktops here.

Apparently,

cmcpi is built in to this devel kernel rpm for arch <edit> correction, that was a Mandriva package, dunno how I did that, oops! My bad.</edit>

http://www.rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/man...mnb2.i586.html

a search in the Changelog refer to 2004, when the module was inserted.
But it's not listed on my x86_64 system anywhere.

Hi Glenn,

I'm pretty sure I didn't miss anything. I unpacked the kernel source in the linux-2.6.32.10.tar.bz2 file directly into the /usr/src/ directory.

Maybe. After copying the kernel source into /usr/src/ I made some 'adjustments' to the kernel by following Appendix A to the instructions on building a kernel for Arch Linux.

This involved using make menuconfig. At that point, the kernel built successfully using make bzImage.

After that, I copied the cmpci files to the /usr/src/linux-2.6.32.10/sound/drivers directory after backing up the preexisting Makefile (Config.in did not previously exist there).
Then, I used make xconfig to add the CONFIG_SOUND module.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find the CONFIG_SOUND_CMPCI option. There was a CONFIG_SND_CMIPCI that was already selected as a module, but it was listed under PCI sound cards.

After saving in the xconfig, I entered make oldconfig and then I attempted to build the kernel again using make bzImage, which resulted in the error for the asus cmpci Makefile.

I got that impression too. Also, when I searched for Rules.make on the web, the results seemed to imply that Rules.make was included in kernel 2.4, but not 2.6. Specifically, this page: http://fxr.watson.org/fxr/source/Rul...v=linux-2.4.22

So, if the drivers were not updated for 2.6 am I out of luck on getting my onboard audio to work? Or is there a reasonable way to get the drivers to work in 2.6?

Another thought - I was talking to someone about this today and they seemed to be under the impression that if lshw doesn't detect the hardware, then the issue is with the hardware and not the kernel. As is the case with lspci, the output of lshw does not show an audio device.
I was a little skeptical, but could that be true?

Thanks again!

By the way, I will be leaving for an IEEE conference tomorrow and won't be back until late on Sunday, so I won't be able to do anything with my desktop machine until Monday at the earliest.

Thank you for all of your help! I really appreciate it. :)