Sound Crash On Sony VAIO w/ RH Linux

Cikotic · 06-24-2004, 07:57 PM

Hi all,
I have sony VAIO PCG-GRT100 laptop which I'm using to send this message. I have never been successful in getting the sound to work. I've downloaded different drivers including alsa but with no luck. My sound card is detected: SiS7012 PCI Audio Accelerator. Module: i810_audio. But nothing will play. Every time I try, the whole thing freezes. The only button that works is the power button. I know many people have had similar problems with linux on laptops but I never found a good solution on the internet.

EDIT: I might add that the same problem (freezing) happens when KDE is starting and the little window at the beginning says "initializing peripherals". I have no solid evidence but I suspect that the KDE error has something to do with the sound.

Any help is appreciated,
Cikotic.

finegan · 06-26-2004, 08:24 AM

Huh, first off may want to disable the aRts sound server, keep its voodoo from messing with the card too much. Also, does it log anything? /var/log/messages or syslog should have something. Also, what distro and kernel are we talking, I've gotten a lot of abuse from an sis7012 and some of those 2.4.2x's where it didn't work right when it should have.

Cheers,

Finegan

Cikotic · 06-26-2004, 05:45 PM

OK, I got some stuff. Today, I was checking my lycos e-mail and everytime I went on it, the system froze. I associated it with the ad that seemed to have something to do with audio. anyway, from /var/logs/message:

Code:

...
Jun 26 15:20:43 localhost insmod: Warning: loading /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/drivers/scsi/sr_mod.o will taint the kernel: forced load
Jun 26 15:20:43 localhost insmod:   See http://www.tux.org/lkml/#export-tainted for information about tainted modules
Jun 26 15:20:43 localhost insmod: Module sr_mod loaded, with warnings
Jun 26 15:20:43 localhost kernel: Device not ready.  Make sure there is a disc in the drive.
Jun 26 15:20:43 localhost kernel: sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
Jun 26 15:20:43 localhost kernel: sda : status = 1, message = 00, host = 0, driver = 08
Jun 26 15:20:43 localhost kernel: Current sd00:00: sense key Not Ready
Jun 26 15:20:43 localhost kernel: Additional sense indicates Medium not present
Jun 26 15:20:43 localhost kernel: sda : block size assumed to be 512 bytes, disk size 1GB.
Jun 26 15:20:43 localhost kernel:  sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
Jun 26 15:20:43 localhost kernel:  I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
Jun 26 15:20:43 localhost kernel:  unable to read partition table
Jun 26 15:21:07 localhost insmod: Warning: loading /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/drivers/sound/soundcore.o will taint the kernel: forced load
Jun 26 15:21:07 localhost insmod:   See http://www.tux.org/lkml/#export-tainted for information about tainted modules
Jun 26 15:21:07 localhost insmod: Module soundcore loaded, with warnings
Jun 26 15:21:07 localhost kernel: Intel 810 + AC97 Audio, version 0.24, 17:59:48 Mar 13 2003
Jun 26 15:21:07 localhost kernel: PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:02.7
Jun 26 15:21:07 localhost kernel: PCI: Sharing IRQ 5 with 00:02.6
Jun 26 15:21:07 localhost kernel: IRQ routing conflict for 00:02.7, have irq 9, want irq 5
Jun 26 15:21:07 localhost kernel: PCI: Sharing IRQ 5 with 00:07.0
Jun 26 15:21:07 localhost kernel: i810: SiS 7012 found at IO 0x1480 and 0x1c00, MEM 0x0000 and 0x0000,
IRQ 9
Jun 26 15:21:08 localhost kernel: i810_audio: Audio Controller supports 6 channels.
Jun 26 15:21:08 localhost kernel: i810_audio: Defaulting to base 2 channel mode.
Jun 26 15:21:08 localhost kernel: i810_audio: Resetting connection 0
Jun 26 15:21:08 localhost kernel: ac97_codec: AC97 Audio codec, id: 0x8384:0x7650 (Unknown)
Jun 26 15:21:08 localhost kernel: i810_audio: AC'97 codec 0 supports AMAP, total channels = 2
Jun 26 15:21:08 localhost insmod: Warning: loading /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/drivers/sound/ac97_codec.o will taint the kernel: forced load
Jun 26 15:21:08 localhost insmod:   See http://www.tux.org/lkml/#export-tainted for information about tainted modules
Jun 26 15:21:08 localhost insmod: Module ac97_codec loaded, with warnings
Jun 26 15:21:08 localhost insmod: Warning: loading /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/drivers/sound/i810_audio.o will taint the kernel: forced load
Jun 26 15:21:08 localhost insmod: Module i810_audio loaded, with warnings
...

Sorry to dump all of this here but I can't make anything out of this and I know nothing of the kernel and modules. I know I'm running kernel 2.4.20-8 on Red Hat Linux 9.0. Hold on, let me check the /var/logs/syslog. Notice, thought the messages above are not from when it froze they are from startup, I think. Hmm, no syslog file. Anyway, does what I gave you help?

BTW: me being a

, could you be more specific about disabling aRts? Thanx

Thanx for your time,
Cikotic

EDIT: Do you think it'll be easier to just upgrade the kernel? If I do, all the hard work i did to get graphics on my mobile machine would have to be redone, so I've never even given it a thought.

finegan · 06-26-2004, 06:05 PM

The codec barf doesn't look good, it may be time to upgrade your way around the problem. Fedora Core 2 is about 2 years and change younger then the old RH 8.0 install and I bet the video card voodoo will be automagic in a new install. I'm also fairly certain that the crashbug with the sis7012 has been kicked. 2.4.20 is pretty old... you could always hand compile, but that's a pretty big jump to make, although I recommend everyone learns that... we are talking an hour or two, a try, a failure, wash rinse repeat a few times, its bound to introduce more problems, but you'll get to know your system well. You'll always get to boot back into your old kernel, which will just be shy sound...

Cheers,

Finegan

Cikotic · 06-27-2004, 12:49 AM

Ok, finegan,
Is it possible to compile a new kernel while keeping the old settings? I've kept a "notes" file of all the configurations I made for my own future reference, but I've got things working with a lot of work and the thought of redoing all that seems a bit daunting. You mentioned that I can always boot into the old kernel. I'd never thought of that, but I suppose it's true 'cause the old one will be kept in the boot loader.
Anyway, if it is possible to just compile a new kernel and keep all the other config files, I'll do it. I'm gonna have to learn kernel compiling at some point, anyhow.

I appreciate your help in this. Any good tuts to get me started in understanding the kernel and the modules?

Thanx
Cikotic

finegan · 06-27-2004, 03:28 PM

The Kernel Compile guide over at the Linux documentation project is the gold standard. The one point of it I argue with is that its a big fan of using make install and I just like to move the compiled kernel file to /boot and edit lilo by hand. "make oldconfig" can allow you to recycle a previous kernel config file, and it'll mishmash it to fit the new kernel options if the base configs differ, but I've never used it so I'm hazy on the details.

www.tldp.org

Luck man,

Cheers,

Finegan