[SOLVED] Installing ISA soundblaster ESS ES1868 on Ubuntu 12.04

Ztcoracat · 04-28-2014, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theob

Hi Allend,

I had a look at the Alsa website and tried some of the commands that agree with my Bios settings.
The Bios settings must be right because XP has no problem.

To cut a long story short I still have no sound. I read an article on http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/....4freebsd.html that seems to apply. But it is a bit over my head, I am
not that clever yet. I tried to put those parameters in the start-up files but it didn't work.
It is possible that I did it wrong.

Best regards
Theo

Try opening the terminal and type:

Code:

alsamixer

Raise up the pcm and the master.
Raise all columns all the way up mute and un-mute each column.
{00} at the bottom of the column means un-muted and {mm} means muted.

If that doesn't work addd yourself to the audio group log out and log back in again.
(adduser "yourname audio"

Make sure that you have the Linux Sound Architecture Driver

Alsa is in /etc/init.d/alsa-utils and it's also in /usr/share/sounds/alsa

Sometimes sound is muted by default.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWmXG-e6yzI

Hope that helps.

allend · 04-28-2014, 05:39 PM

Based on what is in the dmesg output, I would try

Code:

sudo modprobe snd-es18xx port=0x220 mpu_port=0x330 irq=5 dma1=1 dma2=3 isapnp=0

Also, reiterating what Ztcoracat said, make sure your user is a member of the audio group.

theob · 04-29-2014, 04:24 AM

Dear Allend,

That is the command I ran to get that result in Dmesg but it still doesn't work.
After it tries to get dsp_get byte fails it can't find the ESS chip and disables the card again.
Does anyone know what the dsp is and what it does.

Best regards,
Theo

allend · 04-29-2014, 08:03 AM

Looking at the code in es18xx.c, the problem appears to be in probing of the ports.
Please try

Code:

sudo modprobe snd-es18xx port=0x220 irq=5 dma1=1 dma2=3 isapnp=0

This should set the the mpu_port to -1 (the default) which actually disables the port.

theob · 04-29-2014, 10:21 AM

Hello Allend,

This is the result :
[ 48.736080] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[ 8140.730803] dsp_get_byte failed: 0x22a = 0xaa!!!
[ 8140.730816] es18xx: [0x220] ESS chip not found
[ 8140.744345] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: [dma 1]
[ 8140.744360] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: [dma 3]
[ 8140.744435] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: [irq 5]
[ 8140.744455] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: [io 0x0220-0x022f]
[ 8140.744470] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: [io 0x0388-0x038b]
[ 8140.744484] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: [io 0x0330-0x0331]
[ 8140.746825] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: activated
[ 8140.749237] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: disabled
[ 8140.765065] es18xx-pnpbios: probe of 01:01.01 failed with error -2
[ 8140.765250] es18xx 01:01.00: [io 0x0800-0x0807]
[ 8140.767424] es18xx 01:01.00: activated
[ 8140.767437] es18xx 01:01.01: [dma 1]
[ 8140.767446] es18xx 01:01.01: [dma 3]
[ 8140.767518] es18xx 01:01.01: [irq 5]
[ 8140.767532] es18xx 01:01.01: [io 0x0220-0x022f]
[ 8140.767546] es18xx 01:01.01: [io 0x0388-0x038b]
[ 8140.767559] es18xx 01:01.01: [io 0x0330-0x0331]
[ 8140.769899] es18xx 01:01.01: activated
[ 8140.784369] dsp_get_byte failed: 0x22a = 0xaa!!!
[ 8140.784383] es18xx: [0x220] ESS chip not found
[ 8140.800122] es18xx 01:01.00: disabled
[ 8140.802509] es18xx 01:01.01: disabled
theob@theob-desktop2:~$

Best regards
Theo

propofol · 04-29-2014, 10:23 PM

Maybe you should try a recent live distribution such as knoppix and see if the sound works. I have had my share of sound related problems when I moved to Linux several years ago. Particularly with ISA cards. Lately it just works. Unfortunately I cannot help you much other than to suggest looking at a cheap PCI sound card ($7-10) on ebay or a usb audio adapter ($3-5). I suspect this will save you a lot of effort. ISA cards are somewhat beyond their "use by" date.

Regards,
Stefan

theob · 04-30-2014, 06:06 AM

Hi Stefan,

I have tried Knoppix but Ubuntu is not on the C-drive and I am not very clever with Knoppix.
Maybe I should try it again ! The Knoppix disc I have is a boot disc.

The reason I want to use the ISA card is because it is an excellent card and this is the only PC
I have that still has an ISA slot in it and it works without any problems on XP. I have other
soundcards I could use but I am sure we should be able to enable it in Ubuntu too.

If it didn't work with XP I wouldn't have bothered.

Thank you for your advice.

Best regards

Theo

propofol · 04-30-2014, 10:34 AM

What I have in mind is booting directly to a "Live CD". This can be Ubuntu, Knoppix etc. There are a few options: http://www.livecdlist.com. The 32 bit version would be the better option.
You would need to get the bios to select the CD/DVD drive as the boot device. It does not matter what is installed on the hard drive.

Regards,
Stefan

theob · 04-30-2014, 02:32 PM

Hi Stefan,

I've done that and the disc I use is Insert not Knoppix. Insert checks all the hardware and when I
ask for reconfiguration of the soundcard it reports : /etc/rcS.d/S00insert-autoconfig: line 754: sndconfig: command not found , which probably means that the sound is not in the boot configuration.

My problem is don't know how to configure it.

Best regards
Theo

allend · 04-30-2014, 05:01 PM

Another possible try is

Code:

sudo modprobe snd-es18xx isapnp=0 port=0x220 irq=5 dma1=1 dma2=3 mpu_port=-1 fm_port=-1

to explicitly disable the mpu port and fm port.

theob · 05-01-2014, 05:32 AM

Hi Allend,

[ 4343.375256] dsp_get_byte failed: 0x22a = 0xaa!!!
[ 4343.375270] es18xx: [0x220] ESS chip not found
[ 4343.388492] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: [dma 1]
[ 4343.388507] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: [dma 3]
[ 4343.388578] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: [irq 5]
[ 4343.388598] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: [io 0x0220-0x022f]
[ 4343.388613] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: [io 0x0388-0x038b]
[ 4343.388627] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: [io 0x0330-0x0331]
[ 4343.390958] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: activated
[ 4343.393369] es18xx-pnpbios 01:01.01: disabled
[ 4343.408891] es18xx-pnpbios: probe of 01:01.01 failed with error -2
[ 4343.410351] es18xx 01:01.00: [io 0x0800-0x0807]
[ 4343.412587] es18xx 01:01.00: activated
[ 4343.417825] es18xx 01:01.01: [dma 1]
[ 4343.417840] es18xx 01:01.01: [dma 3]
[ 4343.417923] es18xx 01:01.01: [irq 5]
[ 4343.417943] es18xx 01:01.01: [io 0x0220-0x022f]
[ 4343.417958] es18xx 01:01.01: [io 0x0388-0x038b]
[ 4343.417971] es18xx 01:01.01: [io 0x0330-0x0331]
[ 4343.420395] es18xx 01:01.01: activated
[ 4343.432063] dsp_get_byte failed: 0x22a = 0xaa!!!
[ 4343.432076] es18xx: [0x220] ESS chip not found
[ 4343.444754] es18xx 01:01.00: disabled
[ 4343.447134] es18xx 01:01.01: disabled
theob@theob-desktop2:~$

Still exactly the same ! Actually whatever you put after the 'sudo modprobe snd-es18xx' doesn't seem to make any difference, I think it picks up the values from the BIOS.

Thanks,
Theo

allend · 05-01-2014, 08:34 AM

I am starting to think that this is a timing problem.
The error message is generated by this code in es18xx.c

Code:

static int snd_es18xx_dsp_get_byte(struct snd_es18xx *chip)
{
        int i;

        for(i = MILLISECOND/10; i; i--)
                if (inb(chip->port + 0x0C) & 0x40)
                        return inb(chip->port + 0x0A);
	snd_printk(KERN_ERR "dsp_get_byte failed: 0x%lx = 0x%x!!!\n",
		   chip->port + 0x0A, inb(chip->port + 0x0A));
        return -ENODEV;
}

When this function is called via snd_es18xx_identify()

Code:

static int snd_es18xx_reset(struct snd_es18xx *chip)
{
	int i;
        outb(0x03, chip->port + 0x06);
        inb(chip->port + 0x06);
        outb(0x00, chip->port + 0x06);
        for(i = 0; i < MILLISECOND && !(inb(chip->port + 0x0E) & 0x80); i++);
        if (inb(chip->port + 0x0A) != 0xAA)
                return -1;
	return 0;
}

it may be that the card is failing to reset in the MILLISECOND=10000/10 = 1 second time allowed, causing -ENODEV to be returned with the result that the ESS chip is not found and the snd-es18xx kernel module is disabled.

To test this theory would require recompiling the snd-es18xx kernel module increasing the time allowed by altering the code shown in blue in the first code block.

theob · 05-02-2014, 01:57 PM

Dear Allend,

I tried both commands in terminal but it comes back with errors and doesn't run.
Do those commands require the root terminal ?

Best regards

Theo

allend · 05-02-2014, 08:26 PM

The code blocks in post#27 contain excerpts from the kernel module C source code in the file es18xx.c in the directory /usr/src/linux/sound/isa/ on my system. They are not actual commands.

For specific instructions on how to compile a single kernel module, search the web for "Ubuntu compile single kernel module".

The general process is:
- Prepare the kernel source tree
- Edit the code to make the change
- Compile the module
- Install the module

theob · 05-03-2014, 06:44 AM

Hi Allend,

I'll read it up and see if I can manage. I will inform you if I am successful.
Thank you very much for all the help.

Best regards
Theo