Sound modules unavailable in kernel 2.6
 

Hi,
I've just compiled the new 2.6 kernel and it boots up fine however, I have no sound. When ever I try to do something involving sound I get an error. When I use the soundcard detection utility, I get a message saying "The maestro3 driver could not be loaded. This sound card may not be compatible with Red Hat Linux". It is compatible because it worked under the 2.4 kernel. Here's what an lsmod gets me:

Module Size Used by
ide_cd 40900 0
cdrom 35264 1 ide_cd
ipv6 255392 8
lp 11652 0
autofs 16928 0
e100 63080 0
ohci1394 35240 0
microcode 6656 0
hid 25216 0
button 6008 0
agpgart 32328 0
nvidia 1705516 12

no sound modules are loaded. So I check in /usr/src/linux-2.6.0/drivers and there is no sound folder. When I go to /lib/modules/2.6.0/kernel/drivers and there is no sound folder as well. However, there is a sound folder in /lib/modules/2.6.0/kernel but it only has an oss folder and no maestro module. I specifically selected for the maestro3 driver to be loaded as a module and sound support built into the kernel (later reinstalled kernel with sound as a module) when I was compiling so I don't understand why it isn't working. Any one have any ideas on what I can do?

Are you using redhat? Redhat is expecting a custom redhat kernel, and I don't know how it will behave if you use a vanilla one.

I'm using Fedora Core 1. Possibly, but I still don't know why there are no sound modules in any of the kernel directories.

Do a modprobe maetsro, That will tell you if it can find the module and if it does it will try to load it for you. In the 2.6 kernels however, I think OSS is no longer really used. ALSA is now used. That could be your problem. Usually the ALSA modules are called something like snd-maestro. My lsmod gets me this:

parport_pc 24808 1 (autoclean)
lp 6368 0 (autoclean)
parport 23040 1 (autoclean) [parport_pc lp]
ide-cd 28608 0 (autoclean)
cdrom 28672 0 (autoclean) [ide-cd]
serial 45956 0 (autoclean)
isa-pnp 27812 0 (autoclean) [serial]
vfat 9292 1 (autoclean)
fat 29176 0 (autoclean) [vfat]
nls_cp437 4348 3 (autoclean)
ntfs 48864 1 (autoclean)
i830 73376 1
agpgart 25284 11
snd-seq-oss 23232 0 (unused)
snd-seq-midi-event 3424 0 [snd-seq-oss]
snd-seq 37616 2 [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi-event]
snd-pcm-oss 35652 0 (unused)
snd-mixer-oss 11184 0 [snd-pcm-oss]
snd-intel8x0 17128 0
snd-ac97-codec 35160 0 [snd-intel8x0]
snd-pcm 56256 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-intel8x0]
snd-timer 14404 0 [snd-seq snd-pcm]
snd-page-alloc 5360 0 [snd-intel8x0 snd-pcm]
gameport 1484 0 [snd-intel8x0]
snd-mpu401-uart 2944 0 [snd-intel8x0]
snd-rawmidi 12832 0 [snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq-device 3764 0 [snd-seq-oss snd-seq snd-rawmidi]
snd 29476 0 [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq snd-pcm
-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-intel8x0 snd-ac97-codec snd-pcm snd-timer snd-mpu401-uart
snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device]
soundcore 3428 6 [snd]
e100 43628 1
usbkbd 2908 0 (unused)
usb-uhci 21772 0 (unused)
keybdev 1696 0 (unused)
mousedev 3768 1
hid 18980 0 (unused)
usbcore 56448 0 [usbkbd usb-uhci hid]
input 3264 0 [usbkbd keybdev mousedev hid]
af_packet 11944 1
apm 9224 0 (unused)
rtc 6108 0 (autoclean)
unix 14152 27 (autoclean)

You'll notice all the ALSA modules start with an "snd-". If the modprobe command doesn't do anything then do a find /lib/modules/2.6.0 -iname *maestro*, If that comes up with nothing change the "*maestro*" to an "snd*".

Did you install:

module-init-tools 0.9.10

Do:
$depmod -V

To check if you got them.

Yes, module-init-tools 0.9.15-pre4 are installed. The only located modules were radio-maestro when I searched for maestro. When I searched for snd I got snd-rtctimer, snd-mixer-oss, snd-pcm-oss. snd-mixer-oss was already loaded, I loaded pcm and rtctimer and still no sound...I just don't have the maestro3 module...

Have you checked your .config to see if you really enabled Maestro3 ALSA driver?

You could try to build the modules directly from the alsa source at www.alsa-project.org instead of using the source from the kernel, alsa provides pretty detailed installation notes too.

Ok, I fixed the problem, I was accidentally skipping 'make modules' when compiling the kernel. So I recompiled and reinstalled, still no sound. But this time, modules are there, so I modprobe'd everything that started with snd and went into alsamixer and turned up the volume and sound works! However, I still have some probems. The volume control in Gnome worked the first time I inserted all the modules but I have not been able to get it to work agian. When I click it it says "Could not open mixer device /dev/sound/mixer" But sound plays. Also, volume defaults to 0 and muted when computer boots. How can I change this? I also added modules by modprobe'ing each in /etc/rc.d/rc.local, is this ok? Thanks