14.0: BIOS

stf92 · 01-11-2013, 08:10 AM

Hi: I have being doing a lot of posting here lately. Actually, the real problem behind all others is this: I bought a new machine. It comes with a disk with drivers for both Windows and Linux. For this machine I have downloaded and installed Slackware 14.0 for the first time. It is built around an Intel H61M-S1 chip, apart from the CPU. Its PCI Express. The drives, optical and magnetic (aka hard disk) are SATA. The machine bundled disk (DVD) then, I want to be able to use it when I want. But I can't. When inserted in the optical drive, the drive scans it for ever. The LED never stops. And I can't mount it. I have an older machine with slack 12.0 and here there is no problem. Even more, two linux live CDs I have boot but then the kernel object either the BIOS or the fs. This is then the problem. Although for the sake of brevity I won't say here how the others follow from this.

There are three variables: the hardware, the ROM BIOS (this is EHCI in fact) and the OS. There is some kind of incompatibility, I think. The disc is not a bootable one. It's meant to be loaded into the driver when one has the prompt. For Windows it has an AUTORUN and a run.exe. For linux it has directories and files that resemble those in the slack install disc. But whatever it has, it is an iso9660 disk. So, the system should mount it. As I said before, the disk is unobjectionable. The BIOS has some parameters unfamiliar to me, as the mode for SATA: IDE or EHCI. Any suggestion would be welcome.

EDIT: I already know why I can't mount it. When I mount, it happens the same as when in windows I click on a DVD that has autorun! The linux tree on the DVD does that... if the OS had certain settings ok, I guess.

TobiSGD · 01-12-2013, 05:05 PM

You don't need the drivers from that disk, a Slackware 14 system should support all your hardware out of the box.
The BIOS should be set to AHCI so that all features of the harddisk and controller are supported.
Regarding the live-CDs you mentioned, if you don't give us the exact error messages we won't be able to help with that.

stf92 · 01-12-2013, 05:45 PM

OK. All the hardware out of the box. With one exception, I think. The Intel ALC887 audio codec. This codec is the object of an infinite number of posts in the web, all about slackware and the codec.

The live CD: one is a Knoppix CD:

Code:

BIOS bug, IO-APIC#0 ID 2 is already used!...
...fixing up to 1 (tell your hw vendor)

Then it says it will give me a very elementary shell, enumeraters the commands in that shell, which are about eight and gives me the prompt.

The other a Linux from Scratch CD:

Code:

I do not find an LFS CD file system.
Trying again in 10 secs.

It continues doing its things and then tries again up to three times before turning the machine off.

TobiSGD · 01-12-2013, 05:50 PM

Support for the Realtek ALC887 (it is not an Intel device) was added with kernel 2.6.27, so it should work out of the box. Do you have audio problems?

Regarding the live-CDs, may it be that these are older versions that don't support your hardware?

stf92 · 01-12-2013, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD

Support for the Realtek ALC887 (it is not an Intel device) was added with kernel 2.6.27, so it should work out of the box. Do you have audio problems?

Regarding the live-CDs, may it be that these are older versions that don't support your hardware?

Realtek, you are right, my mistake. Yes, audio problems but due, in view of what you say, to my inexperience in the subject. The thing is this: when I finished the 14.0 installation, I ran alsamixer and it printed an error message, I do not remember which. I now think that a simple 'alsactl init' would have fixed things. Then I wrote an /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf like this:

Code:

      alias snd-card-0 snd_hda_intel
      alias sound-slot-0 snd_hda_intel
      options snd_hda_intel model=auto

and ran 'alsactl init' after booting. The result was alsamixer running and I having audio. I even made 'alsactl store'. When I booted the next time, audio was gone. I finally reached a point where I had audio, but it was not persistent across reboots. Sometimes it was gone (after reboot) and sometimes, making a modification to the alsa.conf that HAD worked before, I had audio again.

In short, at present the situation is this: alsa.conf is

Code:

alias snd-card-0 snd_hda_intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd_hda_intel
options snd_hda_intel model=auto position_fix=3

By the way, in .../Documentation/sound/alsa, position_fix takes values 0, 1, 2. No 3 there. As a provisional measure, I alternatively move alsa.conf from /etc/modprobe.d/ to / and from / to /etc/modprobe.d/. What I do is, just after boot, I exchange the position of the file. In this way, I always have audio... well, I have not done it more than three times now.

I have read through the following:
(a) .../Documentation/sound/alsa/ - There are four files which touch sound and ALSA.
(b) /usr/doc/Linux-HOWTOs/Sound-HOWTO
(c) /usr/doc/Linux-HOWTOs/Alsa-sound
(d) /usr/doc/Linux-HOWTOs/Sound-Playing-HOWTO

But reading the slackwiki tutorial on ALSA, I have just thought that in alsa.conf, I should write TWO option lines (the system sees the builtin speaker as another card): one for the speaker and one for the sound card (which really is inside the Intel H61; the ALC887-VD is a codec), with say indexes 0 and 1. I'll try later.

The live-CDs: yes, they are pretty old.

hitest · 01-12-2013, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

The live-CDs: yes, they are pretty old.

How old? Perhaps it is time to download some new live CDs?

stf92 · 01-12-2013, 07:38 PM

More than ten years.

hitest · 01-12-2013, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

More than ten years.

If you want to evaluate hardware compatibility for linux on a new system download a new live CD (Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, etc.).

TobiSGD · 01-12-2013, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

More than ten years.

I am curious. IIRC, it was recommended to you to use Slackware 14 instead of Slackware 12, because the 5 years old version does not support your new hardware. What makes you think that ten years old live-CDs would work with that hardware?

hitest · 01-12-2013, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD

What makes you think that ten years old live-CDs would work with that hardware?

Uh, I did post that same point before you.

To the OP. You have new hardware. You need new linux software to test your box.

stf92 · 01-12-2013, 09:10 PM

Guys, if the CDs are too old, lets leave it there, if you please. As stated in the thread title and post #1 I'm running Slackware 14.0. I would prefer to focus attention in the audio problem described by me: Realtek ALC887-VD. I know I must doing something wrong, becuase here you assure with 14.0 it should be running out of the box (post #5).

wigry · 01-13-2013, 03:35 AM

If you have audio problems, then you must make sure that ALSA is enabled and on bootup it prints out on the console which audio devices it finds and in which state they are.

However looking at your other threads I have a suspicion that there is something seriously wrong in your system. Couple of days ago there was another user complauining also about broken things and we found out that he/she had for example 151 items in /usr/sbin wher as I do have 470+ items in /usr/sbin with full Slackware 14 32-bit installation.

stf92 · 01-13-2013, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wigry

If you have audio problems, then you must make sure that ALSA is enabled and on bootup it prints out on the console which audio devices it finds and in which state they are.

Code:

..................
[    7.350773] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1b.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 22
[    7.351381] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1b.0: irq 43 for MSI/MSI-X
[    7.351402] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1b.0: setting latency timer to 64
[    7.351926] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=8087, idProduct=0024
[    7.351985] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[    7.352200] hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
[    7.352297] hub 1-1:1.0: 4 ports detected
[    7.368957] input: PC Speaker as /devices/platform/pcspkr/input/input3
[    7.401786] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[    7.446549] pci 0000:00:02.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[    7.446606] pci 0000:00:02.0: setting latency timer to 64
[    7.454402] usb 2-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci_hcd
[    7.506382] mtrr: type mismatch for e0000000,10000000 old: write-back new: write-combining
[    7.506508] [drm] MTRR allocation failed.  Graphics performance may suffer.
[    7.506738] pci 0000:00:02.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X
[    7.506741] [drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 1 (10.10.2010).
[    7.506791] [drm] No driver support for vblank timestamp query.
[    7.511626] acpi device:4a: registered as cooling_device7
[    7.511936] input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A08:00/LNXVIDEO:00/input/input4
[    7.512348] ACPI: Video Device [GFX0] (multi-head: yes  rom: no  post: no)
[    7.512731] [drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20080730 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0
[    7.514751] ALSA hda_codec.c:3959 hda_codec: model 'auto' is selected
[    7.514805] ALSA patch_realtek.c:1242 SKU: Nid=0x1d sku_cfg=0x4004c601
[    7.514807] ALSA patch_realtek.c:1244 SKU: port_connectivity=0x1
[    7.514808] ALSA patch_realtek.c:1245 SKU: enable_pcbeep=0x0
[    7.514810] ALSA patch_realtek.c:1246 SKU: check_sum=0x00000004
[    7.514811] ALSA patch_realtek.c:1247 SKU: customization=0x000000c6
[    7.514813] ALSA patch_realtek.c:1248 SKU: external_amp=0x0
[    7.514814] ALSA patch_realtek.c:1249 SKU: platform_type=0x0
[    7.514816] ALSA patch_realtek.c:1250 SKU: swap=0x0
[    7.514817] ALSA patch_realtek.c:1251 SKU: override=0x1
[    7.514821] ALSA hda_codec.c:4923 autoconfig: line_outs=1 (0x14/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0) type:line
[    7.514823] ALSA hda_codec.c:4927    speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[    7.514825] ALSA hda_codec.c:4931    hp_outs=1 (0x1b/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[    7.514827] ALSA hda_codec.c:4932    mono: mono_out=0x0
[    7.514828] ALSA hda_codec.c:4936    inputs:
[    7.514830] ALSA hda_codec.c:4940  Rear Mic=0x18
[    7.514832] ALSA hda_codec.c:4940  Front Mic=0x19
[    7.514833] ALSA hda_codec.c:4940  Line=0x1a
[    7.514834] ALSA hda_codec.c:4942 
[    7.516749] ALSA patch_realtek.c:1305 realtek: No valid SSID, checking pincfg 0x4004c601 for NID 0x1d
[    7.516751] ALSA patch_realtek.c:1321 realtek: Enabling init ASM_ID=0xc601 CODEC_ID=10ec0887
[    7.520117] input: HDA Intel PCH Line as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input5
[    7.520243] input: HDA Intel PCH Front Mic as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input6
[    7.520364] input: HDA Intel PCH Rear Mic as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input7
[    7.520479] input: HDA Intel PCH Front Headphone as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input8
[    7.520593] input: HDA Intel PCH Line-Out as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input9
[    7.520852] i801_smbus 0000:00:1f.3: PCI INT C -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18

..............................

How do I know that alsa is enabled? I'm sending you an attached file, the output of a script from ALSA official site.

Quote:

However looking at your other threads I have a suspicion that there is something seriously wrong in your system.

Me too.

Quote:

Couple of days ago there was another user complauining also about broken things and we found out that he/she had for example 151 items in /usr/sbin wher as I do have 470+ items in /usr/sbin with full Slackware 14 32-bit installation.

How do I know how many item I have in /usr/sbin. ls does not seem to do the task. Thanks for your reply.

TobiSGD · 01-13-2013, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

How do I know how many item I have in /usr/sbin. ls does not seem to do the task. Thanks for your reply.

Code:

ls /usr/sbin | wc -l

Regarding your audio problem, I would recommend to start from scratch. Remove the alsa.conf you have written and any other changes you have made to the audio subsystem.
Reboot the machine.
Try to run alsamixer and if you get any error messages post them here.

stf92 · 01-13-2013, 09:16 AM

Well, by far the main change is that I installed the package (sources) from Realtek. That is why the lines with the 'patch' word appears in the boot screen I show in my previous post.

So, I'll run the 'make uninstall' for that package and remove the alsa.conf and I'll let you know.