Kernel 2.6.8.1 +ALSA

Jaster150 · 09-20-2004, 02:24 AM

First off, sorry about another ALSA thread. I've looked over many other threads and ALSA faqs on this site and others, and tried many of those solutions to no avail.

I'm running Slackware 10 with dropline-gnome and a SoundBlaster Live! card.

First I tried compiling the kernel (2.6.8.1) with Sound card support and ALSA built in and the emu10k1 driver built as a module. OSS is not included, but the OSS emulation under ALSA is. when I run alsaconf, everything works fine, and the emu10k1 soundcard is detected, and set up. When I run alsamixer to un-mute the soundcard, I get

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device

I have also tried removing the alsa packages built in by the kernel and compiling from source (I made sure all the versions were the same) and even running ./snddevices after the install, but always the same error. I will note however, that when using the compiled source, alsaconf quickly outputs something about "too many arguments" but then goes to the blue alsaconf screen before I can read it, and after the card is detected and installed, when alsaconf tries to run "rcalsasound start" I get the error (again, too fast to read) something something "rcalsasound: command not found", but then it goes to the next screen about "you'll have to unmute" normally.

Other kernel configs I've tried are ALSA built in with the emu10k1 built in, ALSA with no OSS emulation. So far nothing has worked.

here is the current output of lsmod:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
snd-mixer-oss          12536   0  (autoclean) (unused)
snd                    31524   0  (autoclean) [snd-mixer-oss]
soundcore               3396   0  (autoclean) [snd]
usbcore                59308   1
emu10k1-gp              1352   0  (unused)
gameport                1420   0  [emu10k1-gp]
8139too                14376   1
mii                     2272   0  [8139too]
crc32                   2880   0  [8139too]
ntfs                   51424   1  (autoclean)
ide-scsi                9328   0
agpgart                43940   0  (unused)

I don't know why emu10k1-gp or gameport are there, I compiled the kernel specifically with those not built in.

and lspci:

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8375 [KM266/KL266] Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8633 [Apollo Pro266 AGP]
00:09.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
00:09.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 07)
00:0a.0 Communication controller: Lucent Microelectronics LT WinModem (rev 02)
00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233A ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C/VT8235 PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6202 [USB 2.0 controller] (rev 23)
00:11.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6202 [USB 2.0 controller] (rev 23)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R300 NE [Radeon 9500 Pro]
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R300 [Radeon 9500 Pro] (Secondary)

Suggestions?

EDIT: Also, forgot to add that when I try to modprobe certain things (like emu10k1 or snd-emu10k1) it seems to be looking in the wrong kernel's modules directory, in the stock kernel (I forget the number offhand) instead of 2.6.8.1

Erol · 09-20-2004, 02:58 AM

I also have SBLive, and I was using dropline,but I've returned to KDE few days ago. Try compiling alsa from the source. It's not that hard, you just specify

./configure --with-oss=yes --with-sequencer=yes --with-cards=emu10k1

When that's finished, do make, make install. then run ./snddevices

Something like this should be in your /etc/modprobe.conf

# alsa portion
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1

alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

# card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

# midi
alias midi snd-synth-emu10k1

These modules I start from my rc.local script, but you don't have to do it this way.

#SBLive
/sbin/modprobe snd-emu10k1
/sbin/modprobe snd-pcm-oss
/sbin/modprobe snd-mixer-oss
/sbin/modprobe snd-seq-oss
/sbin/modprobe snd-emu10k1-synth
/usr/local/bin/sfxload /etc/midi/CT4MGM.SF2

The last line is optional, since I use it to fill my midi soundbank so that midi would work properly.

I don't know have you done things like this, so excuse me if I'm repeating something you allready know/did. But I am hoping this will help a bit. good luck.

PS: Don't forget to add your user to audio group since by default /dev/dsp's are owned by root:audio.

Jaster150 · 09-20-2004, 03:07 AM

I tried the compile with those options, with no luck. I still get the same error msg from alsamixer. Also, did you mean /etc/modules.conf ? because modprobe.conf was empty, but modules.conf is what alsaconf writes to, and it had something like that in it:

Code:

 alsa portion
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1

alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

# card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

# midi
alias midi snd-synth-emu10k1

gbonvehi · 09-20-2004, 03:09 AM

Mmm seeing the error messagges i think you have different versions of drivers and utils or tools (alsamixer, alsactl), try downloading the latest packages from some slackware mirror and installing them all (driver, utils, etc, all you find starting with alsa). Or download them from alsa-project and compile yourself.

Erol · 09-20-2004, 03:10 AM

Well since you said you were using 2.6.8.1 kernel, you should put that in your modprobe.conf.

Since 2.6 kernel series modules.conf is deprecated. All module stuff goes now in modprobe.conf.

rotvogel · 09-20-2004, 06:38 AM

Alsa + Slackware 10.0 + kernel 2.6.8.1 and SB Live.

That combination is working here and almost out of the box. But until kernel 2.6.7 the alsa drivers didn't work for my card (SB Live Value) .

What did I do to make it work ? Very little...

I am still using the Slackware alsa packages, except for the driver package, which is included in the kernel source so no need for them, but they don't harm. So I compiled relevant alsa drivers as a module in 2.6.8.1.
I compiled sound support in the kernel, not as a module, here's the alsa part of my kernel configuration :

Code:

Menuconfig --> Device drivers --> Sound: 
<*> Sound card support

Menuconfig --> Device drivers --> Sound --> ALSA:
<M> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
<M> Sequencer support
< >   Sequencer dummy client
<M> OSS Mixer API
<M> OSS PCM (digital audio) API[*] OSS Sequencer API 

Menuconfig --> Device drivers --> Sound --> ALSA --> Generic devices:
<M> Dummy (/dev/null) soundcard
<M> Virtual MIDI soundcard
<M> MOTU MidiTimePiece AV multiport MIDI
<M> UART16550 - MIDI only driver
<M> Generic MPU-401 UART driver

Menuconfig --> Device drivers --> Sound --> ALSA --> PCI devices:
<M> EMU10K1 (SB Live! & Audigy, E-mu APS)

The rest is unchecked.

I added the oss drivers in the /etc/hotplug/blacklist and made no changes to modprobe.conf. After that I loaded the new kernel and my card was detected automaticly by hotplug except for the MIDI functionality. I added a line in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules to load that one as well.

Code:

/sbin/modprobe snd-seq-midi

The result of lsmod is :

Code:

Module                   Size  Used by
snd_pcm_oss          50504  0
snd_mixer_oss       18112  3 snd_pcm_oss
snd_emu10k1         93384  6
snd_pcm                 86888  5 snd_pcm_oss,snd_emu10k1
snd_ac97_codec     67108  1 snd_emu10k1
snd_page_alloc       9160  2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_util_mem         3392  1 snd_emu10k1
snd_hwdep             7364  1 snd_emu10k1
emu10k1_gp          2496  0
gameport                3552  1 emu10k1_gp
snd_seq_midi          6496  0
snd_rawmidi            20516  2 snd_emu10k1,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event      6080  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                50320  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              21764  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device          6728  4 snd_emu10k1,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd                    49060  18 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm,snd_ac97_codec,snd_util_mem
                                         ,snd_hwdep,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device

That worked for me, but you can allways switch back to the oss drivers. That drivers are working fine for my soundcard as well, during the lifetime of 2.6.x kernels they will be supported.

Jaster150 · 09-20-2004, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by rotvogel

I added the oss drivers in the /etc/hotplug/blacklist and made no changes to modprobe.conf.

which oss drivers would that be? I have a huge list of blacklisted oss drivers already in /etc/hotplug/blacklist and I don't know which ones to add.

rotvogel · 09-20-2004, 10:13 AM

I edited the blacklist with kernel 2.4 and commented the oss modules because the alsa drivers were not working with my card. I tried again using a 2.6 kernel and uncommented the oss drivers again, so basicly I restored it the way it was. I did forget to mention that so sorry for the confusion I may have caused.

The one you don't want to be modprobed by hotplug is emu10k1.

Jaster150 · 09-20-2004, 10:55 AM

Well I tried with the oss blacklist stuff commented (except for emu10k1) that also didn't work. I noticed that when I boot up, right when it tries to load ALSA modules I get:

Code:

 Loading ALSA kernel modules
/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/sound/pci/emu10k1/snd-emu10k1.0: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/
sound/pci/emu10k1/snd-emu10k1.0 failed
/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/sound/pci/emu10k1/snd-emu10k1.0: insmod failed

As a sidenote, if I have already compiled alsa from source, how do I delete that and go back to using ther kernel modules?

folkenfanel · 09-20-2004, 04:09 PM

Hi

Maybe you should try to compile support for devfs in your kernel. (normally 2.6.x uses udev: this means that it makes a list of all the devices every time the system goes up). You should also try to deactivate /etc/rc.d/rc.udev which manages udev.

So you want to give it a try? First clean your system (it would be a good idea to manually delete the folder /lib/modules/2.6.xx/kernel/sound). Uninstall any previous ALSA package. Delete the alsa logs and the /etc/asound.state and the /var/tmp/alsaconf.cards and so on.

You should have by now: 1) the kernel source; and 2) the alsa modules and binaries or the source.

After that, compile a kernel with devfs support. Compile built-in soundcard support and modular ALSA. Compile modular low-level support in ALSA for your card. Forget about OSS. (you can only use one: or oss or alsa but not both of them). Don't forget this step: make modules_install. It will install the sound modules that you previously erased.

Boot with your new kernel. Once using your new kernel, install alsa and run alsaconf. It should work by now. If you are able to run alsamixer, you'll know you have succeeded.