What directory to drivers go into

[Guest JeremyG]

Hi There,

 

I am trying to get the sound working in MDK9 on my laptop. I downloaded new drivers from ALSA and but them in my /etc/modules file. I just need to know where the actual drivers are supposed to be. Right now they are in a long filesystem that I can't remember off the top of my head. But it ends with /core. Any help would be most appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

JeremyG

[emh]

Did you run configure, make, and make install after downloading it?

[Guest JeremyG]

I didn't run it. I thought that they had to be in a specific directory before that. That's what my friend was telling me but he just couldn't remember where.

[bvc]

Drivers have to be installed. You can't just drop them in a file. If it's a tar then after you unpack the tar, in a terminal

cd /path/to/folder

then read the INSTALL file for how to install. Sometimes ./configure isn't necessary, among other usuall commands, so you should always read the INSTALL, and README files. Or use a file mgr to read the files.

[Guest JeremyG]

I tried tar on the files and it said that they weren't tar files. The extensions are .o.gz. I unzipped them and now just have .o files. My friend said .o are drivers, and that they need to be in /etc/somethingorother, he couldn't remember. And there were no readme files or install files or anything when I unzipped them, just the .o files.

[bvc]

Can you post a link and name of the file/driver you downloaded? Did you download a alsa-drivers-tar.gz or bz2? That's all I've ever done. If you downloaded actual drivers, I have no idea if or how to install them. Earlier you mentioned /etc/modules....this is where you tell the kernel to load a mod at startup

 

# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.

#

# This file should contain the names of kernel modules that are

# to be loaded at boot time, one per line.  Comments begin with

# a `#', and everything on the line after them are ignored.

 

scsi_hostadapter

 

###I2OSUPPORT

i2o_core

i2o_config

#i2o_pci

i2o_block

i2o_proc

 

###I2C

i2c-algo-bit

i2c-algo-pcf

i2c-dev

#i2c-i801

i2c-i810

i2c-proc

 

i810_rng

 

#JOYSTICK

gameport

adi

joydev

 

I'm a bit confused though, because 9.0 has alsa and it's as new as it gets, so why new drivers? Are they newer?

[Guest JeremyG]

I need new drivers because my sound isn't working and from searching online, I was told that the snd-card-intel8x0 ALSA driver or module works with my Yamaha AC-XG audio driver (that's what it says it is under windows anyways).

 

I put all the sound .o files into the /etc/modules file so that they will load up when I boot up, but nothing worked. I tried putting every driver that was in /lib/modules/2.4.19mdk/kernel/drivers/sound (I think that was the correct path) into that file and rebooted to load them in, but I still had no sound. I also first unzipped all the sound drivers so that wasn't the problem. Does it matter if all the sound modules are loaded on boot up or do the mix badly with eachother and prevent it from working anyways?

 

After searching around, I don't even think that the actual file got downloaded. I was trying for snd-card-intel8x0, but I tried to do a modprobe of it and it couldn't be found. I am going to try to download the software releases from ALSA and see if that helps at all.

[bvc]

From a default 2.4.19-16mdk 9.0 kernel;

[root@localhost bvc9]# ls /lib/modules/2.4.19-16mdk/kernel/sound/pci

ac97/      snd-als4000.o.gz  snd-fm801.o.gz       snd-via686.o.gz

ali5451/   snd-cmipci.o.gz   snd-ice1712.o.gz     snd-via8233.o.gz

cs46xx/    snd-cs4281.o.gz   snd-intel8x0.o.gz    trident/

emu10k1/   snd-ens1370.o.gz  snd-maestro3.o.gz    ymfpci/

korg1212/  snd-ens1371.o.gz  snd-rme32.o.gz

nm256/     snd-es1938.o.gz   snd-rme96.o.gz

rme9652/   snd-es1968.o.gz   snd-sonicvibes.o.gz

You didn't need to download anything!

 

 

Does it matter if all the sound modules are loaded on boot up or do the mix badly with each other and prevent it from working anyways?

Depends, on whether the kernel thought it could use any of them and which ones, but no, it should not have caused a problem, but possible. None were probably not loaded because you're going to need and entry in /etc/modules.conf. Have you tried to run from a terminal (as root)

sndconfig

 

If it's not installed (as root)

urpmi sndconfig

 

sndconfig (if compatible with your card) with do everything for you, but it doesn't work with all cards.

 

If the snd-card-intel8x0 won't work, there's a dummy driver that's suppose to possibly work for a lot of cards that don't have a specific driver. It's called snd-dummy, and is located at /lib/modules/2.4.19-16mdk/kernel/sound/drivers.

 

I found these

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ty4s-tkhs/memo...lsa_cf-b5r.html

http://linux.toshiba-dme.co.jp/linux/eng/m.../tecra_9100.htm This one seems to indicate that the i810_audio OSS driver will work also.

 

The first link, shows an example for the /etc/modules.conf entries.

# ALSA portion

alias char-major-116 snd

options snd snd_major=116 snd_cards_limit=1

alias snd-card-0 snd-card-intel8x0

post-install snd-card-intel8x0 snd_index=0 snd_id=intel8x0 alsactl restore

 

# OSS/Free portion

alias char-major-14 soundcore

alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

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

 

 

# modprobe snd-card-intel8x0

# modprobe snd-pcm-oss

 

# lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by

snd-pcm-oss            18440   0  

snd-pcm-plugin         13032   0  [snd-pcm-oss]

snd-mixer-oss           4244   0  [snd-pcm-oss]

snd-card-intel8x0       2656   0  

snd-intel8x0            8208   0  [snd-card-intel8x0]

snd-pcm                36216   0  [snd-pcm-oss snd-pcm-plugin snd-intel8x0]

snd-timer              10816   0  [snd-pcm]

snd-ac97-codec         27680   0  [snd-intel8x0]

snd-mixer              28144   0  [snd-mixer-oss snd-ac97-codec]

snd                    42080   1  [snd-pcm-oss snd-pcm-plugin snd-mixer-oss snd-card-intel8x0 snd-intel8x0 snd-pcm snd-timer snd-ac97-codec snd-mixer]

Also, remember that with alsa, the default is for the volume level to be all the way down, and I believe this is at every boot, but I'm not sure. I used alsa for a couple of days and I always had to turn the volume up. The alsa driver was horrible for my CS4281, so I use OSS.

[Guest JeremyG]

Thanks, I'll give all that a shot when I get home tonight, hopefully I will have some better luck.

[Guest JeremyG]

I ran sndconfig on my laptop and it detected my soundcard and said that it is supported, but I need to change the "PnP os" to "no" in my BIOS. One problem...I don't have a hardware bios on my laptop...has anyone ran into this problem before or have any suggestions for me???