Need help with the "alsa=" cheat code

[lothario]

I would like to use the cheat code
alsa=ad1848
at boot time to start this sound driver.

But I would like to know:

1. How can I confirm that this is the correct driver name?

2. Where is the configuration information for this driver?
In what directory? I want to make sure that it is correct.
I would like to edit the file(s) if necessary.

Thanks.

[shah]

I believed you don't need to include your sound card module with alsa because alsa usually will autodetect your soundcard. Try with just alsa in your your cheatcode first.

[lothario]

Ok. I did that.
And when the system rebooted, I did see alsa trying to do an autodetect.
But my sound card still does not work.

Is there a way to see which card(s) it tried to detect?
Even if it detected the wrong card or just failed.
Is there some kind of log of this sound card autodetect activity?

[shah]

Do a lsmod in konsole. It will list all installed module including your soundcard if it's properly installed.

If your module didn't listed, you need to install it. Run this command:
modprobe snd-ad1848
modprobe snd-pcm-oss
modprobe snd-mixer-oss
modprobe snd-seq-oss

[shah]

I missed the line that you don't know what type of soundcard been detected.
Open konsole and run this as su:

/etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig

Look closely and see what hardware knoppix trying to detect.

[lothario]

I missed the line that you don't know what type of soundcard been detected.
Open konsole and run this as su:

/etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig

Look closely and see what hardware knoppix trying to detect.



/etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig

does this:


Running Linux Kernel 2.6.6.
Running from HD, checking filesystems...
Activating swap...
mount: / is busy
*** ERROR! Cannot fsck root fs because it is not mounted read-only!

Checking all file systems...
fsck 1.35 (28-Feb-2004)
Running from HD, regenerate ld.so.cache and modules.dep...
Processor 0 is Pentium
Starting advanced power management daemon: apmd (already running).
APM Bios found, power management functions enabled.
PCMCIA found, starting cardmgr.
USB found, managed by hotplug: (Re-)scanning USB devices... Done.
Firewire found, managed by hotplug: (Re-)scanning firewire devices... Done.
Autoconfiguring devices... Done.
Mouse is Generic PS/2 Wheel Mouse at /dev/psaux
Soundcard: driver=ALSA(autodetect)
Video is Millennium 4MB MGA 2064W [Millennium], using XFree86(mga) Server
Monitor is Generic Monitor, H:28.0-96.0kHz, V:50.0-75.0Hz
Using Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
Skipping DMA accelleration as requested on boot commandline.
Scanning for Harddisk partitions and creating /etc/fstab... Done.
Using swap partition /dev/hde2.
Network device eth0 detected, DHCP broadcasting for IP. (Backgrounding)
Network device eth1 detected, DHCP broadcasting for IP. (Backgrounding)
mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/auto/floppy': Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/auto/cdrom': Permission denied
Automounter started for: floppy cdrom.



So the only thing I notice is:
Soundcard: driver=ALSA(autodetect)

Which is fine but we already know this.

[lothario]

Do a lsmod in konsole. It will list all installed module including your soundcard if it's properly installed.


lsmod

returns:

Module Size Used by
snd_mixer_oss 19072 0
rfcomm 36760 0
l2cap 25472 5 rfcomm
bluetooth 46436 4 rfcomm,l2cap
lp 13768 0
snd 49540 1 snd_mixer_oss
soundcore 12000 1 snd
capability 7428 0
commoncap 9600 1 capability
c4 21252 0
b1pci 11776 0
b1dma 18176 1 b1pci
b1 26496 3 c4,b1pci,b1dma
capi 19264 0
capifs 8328 2 capi
kernelcapi 40672 5 c4,b1pci,b1dma,b1,capi
md5 8064 1
ipv6 248736 16
ehci_hcd 29824 0
pcnet32 28132 0
tsdev 9984 0
evdev 11520 0
md 44072 0
dm_mod 40608 0
autofs 19456 1
af_packet 21124 0
nls_iso8859_1 8320 0
nls_cp437 9984 0
tmscsim 36896 0
3c509 17748 0
mii 8448 1 pcnet32
crc32 8448 1 pcnet32
parport_pc 38176 1
parport 38848 2 lp,parport_pc
8250 34448 0
serial_core 22912 1 8250
ohci1394 33792 0
ieee1394 305296 1 ohci1394
ohci_hcd 20864 0
uhci_hcd 31112 0
usbcore 94420 4 ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd,uhci_hcd
ds 17920 0
yenta_socket 20736 0
pcmcia_core 58240 2 ds,yenta_socket
apm 20716 2
ide_cd 40576 0
ide_scsi 17540 0
genrtc 13336 0
ext3 108648 1
jbd 67488 1 ext3

[shah]

I don't see your sound card module has been loaded.
What you can do is to remove alsa cheatcode from lilo.conf, update lilo and reboot.

Then run again knoppix-autoconfig...the reason is..that alsa cheatcode has interfere with knoppix-autoconfig ... trying to detect sound card.

The easiest way is for you to open up your pc, and look at what model your sound card is. If you have a builtin sound, try look for a sound chip.

[lothario]

I did that too earlier - run knoppix-autoconfig before doing the cheat codes.

It does not detect my sound card.

Yes, I do have builtin sound.
This is a Compaq DeskPro XL sound.
From reading Alsa documents, it is ad1848.
But that does not work.

I even tried alsaconfig -l -L
No luck.

[shah]

If you think ad1848 is right, then do the modprobe mentioned above.

One question though, is alsa running (use cheatcode) and detect the sound card when you run knoppix from CD? You should try this first, and see what's detected.

[mzilikazi]

After booting w/ alsa cheat code.

lsmod|grep sound

(much less convoluted than listing all your drivers)

To see if alsa is running:

cat /proc/asound/cards

You can try to restart alsa:

/etc/init.d/alsa restart

Forget xmms for now and keep it simple.
su
updatedb
locate *.wav
play file.wav

Of course you *are* checking your mixer settings right?

[tcheun]

knoppix-alsa supports only pci sound card.
If you can't find the sound card by the command "lspci", you can't use alsa.

if you find the sound card and use knoppix 3.6, you have to edit /etc/init.d/alsa-autoconfig.
Find a string "Class 0401", and change to "0401".

[HomerCube]

Perhaps that's why I'm experiencing some troubles while installing Knoppix 3.6 on my PC. It's based on an Abit IC7 motherboard, which has a AC97 audio section onboard.

When I had installed Knoppix 3.4 onto my HD (I chose Debian style) by booting with "alsa" cheatcode, it had successfully enabled sound modules so that ALSA correctly works (with XMMS, for instance). But when I did just the same with 3.6, it didn't work.

I tried to run both "alsa_init" and "alsa_snddevices" as root, but it didn't help. I even tried to edit "alsa-autoconfig" to solve the "Class 0401" issue and run it, but nothing. I simply can't have my Knoppix see sound section through ALSA.
What's more, I got same problem on a totally different PC (an old Compaq Deskpro), surely having a different mobo.
I also experienced ALSA not working even when Knoppix is run from CD, even with "alsa" cheatcode. Using OSS instead seems to work (at least by playing XMMS).

Does anybody know what's changed from 3.4 to 3.6? I could rollback to 3.4 quite fast, but I regret not having my 3.6 HD-installed...

TnX

[hardbop200]

Someone may have already covered this, but I believe that ALSA mixer settings are muted by default, thus even if ALSA was correctly configuring your sound card, you still wouldn't hear anything. From the ALSA Wiki:

# amixer set Master 100 unmute
# amixer set PCM 100 unmute

Give that try...again, sorry if I'm covering old ground here.

Josh

[HomerCube]

Someone may have already covered this, but I believe that ALSA mixer settings are muted by default, thus even if ALSA was correctly configuring your sound card, you still wouldn't hear anything. From the ALSA Wiki:

# amixer set Master 100 unmute
# amixer set PCM 100 unmute


Yeah, I understand this. But the fact XMMS says my soundcard is not even properly detected urges me to think that's not a problem with volume muting. Anyway, I had also tried to set volume levels, but no results :(