ALSA not working?

[beforewisdom]

Hi;

I am using Knoppix 3.2 ( 4/15/03 build ).


The kernel( according to uname -a ) is:
--------------------------------
Linux Wisdom 2.4.20-xfs #1 SMP Mit Mär 26 15:37:36 CET 2003 i686 unknown
unknown GNU/Linux
-------------------------------

My mother board is a : Intel Desktop Board D845PESV
It has onboard sound.

sndconfig & lspci detects this onboard sound as:
Intel Corp 182801DB AC '97 Audio
I think this uses a driver called i810 as snconfig errors indicate that
it is looking for that driver.

Here are the sndconfig error messages:
--------------------------------------
lib/modules/2.4.20-xfs/kernel/drivers/sound/i810_audio.o:
init_module: No such device
?
/lib/modules/2.4.20-xfs/kernel/drivers/sound/i810_audio.o: insmod
/lib/modules/2.4.20-xfs/kernel/drivers/sound/i810_audio.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.20-xfs/kernel/drivers/sound/i810_audio.o:
insmod sound-slot-0 failed
--------------------------------------

i810_audio.o is there at the path in the error message.



Running dpkg reveals that I have these two things:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- alsa-headers 0.9.2-5
- knx-alsa 0.1-2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

knx-alsa is a script/package made by the Knoppix folks to install ALSA.


Running dpkg -L knx-alsa reveals files that
appear to be the sound driver for my card:

---------

/lib/modules/extra/alsa/snd-intel8x0.o

However running ( as root ) "modprobe i8x0"
just results in an error message about the module not being locatable.

I went to the ALSA site and there are sections that say that driver i810 is supported:
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/doc-php/template.php3?company=Intel&card=i820&chip=i820&module=intel8x0

Any ideas about how I can get ALSA to work?
( I'm a newbie )

Steve

[schnarff]

First off, don't get too excited, no answer here.

What I can tell you is that I'm in the exact same situation, only with a VIA 8233 on-board sound card. Same exact kernel, have alsa installed, had it working when booting off of CD...just can't get sound to work after my hdd install.

The thing that kills me is that I thought that if I put "alsa" in the "append" line of my /etc/lilo.conf and re-installed lilo (just /sbin/lilo) I'd be passing along the argument to use alsa as I was doing when I booted off CD with "knoppix ... alsa". That apparently has no effect, though, since dmesg is showing that it was an argument to my kernel command line, and no sound is appearing here.

Not knowing a great deal about kernel config, I may be wrong, but something seems odd in that I saw no mention of alsa in the kernel configuration file, and the modules folder (/usr/src/linux/modules) is empty. Perhaps there was a SNAFU that killed alsa in our particular release?

Alex Kirk

[Fabianx]

Hi;

I am using Knoppix 3.2 ( 4/15/03 build ).


The kernel( according to uname -a ) is:
--------------------------------
Linux Wisdom 2.4.20-xfs #1 SMP Mit Mär 26 15:37:36 CET 2003 i686 unknown
unknown GNU/Linux
-------------------------------

My mother board is a : Intel Desktop Board D845PESV
It has onboard sound.

sndconfig & lspci detects this onboard sound as:
Intel Corp 182801DB AC '97 Audio
I think this uses a driver called i810 as snconfig errors indicate that
it is looking for that driver.

Here are the sndconfig error messages:
--------------------------------------
lib/modules/2.4.20-xfs/kernel/drivers/sound/i810_audio.o:
init_module: No such device
?
/lib/modules/2.4.20-xfs/kernel/drivers/sound/i810_audio.o: insmod
/lib/modules/2.4.20-xfs/kernel/drivers/sound/i810_audio.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.20-xfs/kernel/drivers/sound/i810_audio.o:
insmod sound-slot-0 failed
--------------------------------------

i810_audio.o is there at the path in the error message.



Running dpkg reveals that I have these two things:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- alsa-headers 0.9.2-5
- knx-alsa 0.1-2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

knx-alsa is a script/package made by the Knoppix folks to install ALSA.


Running dpkg -L knx-alsa reveals files that
appear to be the sound driver for my card:

---------

/lib/modules/extra/alsa/snd-intel8x0.o

However running ( as root ) "modprobe i8x0"
just results in an error message about the module not being locatable.

I went to the ALSA site and there are sections that say that driver i810 is supported:
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/doc-php/template.php3?company=Intel&card=i820&chip=i820&module=intel8x0

Any ideas about how I can get ALSA to work?
( I'm a newbie )

Steve

Don't you ever read the changelog ?

There is a cheatcode to get alsa working. Just do a : knoppix alsa at bootprompt and it'll work.

If you have it already running, you can autoprobe alsa with /etc/init.d/alsa-autoconfig

I think you should have seen this file with your locate as well!

cu

Fabian

[schnarff]

This cheatcode is great...if you're working from CD boot. It's apparently quite broken with a hard drive install, though. I've tried putting it in my "append" line in /etc/lilo.conf, tried "knoppix lang=us ... alsa" at the boot prompt Lilo gives me...none of them make any difference, I'm still stuck with the same errors I had without using the cheatcode on the CD-ROM boot.

I even went so far as to boot up on CD, mount my Win partition as readable, copy over the CD's kernel, and then boot up my HDD install from that -- and I *still* couldn't get the cheatcode to do any good.

I'm starting to get rather frustrated, since no one has given me any reason (let alone any good reason) why this would break so badly on a HDD install -- I'm just being ignored on the boards. I realize this support is free and all...but damn, I'd be a willing financial contributor if I got everything running smoothly (I've been buying CDs and making random contributions to OpenBSD for years now since I got going with them server-side). I just wish someone would help here!

Alex Kirk

[Fabianx]

This cheatcode is great...if you're working from CD boot. It's apparently quite broken with a hard drive install, though. I've tried putting it in my "append" line in /etc/lilo.conf, tried "knoppix lang=us ... alsa" at the boot prompt Lilo gives me...none of them make any difference, I'm still stuck with the same errors I had without using the cheatcode on the CD-ROM boot.

I even went so far as to boot up on CD, mount my Win partition as readable, copy over the CD's kernel, and then boot up my HDD install from that -- and I *still* couldn't get the cheatcode to do any good.

I'm starting to get rather frustrated, since no one has given me any reason (let alone any good reason) why this would break so badly on a HDD install -- I'm just being ignored on the boards. I realize this support is free and all...but damn, I'd be a willing financial contributor if I got everything running smoothly (I've been buying CDs and making random contributions to OpenBSD for years now since I got going with them server-side). I just wish someone would help here!

Alex Kirk

oki

Just do a /etc/init.d/alsa-autoconfig once and alsa will work "forever" on your hd-install!

Hm, you have to be root.

cu

Fabian

[schnarff]

Thank you!

I really appreciate getting a response on this. I'm a bit nervous, as I ran that command remotely from my desktop here at work and still got errors with sndconfig...but I could care less about its output if I get home and have sound.

I will let you (along with people searching the boards) know if this worked when I get home in another 6.5 hours. If it does, I'm definitely submitting a diff to the hdd-install documentation to mention this.

Alex Kirk

[Fabianx]

Thank you!

I really appreciate getting a response on this. I'm a bit nervous, as I ran that command remotely from my desktop here at work and still got errors with sndconfig...but I could care less about its output if I get home and have sound.

I will let you (along with people searching the boards) know if this worked when I get home in another 6.5 hours. If it does, I'm definitely submitting a diff to the hdd-install documentation to mention this.

Alex Kirk

Hm, the command you issued is the same, as if you issued the cheat-code.

cu

Fabian

[schnarff]

It did indeed work.

It's definitely still worth making a note in the FAQ, even if doing the command-line is the same as putting in the cheatcode -- becase most of us who are new to Knoppix and/or Linux wouldn't have realized that. I figure, if I can save many newbies a lot of irritation, I make their lives and the lives of experienced folk easier, while making the OS better.

Besides, it's not like anyone has to actually *accept* my patch anyway. ;-)

[beforewisdom]

I took the box into the shop to verify that I installed my sound card ( SoundBlaster Live 5.1 ) correctly.

A unix technician there said that some linux distros don't have "plug and play" and that if you install new hardware the system might not detect it.

He gave up at first, but he claims that he found a script on the machine called "hwConfig". After he ran it and rebooted the machine sound was enabled.

Steve

[SolKarma]

It did indeed work.

It's definitely still worth making a note in the FAQ, even if doing the command-line is the same as putting in the cheatcode -- becase most of us who are new to Knoppix and/or Linux wouldn't have realized that. I figure, if I can save many newbies a lot of irritation, I make their lives and the lives of experienced folk easier, while making the OS better.

Besides, it's not like anyone has to actually *accept* my patch anyway. ;-)

Don't sweat it. The only way one can learn is to ask questions. People who demostrate a level of irritation when responding shouldn't bother to respond, especially those with poor reading comprehension who cannot decern between a person asking about installation issues and sound vs live-on-cd issues and sounds, i.e., using cheat codes.

Apparently, there are some people who think that 'learning the hard way because that's how I did it' is some sort of right of passage in the Linux/UNIX world. Frankly, its this reason why Linux/UNIX will never make a substantial dent as a desktop OS. Most people don't have the time for nonsense, especially 20-something, overblown testosterone kiddie crap from some psuedo-Linux/UNIX 'guru'.

Knoppix is great off the CD, presumably what Klaus wanted. As an installation tool, it's great. However there's much in the details of hard disk installations that the script falls short. Sound is one of those issues.