A Linux Question...

[chazdraves]

First and foremost: I'm a complete Linux newb...

I just installed the latest release of Ubuntu (feeling it would be a welcome change from WinXP Pro) along with the Gnome GUI. It appears that Ubuntu did not install sound card drivers. I'm using a Dell CPi w/Onboard sound. I saw somewhere that there is a list of devices and when I went through that list I saw nothing that made any reference to sound and therefore I'm assuming my card isn't installed at all... Can someone tell me what I should do first (I'll be checking back in after work, just F.Y.I.).

Thanks in advance,
- Chaz

 

[nweaver]

from the root terminal, type "dmesg | less" and see if there is any mention of it in there.

 

[Nothinman]

Post the output of lspci, hopefully that'll tell us what chipset the card uses and we'll be able to figure out if it's supported from there.

 

[JDCentral]

Make sure ALSA is set up- I'n not sure if this is the default in Ubuntu

 

[chazdraves]

Sorry for the delay in reply...

Here's the dmesg | less:

vices
PnPBIOS: Disabled by ACPI PNP
PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
** PCI interrupts are no longer routed automatically. If this
** causes a device to stop working, it is probably because the
** driver failed to call pci_enable_device(). As a temporary
** workaround, the "pci=routeirq" argument restores the old
** behavior. If this argument makes the device work again,
** please email the output of "lspci" to bjorn.helgaas@hp.com
** so I can fix the driver.
pnp: 00:01: ioport range 0x4d0-0x4d1 has been reserved
pnp: 00:01: ioport range 0x800-0x805 could not be reserved
pnp: 00:01: ioport range 0x808-0x80f could not be reserved
pnp: 00:02: ioport range 0x806-0x807 has been reserved
pnp: 00:02: ioport range 0x850-0x853 has been reserved
pnp: 00:02: ioport range 0x856-0x85f has been reserved
pnp: 00:02: ioport range 0x810-0x83f has been reserved
pnp: 00:02: ioport range 0x840-0x84f has been reserved
pnp: 00:02: ioport range 0xfc80-0xfcfe has been reserved
pnp: 00:07: ioport range 0x3f0-0x3f1 has been reserved
audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
audit(1120223910.501:0): initialized
VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
:

And here's the lspci:

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (AGP disabled) (rev 02)
0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2160 [MagicGraph 128XD] (rev 01)
0000:00:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1131 (rev 01)
0000:00:03.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1131 (rev 01)
0000:00:07.0 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 01)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
0000:00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 01)
0000:05:00.0 Network controller: Texas Instruments ACX 111 54Mbps Wireless Interface

You'd have to explain the ALSA thing to me... little lost on that one...

From the above, it doesn't look like I have any sound device installed (which is doubtlessly why there's no sound ). What's my next step?

Thanks very much for the help!
- Chaz

 

[Nothinman]

lspci should list all devices on the PCI bus whether a driver has claimed it or not. Maybe the onboard sound is on the ISA bus?

 

[JDCentral]

Umm... ask around on some Ubuntu forums - you may have to reconfigure your kernel.

I'm not really sure about Ubuntu - I always recommend Debian to linux virgins. Debian is 'tried and true', and I haven't had any issues with the default kernels

 

[keeleysam]

I have NEVER gotten onboard sound from an OEM manufacturer working. :-/

 

[chazdraves]

Sooo... saying hypothetically that it IS possible... what should be my next step?

I've become a bit attached to Ubuntu and really don't feel like going through another 2+ hour install (slow laptop here) to possibly find something else that doesn't work...

On that note: Are there any other releases of Linux with a GUI that would run more efficiently on an older computer? I just need a GUI, internet (Wireless that is), and a notepad...

But I'd rather make this work.

Thanks again,
- Chaz

 

[P0ldy]

# alsaconf

See what sound devices are listed, configure accordingly. Ubuntu is really excellent at detection, perhaps better than Knoppix.

Originally posted by: chazdraves
On that note: Are there any other releases of Linux with a GUI that would run more efficiently on an older computer?

Separate releases of "Linux" mean the kernel. You can apply virtually any GUI to your kernel; the GUI (or X) isn't tied into the kernel. There's KDE, Gnome, Enlightenment, IceWM, Fluxbox, Blackbox, more I can't remember. But Ubuntu is pretty much built for Gnome. If you want KDE, you'll have to apt-get the Kubuntu package.

 

[heedoyiu]

you could go out and buy a cheap 10 buck sound card ask around in the forums

 

[chazdraves]

bash: alsaconf: command not found

Is what I get there.

The $10 sound card idea is a good one except that I have a laptop and not a desktop...

Anyone wanna prescribe a Linux Distro? Something that will run very well on a 300MHz laptop but still is attractive, has a GUI, and allows me to surf the web/edit text documents... that's all I'm looking for.

Actually, I'm gonna make a new thread asking for a Distro... You can reply here or there. Wherever you post, "thank you" for the tip as I am completely lost here.

- Chaz

 

[P0ldy]

Originally posted by: chazdraves
bash: alsaconf: command not found
- Chaz

You have to do it as sudo.

# sudo alsaconf

 

[chazdraves]

sudo: alsaconf: command not found

I have enabled the root account on this computer and was logged in as root when I gave you the last error message, thus sudo yielded the same result - but good idea.

If I look under my list of devices I literally have nothing there for sound or anything sound-related and I think that's what I'm up against here... I just don't know what to do about it.

If yah think of something...

- Chaz

 

[NewBlackDak]

CPI has a ISA soundcard. It uses the cs4236 sound module, and needs to be configured by hand. I'll boot up my CPI, and get the configs to post here.

 

[chazdraves]

You, sir, are a god among men! I would be most appreciative!

- Chaz

 

[chazdraves]

Dag... this is why I've always used Windows...

Now that you filled me in on which chipset I'm looking for I've been doing a little research...

1) You must have full configured source for the Linux kernel which you
want to use for the ALSA drivers. Note that ALSA drivers are part
of the kernel, so there is necessary to resolve all symbol dependencies
between the used kernel and ALSA driver code. Partly installed kernels
(for example from distributor makers) can be unuseable for this action.

2) You must turn on sound support (soundcore module).

3) Run ./configure script

None of this makes any bloody sense to me! All this talk about "compiling the kernel" and crap... seems like a freakin' lot of work just to have working sound...

I know this must be easier than it looks... anyone care to help me out here?

Thanks,
- Chaz

 

[drag]

I don't know much about what is going on here myself.

This is what I understand so far...

1. You installed Ubuntu on a very old laptop. This being a laptop, of course, so you can't install a seperate soundcard. (you can use USB-based ones, probably.. linux supports a couple, but that angle is probably a waste of time, money, and effort)

2. This laptop is so old that it uses a ISA-style sound card.

3. The sound card wasn't setup by default.


Ok...

You shouldn't have to recompile anything or do anything like that. Your system should have the drivers already aviable by default. The way Ubuntu's/Debian's modern kernels are setup they attempt to have all the alsa sound drivers under the sun already aviable to you.

What is probably happenning is that ISA (going solely off of NewBlackDak said) devices do not have the facilities that Ubuntu needs to provide accurate autodetection of all the devices. The hotplug/autodetect system is designed for a half-way modern system that uses PCI devices.

You should probably want to run the 'alsamixer' command from the command line, just incase it's configured, but have everything muted. This has happenned to me.

ISA devices, as you probably know, need to have their IRQ interrupt and Memory address stuff configured by the OS, or at least have the OS know what IRQ and such that it is using.

So you should have the alsaconf command on your system. This is what is used by Debian to aid in sound card configuration and should be used by Ubuntu, too.

The trouble is that you need to have 'root' or administrative rights to do this. The sudo command is designed to provide a way to execute commands as 'super user' or regular user with root privilages, however it doesn't set up the PATH arguement to what you need for root commands.

The PATH statement(which you can see by going 'echo $PATH' (no parensises)) tells your system which directories to look for programs to be executed. Most administrative-only commands will be found in /sbin /usr/sbin directories, which normal users don't have configured in their PATHs.

The easiest way to fix this is to go:
sudo su -

su is the command you use to become a different user. With no username given it tries to make you 'root'. The dash after the command tells to set the enviromental variables (one being the $PATH variable) to match what it would be like if you just logged in as root on that terminal. So now alsaconf and other root-only utilites should be aviable to you.

now try:
alsaconf

An easy way to find were files are at is the locate command. Every evening your system should scan your filing system and make a small simple database of filenames that can be used with locate. Unfortunately any recent changes won't be reflected until the updatedb command is run.

You use it like such:
locate alsaconf

The command should show up as
/usr/sbin/alsaconf

and have a bunch of other files with alsaconf in their name.


Then after you run the alsaconf command you'd want to select 'probe for legacy isa devices'

Also it may be handy to go into your BIOS configuratino screen, at boot up time, and write down what interrupt and memory address is assigned automaticly to your sound card, if that's possible on your laptop.

You shouldn't have to compile a kernel, or reconfigure anything beyong maybe messing around with your bios or using alsaconf.

 

[ktwebb]

I know this must be easier than it looks... anyone care to help me out here?

My friend, this is Linux. Very little is easy to the inexperienced. Very little.

 

[NewBlackDak]

I'm unsure of how Ubuntu is layed out, but where you setup your modules you'll have to have the following in your modules.conf

### modules-update: start processing /etc/modules.d/alsa

# ALSA portion
#alias char-major-116 snd
alias char-major-116
# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore

##
## IMPORTANT:
## You need to customise this section for your specific sound card(s)
## and then run `update-modules' command.
## Read alsa-driver's INSTALL file in /usr/share/doc for more info.
##
## ALSA portion
alias snd-card-0 snd-cs4236
## alias snd-card-0 snd-interwave
## alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371
## OSS/Free portion
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
## alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
##

# OSS/Free portion - 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
## OSS/Free portion - card #2
## alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss## alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss
alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss
alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss

# Set this to the correct number of cards.
options snd cards_limit=1

options snd-cs4236 index=0 id=CARD_0 port=0x530 cport=0x210 irq=5 dma1=1 dma2=1 mpu_port=0x330 isapnp=0 fm_port=0x388 mpu_irq=9

For that to even work your kernel had to have been compiled with the following options:

Bus options (PCI, PCMCIA, EISA, MCA, ISA) --->
[*] ISA support
[*] EISA support
[*] Generic PCI/EISA bridge
[*] EISA virtual root device
[*] EISA device name database


Device Drivers --->
Sound --->
[M] Sound card support
[M] Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
[M] Sequencer support
[M] OSS Mixer API
[M] OSS PCM (digital audio) API
[*] OSS Sequencer API
Generic devices --->
[M] UART16550 serial MIDI driver
[M] Generic MPU-401 UART driver
ISA devices --->
[M] Generic Cirrus Logic CS4236+ driver

If you think all this is fun then wait until you have to patch your kernel, and download X modules to get all the tap and scroll features for your touchpad.

 

[drag]

alll that is nonsense. I am pretty sure that your giving him very bad advice. I realy doubt that he has to any of that.

First off, alsaconf takes care of the modules configuration stuff. There is absolutely no need to ever have to edit those files to configure a alsa driver. That is taken care of.

Second off, he should already have those drivers installed. I beleive that there is no need to recompile or reconfigure his kernel. Those options are already configured, and drivers for his card are already compiled into the default kernel that was already installed by default when he installed his operating system.

All he has to do is run the stupid alsaconf program. It's all very simple. His problem was that the alsaconf script was located in /usr/sbin/alsaconf which isn't in his default PATH variable for a regular user.

He should run
sudo /usr/sbin/alsaconf

and that should run and configure and setup the modules parameters and everything. No need to edit any configuration files at this point.

IF he doesn't have alsaconf installed then he should use the gui package manager, or apt-get, or dselect, or aptitude, to install all the alsa-tools and related packages.

I don't run Ubuntu, I run Debian, but for the most part it's the same.

I have the snd-cs4236 installed by default with the 2.6 series kernel, that is defualt for Ubuntu.

Don't make things 10 times more difficult they they have to be. He should get his card going very easily.

 

[chazdraves]

Oh, goodness... heh.

Well, the big problem that I am facing is the alsaconf command - I don't got it. Zero, zippo, zilch, notta, ain't no how... I've searched all over the drive prior to this to try and find it and it does not exist.

The first thing I did (after a Linux lesson from an uncle who is a server admin) is disable the sudo command and activate the root account so I could do all these fun little things. One thing I have not yet had to do AT ALL is download packages, and I'll be honest in saying I'm a little lost on the idea...

Now, drag: From what you're saying it seems that basically I need to have a program set those lines of code that NewBlackDak provided to me. I think it's fair to assume that the 2.6 kernel has ISA drivers enabled by default - so there's no need to recompile (thank God!)... It seems to me then that the easiest thing I could do (since you, drag, assume the drivers are already in the kernel) is merely find the file that NewBlackDak is talking about and quick throw in or change those lines of code to match this driver... Either that or I need to procure a copy of alsaconf somehow as I most certainly do not have it at present...

Let me know where to go next and thank you both VERY much for being so willing to help out a complete newb!

Best Wishes,
- Chaz

 

[NewBlackDak]

I think I would know since I own one, and have had debian, redhat, mandrake, and gentoo all installed on it. Not one distro had tools that could even see the card much less set it up automatically.

How many times do I have to say is it an ISA card? Have you ever tried to setup alsa on an ISA card? Alsaconf works on about 3 ISA cards, and they're all ISA-PNP soundblasters.

This module WILL NOT WORK without the module information setup, and there is no way to probe it from the card directly like with PCI hardware. The kernel compile might be generic enough for it work, so I wouldn't worry about that just yet.

 

[Nothinman]

My friend, this is Linux. Very little is easy to the inexperienced. Very little.

Right, because ISA cards just magically work with no problems what so ever in Windows...

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: chazdraves
Oh, goodness... heh.

Well, the big problem that I am facing is the alsaconf command - I don't got it. Zero, zippo, zilch, notta, ain't no how... I've searched all over the drive prior to this to try and find it and it does not exist.

The first thing I did (after a Linux lesson from an uncle who is a server admin) is disable the sudo command and activate the root account so I could do all these fun little things. One thing I have not yet had to do AT ALL is download packages, and I'll be honest in saying I'm a little lost on the idea...

Now, drag: From what you're saying it seems that basically I need to have a program set those lines of code that NewBlackDak provided to me. I think it's fair to assume that the 2.6 kernel has ISA drivers enabled by default - so there's no need to recompile (thank God!)... It seems to me then that the easiest thing I could do (since you, drag, assume the drivers are already in the kernel) is merely find the file that NewBlackDak is talking about and quick throw in or change those lines of code to match this driver... Either that or I need to procure a copy of alsaconf somehow as I most certainly do not have it at present...

Let me know where to go next and thank you both VERY much for being so willing to help out a complete newb!

Best Wishes,
- Chaz

Your right, those f*k-tards that designed Ubuntu decided they didn't need alsaconf and never came up with a suitable replacement, so they just left this out.

This is another reason I like Debian unstable more. (more up to date packages, except x.org, no screwy version of firefox, no jacking around with gnome defaults, etc etc)

Talk to these guys. http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=24877&highlight=alsaconf

They have a solution for you. Always best to check out distro-specific forums for configuration issues if you can.