Help with Debian UNSTABLE and ALSA

[Panther505]

Yea GODS.... Debian and I have fought through 4 installs in the last 4 or 5 days. I am getting ready to replace me RH9 workstation with Deb (cause now that I got my RHCE it is time to move on) and I know that it will have a great many issues least of which is an onboard LSI controller that is not supported in Woody.

So in preparation I have been installing on a "play" box and I have gotten really good at FARKING it up. After 4 installs I can convert and Install the ATI driver and get most stuff working execpt ALSA. The last install the system would drop off pounding the hdd when trying to extract then install the alsa drivers.

Anyone got a good FAQ for ALSA on Debian?

HW is ac97 (Intel ICH4 onboard -ADI Chipset) and I know that it works under RH & Gentoo but under Deb unstable if I apt-get the following

alsa-base
alsa-utils

I get asked the debconfig questions and then nothing. I can modprobe the kernel mods (I think that they are OSS still though) but when I run the /etc/init.d/alsa start command I get and error about ALSA modules.

This was with the 2.4.20 kernel so I am reinstalling to go back to the 2.4.18-bs2.4 kernel (stock stable) and see what I get. (Please don't ask why I just don't boot to it.. "apt-get -u dist-upgrade" can do really bad things)

Thanks.

Panther

 

[cleverhandle]

ALSA is always a pain. It doesn't sound like you have the alsa modules installed - base and utils are the programs that use the drivers, but not the drivers themselves. Check out the "alsa-modules" packages. There are precompiled ones for various architectures as well as source that can be compiled with make-kpkg.

 

[Panther505]

looked for precompiled

apt-get install alsa-modules-2.4.20 "should" have gotten the modules but apt-get spits back nope

Looked in dselect too. The only thing that I can think is that they have not built them for the 2.4.20 kernel yet but then I still cannot explain the sudden system idoicy that occured (hdd spasm and system hang).

Just finishing the base system install now. I will let you know if there is any progress in a bit.

 

[cleverhandle]

They do exist for 2.4.20, in Sarge at least. You're probably not finding them with apt-get because of the architecture labels tacked onto the end. Try searching dselect using "/alsa-modules" and "\".

 

[Panther505]

Sarge- testing?

currently have 4.3, KDE 3.1.2 and 2.4.18-bf2.4 installed. I am looking at going to the 2.4.20 kernel and try to get alsa up and running

Then a reinstall to try it again.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Get the 2.4.20 vanilla source, untar, cp /boot/config-2.4.18-bf2.4 .config, make oldconfig (enable alsa here), make menuconfig (fiddle with things to taste), then build and install it like normal.

 

[Panther505]

BBWF- why the make oldconfig and then the make menu config? Wouldn't just a make menuconfig be just as easy? Also you say build and install like normal. What is normal with Debian?

Normally I do
make menuconfig --> fiddle to taste
make dep && make config clean bzImage modules modules_install
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-flavor-O-kernel
mkinitrd vmlinuz-flavor-O-kernel.img 2.4.xx.xx

then I expect to have to edit lilo and run lilo -v

I understand that Deb has a "kernel building" script? any pointers on that?

Thanks for your help

Signed a Confused Debian Newbie (who isn't lost anymore just can't produce a reproducable installation) whose every install is unique

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: Panther505
BBWF- why the make oldconfig and then the make menu config?

make oldconfig to sort out the different options added to .20, then make menuconfig to edit the configuration like normal.

Also you say build and install like normal. What is normal with Debian?

That's exactly what I mean -- normal, *not* the debian way. Forget you are on debian altogether, it really makes no difference as far as installing a kernel.

Normally I do
make menuconfig --> fiddle to taste
make dep && make config clean bzImage modules modules_install
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-flavor-O-kernel
mkinitrd vmlinuz-flavor-O-kernel.img 2.4.xx.xx

Exactly. Minus the initrd stuff which I never use.

 

[sciencewhiz]

You can either do it the debian way (make-kpkg) or the way you are used to. You can also use a kernel image package and add modules packages (or compile your own) for what you need.

try creating custom kernels with Debian's kernel-package system for instructions with make-kpkg. It is very much like what you are used to, just creates a .deb that you can install.

What I do, because I am lazy is just use the kernel-image-2.4-686 package, and add modules packages for the different modules I'd like that aren't in the default kernel. Currently, I also install linux-wlan-ng-modules-2.4.20-3-686 and kernel-pcmcia-modules-2.4.20-3-686.

The problem with this is you can only upgrade your kernel as quickly as the modules packages are updated. If this bothers you (it doesn't bother me since I'm lazy and would rather have the package maintainers do the work) you can still use the kernel image and compile your own modules. get the source package for the kernel, and the modules you want, then go into /usr/src/linux and run "make-kpkg modules-image" and you will get .deb s for the module source packages you installed.

Hope this makes sense

 

[Ahmose]

Check it this link
Alsa Debian Help
You might find it usefull