Linux sound config help

[Mong0]

If there are any Linux gurus on here I could really use some help.
I just installed Lycoris(Redmond) Linux and everything is fine except for the sound. I have none.
For some reason it is picking up my on board audio controller instead of the SB Live 5.1 I have installed.
Even though I have the on board audio disabled and Plug and Play OS turned off.
I could really use some help.
Also if you are going to answer please make the commands newbie friendly.

Thanks

 

[n0cmonkey]

Make sure the module for the onboard sound is not loading. Then load the module for the sb live (Thats as newbie-friendly as I want to get).

 

[Mong0]

Well seeing as I have no clue on whether or not the module for the on board audio controller is loading or not and where to load the SB live
module to this doesn't help me out a whole hell of alot.

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< Well seeing as I have no clue on whether or not the module for the on board audio controller is loading or not and where to load the SB live
module to this doesn't help me out a whole hell of alot. >>



It would be tough to read some docs too huh?

STart here. Let me know when you are ready for the second lesson.

 

[Mong0]

Well after looking into /proc/modules i see that

ac97_codec is loading with [emu10k1]
and emu10k1 is [unused]

so if I can figure out how to unload the ac97 and get the emu10k1 to load it should work.

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< Well after looking into /proc/modules i see that

ac97_codec is loading with [emu10k1]
and emu10k1 is [unused]

so if I can figure out how to unload the ac97 and get the emu10k1 to load it should work. >>



/etc/modules.conf

modprobe emu10k1 should load the proper module, but I dont know how to unload the improper module.

 

[Mong0]

Thanks for your help n0cmonkey I think I will turn in for tonight and work some more on this tomorrow. Do I just type modprobe emu10k1 on the commandline or
add that to the modules.conf?

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< Thanks for your help n0cmonkey I think I will turn in for tonight and work some more on this tomorrow. Do I just type modprobe emu10k1 on the commandline or
add that to the modules.conf? >>



I would add emu10k1 to the modules.conf (it wont be modprobe emu10k1, but you should get the syntax when you look at the file) and remove the wrong module.

 

[thornc]

Ok,

follow-up...

check the /etc/modules.conf file to see if there is a line
with the ac97 module. If there is try changing the "ac97"
with emu10k1.

 

[EmperorRob]

I use an SBLive5.1 in my Red Hat machine and I left Plug-And-Play on and it picked up fine. My machine is an AMD-Thunderbird.

Did you turn PandPlay off b/c you had problems?

 

[manly]

PnP is irrelevant.

I also have onboard audio (VIA Apollo Pro 133A AC97 audio), with an add-on SB Live! 5.1. Onboard audio is disabled, and neither Windows nor Linux will detect it.

Btw, with the kernel SB Live! drivers loaded, lsmod shows:

emu10k1 52448 0
sound 52140 0 [emu10k1]
ac97_codec 9312 0 [emu10k1]
soundcore 3268 7 (autoclean) [emu10k1 sound]

So unless you're saying for a fact the onboard audio Line Out is emitting a signal, and the SB Live! Line Out is not, the modules you mentioned look correct.

If you want, you can try the command "rmmod ac97_codec" but I don't think it'll achieve what you want.

I used to use ALSA's SB Live! driver, but it suffers from slight static during MP3 playback. From everything I've read, the SB Live series is a POS, and these cards are basically flooding the PCI bus. I'm not a hardware engineer, so I'll leave my weak analysis at that.

The kernel drivers are developed by Creative themselves, and are cleaner than ALSA's stable SB Live driver (I haven't tried ALSA's beta series yet).

 

[Mong0]

Unfortuneately manly I must have a wierd board. Because I have the on board audio disabled in the bios, and right now I am listening to sevendust
through XMMS through the on board sound .

my modules look kinda like this though

emu10k1 55696 0 (unused)
ac97_codec 9072 0 [emu10k1]
sound 55008 0 [emu10k1]
soundcore 3888 11 [emu10k1 audio cmpci sound]

I turned off PNP in the bios to force the os to see the audio onboard is disabled.

and my modules.conf has no sound in it.

 

[manly]

Ahh, Linux may have loaded two audio drivers.

To do a basic (noisy) sound test, try this:

cat /boot/vmlinuz > /dev/dsp0

and

cat /boot/vmlinuz > /dev/dsp1

I suspect the first command will send noise through your onboard sound. If Linux loaded up both sound drivers, then the second command might send noise through the SB Live output.

It's worth a shot.

Finally, I'm not a kernel modules expert, but put this line in /etc/modules.conf and reboot:

alias cmpci off

Like I said, I'm not a modules expert, but these are a couple things worth trying out.

 

[Mong0]

manly you are DA MAN it worked except my onbaord audio was on /dev/dsp no 0 after that worked I put the line you told me in
modules.conf and rebooted, now I am listening to sevendust on my 5.1 system. w00t.

 

[manly]

Mong0,

On my system /dev/dsp is a symlink to /dev/dsp0

I speculated that if you have multiple audio drivers loaded, then the dsp devices are sequentially numbered after that.

Anyway, glad to hear that got straightened out. It seems that your mobo doesn't fully disable onboard sound.