menuconfig options(VT8235,AC'97 sound,Zip Drive,etc...)

[s003apr]

A few questions regarding my menuconfig setup in order of importance to me:

1) Audio support: I have an MSI KT3 Ultra2 Mobo which uses the newer VIA VT8235 chipset. First off: does anybody know if this will work with ALSA? Secondly what is the best way to configure the kernel? Do I have audio support set as a module or built in? and should I just enable audio support and not select any of the individual cards or codecs? If anybody has already done this successfully, your advice would be appreciated.

2) I have a parallel port zip drive and I've enabled the SCSI support for it, but further down the list I'm given two options for zip drives, the "old" parallel port zip drive and the "new" parallel port zip drive. Does anybody know how to determine which you have?

3) The install manual says to set the kernel to "Use DMA" when it is referring to the 'filesystems' setup. I can't find this in the 'filesystems' section. In fact, I can't find "use DMA" in any menu. Is this referring to "enable DMA for disk only" under the ide device section?

4) Under "input core support" the option for keyboard support is disable by default. Clearly, this does not mean that my keyboard won't work, so what exactly does it do and should I enable joystick support if I ever want to use a joystick?

5) My mobo also supports USB 2.0. I know this is relatively new and I'm not sure about how stable it is. Currently i don't have any USB 2.0 devices so it's not necessary. Has anybody enabled this that can comment on the stability of it?

[AlterEgo]

Same mobo

1) yes. snd-alsa233 works fine. I just can't get midi to work.

2) compile them both as modules and use trail and error

3) You need a kernel patch, that will enable the VIA IDE driver to recognize your southbridge: http://lwn.net/Articles/8035/?format=printable

4) keyboard support means USB keyboard support IIRC. Joystick: don't know.

5) USB 2 is recognized automatically (I guess by USB-UHCI).
I'm using the USB 2 ports for USB 1.1 devices with zero trouble.

6) It's a great mobo; enjoy it

[s003apr]

[AlterEgo]

1) In the kernel, just specify: sound card support as a module. That's all.
Then emerge and configure alsa (according to the desktop configuration guide)

3) download patch

it's the same patch but in a more familiar form
Put it in /usr/src/linux, cd /usr/src/linux and type patch -p1 < 8235.patch

Then choose the VIA IDE driver in your kernel config.
The "use DMA" option will NOT work, so leave it alone. DMA will be enabled by default when the chipset is identified correctly.

Good luck: if you feel unsure, just make sure you still have your old kernel present and available in your lilo or grub-config

[s003apr]

Thanks for the help! One last thing, please look this over for me :

So if I'm going through the install guide and I am ready to install the kernel is this what I do?

# emerge sys-kernel/gentoo-sources

(at this point i do the patch?)
(put patch in /usr/src/linux)
# cd /usr/src/linux
# patch -p1 < 8235.patch

(and now continue with normal install?)
# make menuconfig
# make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install
# mv /boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage.orig
[if bzImage already exists]
# cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot

[AlterEgo]

I used 2.4.19 (vanilla), but that won't make any difference.

You got it right all the way.

if that patch fails, it will give you an error message instantly.


Good luck. Make sure you can also boot bzImage.orig (just in case)

[s003apr]

Thanks for your help AlterEgo (that's why I chose this distro, lots of good people like yourself, always willing to lend a hand)

Here's the output from the patch:
#patch -p1 < 8235.patch
patching file drivers/ide/via82cxxx.c
patching file /include/linux/pci_ids.h
Hunk #1 succeeded at 978 (offset -3 lines)

So I guess it worked

I'm still a little confused on which DMA options to enable.
I decided to go with the vanilla kernel, like you.
Of the following which do you have enabled/module/disabled?:
-Support for via82cxxx chipsets
-Generic PCI Bus Master Support
-Use PCI DMA by default when available
-Enable DMA only for disks

(I know that you said to disable DMA but I wasn't sure If that you meant that for all of the above or just some of them, I know very little about this technology.)

If possible, maybe you could even send me a copy of your menuconfig setup file just for reference.
If so, my email is renner.2@wright.edu

Thanks for any help you can give me

[AlterEgo]

Here's my .config


I use:
-Support for via82cxxx chipsets
-Generic PCI Bus Master Support
-Use PCI DMA by default when available

(and IDE-SCSI for my CDR.)

You can easily test your disk settings afterwards with hdparm -tT
There's plenty of comparision material in this forum.

[biroed]

The patch also seems to work with the msi k7t266 with the via vt8233 chipset.
The strange thing is that i could use dma without applying the patch.
hdparm gives

[s003apr]

Thanks for the help guys!! I got DMA working great!