How do I find my onboard soundcard? Help with ALSA!

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cmack · Post by **cmack** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 9:12 pm

Ok, I have a Compaq Presario 5270 running 2.4.20-gentoo-r6 kernel'd Gentoo 1.4. My motherboard has an onboard soundcard which I do not know how to recognize or how to set up with ALSA. Any help/walkthrough would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot,
Cam

cmack · Post by **cmack** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 10:47 pm

cat /proc/pci gives me this output:

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bash-2.05b# cat /proc/pci
PCI devices found:
  Bus  0, device   0, function  0:
    Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 2).
      Master Capable.  Latency=64.  
      Prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0x44000000 [0x47ffffff].
  Bus  0, device   1, function  0:
    PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 2).
      Master Capable.  Latency=64.  Min Gnt=140.
  Bus  0, device   3, function  0:
    Ethernet controller: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815 (MacPhyter) 
Ethernet Controller (rev 0).
      IRQ 11.
      Master Capable.  Latency=66.  Min Gnt=11.Max Lat=52.
      I/O at 0x2000 [0x20ff].
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0x41100000 [0x41100fff].
  Bus  0, device   4, function  0:
    Multimedia controller: Lucent Microelectronics V90 WildWire Modem (rev 1).
      IRQ 11.
      Master Capable.  Latency=66.  Min Gnt=252.Max Lat=14.
      I/O at 0x2cc0 [0x2cc7].
      I/O at 0x2400 [0x24ff].
      I/O at 0x2cc8 [0x2ccf].
      I/O at 0x2cd0 [0x2cd7].
      I/O at 0x2800 [0x28ff].
      I/O at 0x2ca0 [0x2caf].
  Bus  0, device   5, function  0:
    Ethernet controller: Digital Equipment Corporation DECchip 21142/43 (rev 65)
.
      IRQ 11.
      Master Capable.  Latency=66.  Min Gnt=20.Max Lat=40.
      I/O at 0x2c00 [0x2c7f].
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0x41200000 [0x412003ff].
  Bus  0, device  20, function  0:
    ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 2).
  Bus  0, device  20, function  1:
    IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 1).
      Master Capable.  Latency=64.  
      I/O at 0x2cb0 [0x2cbf].
  Bus  0, device  20, function  2:
    USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 1).
      IRQ 11.
      Master Capable.  Latency=64.  
      I/O at 0x2c80 [0x2c9f].
  Bus  0, device  20, function  3:
    Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 2).
      IRQ 9.
  Bus  1, device   0, function  0:
    VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage LT Pro AGP-133 (rev 
220).
      IRQ 11.
      Master Capable.  Latency=66.  Min Gnt=8.
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0x40000000 [0x40ffffff].
      I/O at 0x1000 [0x10ff].
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0x41000000 [0x41000fff].

If anyone can help me now, tell which ALSA module I need to get, that would be great.

Thanks a lot,
Cam

taskara · Post by **taskara** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 12:23 am

well according to your post, you have no sound card installed..

can u try

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grep audio /proc/pci

and post the output

then whatever it says, you go here and click on it - that will tell u what driver to use

cmack · Post by **cmack** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 12:51 am

grep audio /proc/pci gives no output. I know I have a soundcard installed though, because with Windows I was able to use my speakers and my microphone.

Thanks for the reply,
Cam

lbrtuk · Post by **lbrtuk** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 1:52 am

Looks like quite an 'old*' laptop.

It is quite possible that the sound 'card' is using the isa bus. You'd be surprised how many did, even not so long ago.

* - i wouldn't consider it very old, some would.

cmack · Post by **cmack** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 2:50 am

It's actually a desktop, it was new about 3-4 years ago. If my soundcard is using the ISA bus, am I shit out of luck? Thanks for the replies,
Cam

PS - would it help if I got a pic of my computers back panel? (I don't think so but I didn't know my soundcard might be using an ISA bus so there you go...)

J0rus · Post by **J0rus** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 3:07 am

According to HP/Compaq, your PC uses the ESS 1869/1887/1888 chipset for sound (ALSA module snd-es18xx). It is using the ISA Bus, so you need to

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emerge isapnptools

Search the forums for further help on forcing ISA PNP hardware to particular i/o, irq. and dma settings.
Also check out http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml
and
your alsa sound card info

~J0rus

taskara · Post by **taskara** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 5:00 am

oh yes and btw u need ISA support in your kernel and isa pnplay support too prob

cmack · Post by **cmack** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 5:45 am

perfect - thank you very much for all of your help: I will now set about:
1. Emerging isapnptools
2. Building ISA and pnplay support into my kernel
3. Acquiring snd-es18xx ALSA module

Is that all?

Thank you very much for the help - hopefully I'll have some sound coming out of here in less than a week!

Cam

taskara · Post by **taskara** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 6:00 am

yeah just add the following to your make.conf:

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#ALSA_CARDS=
ALSA_CARDS="es18xx"

then

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emerge alsa

and follow the alsa doc.

good luck

lbrtuk · Post by **lbrtuk** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 1:01 pm

Oh dear.

For some reason recently I've been assuming things are laptops even when they clearly are not. There's something wrong with my brain.

taskara · Post by **taskara** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 9:55 pm

lbrtuk wrote:Oh dear.

For some reason recently I've been assuming things are laptops even when they clearly are not. There's something wrong with my brain.

LOL!

it's ok... we still love you

cmack · Post by **cmack** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 5:47 am

I've done everything according to instructions and I get

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bash-2.05b# /etc/init.d/alsasound start
 * Initialising ALSA....
 * Starting sound driver: snd-es18xx /lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r6/kernel/sound/
isa/snd-es18xx.o: init_module: No such device
Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
      You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
/lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r6/kernel/sound/isa/snd-es18xx.o: insmod /lib/modules
/2.4.20-gentoo-r6/kernel/sound/isa/snd-es18xx.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r6/kernel/sound/isa/snd-es18xx.o: insmod snd-es18xx failed                                                                     [ ok ]

I understand this means I need to force certain parameters on my ISA bus, but after a brief search on the forums I don't see any reference to that. What exactly needs to be done?

Thanx,
Cam

taskara · Post by **taskara** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 12:33 pm

hm Ihaven't done much with ISA for a long long time (and for this very reason!)

did u load the correct thihngs directly into your kernel? and did u mount boot THEN copy the bzImage over?

I prob can't help u with more than that.

does

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dmesg |grep isa

reveal anything?

cmack · Post by **cmack** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 3:19 pm

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 dmesg |grep isa

Doesn't reveal anything. I did load the correct things into my kernel, but I didn't mount boot or compy the bzImage over: I just followed the directions on the gentoo-linux alsa guide, which didn't require me to do any more than make modules modules_install - no bzImage required for what I added to the kernel (all modules, I'm pretty sure).

Thanx,
Cam

taskara · Post by **taskara** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 9:01 pm

ahh ok.. well the way it is at the moment, the kernel you are using prob doesn't have isa and isa pnp support.

u mention you turned these things on in your kernel.

now u need to make the new kernel, mount boot, and copy the new bzImage (kernel) there, and reboot.

then you will be using the new kernel that has isa supprt etc, and then re-emerge alsa and hopefully it should work.

make sense?

cmack · Post by **cmack** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 1:32 am

Well, I double posted for some reason, and seeing as I don't know how to DELETE POST, this'll have to suffice.

DELETED POST
DELETED POST
DELETED POST

(if any mod wants to take this out completely I'd be glad)
Cam

cmack · Post by **cmack** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 1:33 am

It makes sense, but when I went to go add isa and isa plug and play support, I noticed that they were both already selected, which would lead me to believe they are already built into my existing kernel.

I also noticed that J0rus was saying something about

Search the forums for further help on forcing ISA PNP hardware to particular i/o, irq, and dma settings.

I think this is what must be done.

Thanks for the replies, hopefully I'll get this sorted out soon!
Cam

cmack · Post by **cmack** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 3:37 am

...I found this information:

The module options for snd-es18xx

# description: "ESS ES18xx AudioDrive"
# author: "Christian Fischbach , Abramo Bagnara "
# license: "GPL"
# parm: index int array (min = 1, max = 8 ), description "Index value for ES18xx soundcard."
# parm: id string array (min = 1, max = 8 ), description "ID string for ES18xx soundcard."
# parm: enable int array (min = 1, max = 8 ), description "Enable ES18xx soundcard."
# parm: isapnp int array (min = 1, max = 8 ), description "ISA PnP detection for specified soundcard."
# parm: port long array (min = 1, max = 8 ), description "Port # for ES18xx driver."
# parm: mpu_port long array (min = 1, max = 8 ), description "MPU-401 port # for ES18xx driver."
# parm: fm_port long array (min = 1, max = 8 ), description "FM port # for ES18xx driver."
# parm: irq int array (min = 1, max = 8 ), description "IRQ # for ES18xx driver."
# parm: dma1 int array (min = 1, max = 8 ), description "DMA 1 # for ES18xx driver."
# parm: dma2 int array (min = 1, max = 8 ), description "DMA 2 # for ES18xx driver."

Now, is it possible for me to manually change these options? If so how? And what to?

Thanx,
Cam

taskara · Post by **taskara** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 6:19 am

getting out of my league here.

if it was me I'd go buy a $15 es1371 pci sound card

umm when u say they were already selected in the kernel, were they MODULES or directly built in?

cmack · Post by **cmack** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 6:23 am

that $15 sound card is looking like a mighty fine option!

At least one of them was a module I think, but the other may have been built in.
Cam

taskara · Post by **taskara** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 6:30 am

hmmm... well my guess is u need them all built in directly, unless u can load the module (if u know what it is)

u could try searching some more on isa pnp or re-build ur kernel with all those things we mentioned DEFINATELY built in.. and try again..

or buy a $15 es1371 card.. farout.. how much are sblive! these days ? $30?

cmack · Post by **cmack** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 3:25 am

ok, a friend of mine is going to give/lend me a "possibly-functioning" Audigy 1 he took out of his "old computer" (yeah, I know...). If I simply emerge the new alsa driver, it should get rid of, or at least deactivate, the old one, correct?

Thanks,
Cam

taskara · Post by **taskara** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 3:57 am

linux will detect it anyway, but won't work until you have a driver.

u can use

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cat /proc/pci

to see it

if it is audigy you use emu10k1 alsa driver I think (same as sblive! series)

cmack · Post by **cmack** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 6:07 am

sorry, I think you misinterpreted me - I understand what you said, but I'm just wondering if the other driver I emerged (see above) will be deleted or at least turned off if I emerge a new one. I mean, if I simple emerge the new driver, will there be a conflict? Will I need to manually deactivate the old driver?

Thanks,
Cam

How do I find my onboard soundcard? Help with ALSA!

How do I find my onboard soundcard? Help with ALSA!

ok....

Ok, on the alsa site for my card...