Re: What kernel module for "Sound Max Digital Audio"?
Kent West wrote:
> >
> >
> > Kent West wrote:
>
> > <snip concerning Kent's inability to get sound out of AC'97/intel810 integrated sound on a Gateway E3400 using ALSA>
>
> Andrea replied:
>
> > You don't say if you added in the /etc/modutils the requested aliases for your sound
> > card, mine where created quite correctly by alsaconf, but i remember well, in the
> > sound card definition the name of my sound card was missing. I attach my alias file
> > as example:
> >
> [...]
> >
> > In the list of your loaded module, i haven't found a snd-mixer entry, try looking in
> > your syslog for some error, and as a last tip, look in /proc/asound to check the
> > card status...
> >
>
> This led me to another clue. There's nothing in /etc/modules.conf like
> this. Nor is there anything like this in /etc/modutils/aliases. However,
> the alsaconf program creates a file /etc/alsa/modutils/0.5 that has this
> sort of info in it. But as far as I can tell, /etc/modules.conf is never
> made aware of this file. I've tried running update-modules and depmod;
> I've also tried modifying /etc/modutils/paths to contain the line
> "/etc/alsa/modutils/0.5" and/or "/etc/alsa/modutils/", but then the
> system complains about a bad line in /etc/modules.conf. I also noticed
> that /etc/modutils/alsa-path was pointing to /lib/modules/'uname
> -r'/alsa, whereas the actual modules are in /lib/modules/'uname
> -r'/misc; I've changed /etc/modutils/alsa-path accordingly.
I wasn't very clear, if you don't use alsaconf you should put (by hand) the correct aliases in /etc/modutils. I think you
used alsaconf, so you should have found in your /etc/modutils a symbolic link called "alsa" that pointed to
/etc/alsa/modutils/0.5; this is correct, when you launch the "update-modules" command, the /etc/modules.conf will be
created merging the various alias files found in /etc/modutils...
About the change you made to the /etc/modutils/alsa-path, i think you don't used the "Debian way" (R) to compile the
alsa-modules. = )
To have a clean (an easy to maintain) installation, install the alsa-source package (in my system is version 0.5.10b-6),
then untar the source you will find in /usr/src (/usr/src/alsa-driver.tar.gz) in wherever dir you choose (in your home,
in /usr/local/src, wherever) and export with the environment variable MODULE_LOC the directory you choose (i put mine in
/usr/local/src/modules/ so i use "export MODULE_LOC=/usr/local/src/modules").
Next cd into your kernel source tree, and issue the command "make-kpkg modules_image" (the real command i use is a little
different i.e. something like this "fakeroot make-kpkg --revision=custom.1.0 modules_image", you will find all the
details in the doc of "kernel-package" and "alsa-source")
At the end you should have a shiny new alsa modules package for your card ready to be installed.
> Maybe part of the problem is that dselect doesn't know about alsa
> modules for a 2.4.2 kernel, only for 2.2.17 and 2.2.18, so I've
> downloaded and compiled the modules and libs from the alsa site.
I'm using 2.4.2 with alsa, so the problem lies probably with the configuration...
> /Rant
> At any rate, I'm getting really frustrated, and am about to give up on
> getting sound to work on my new computer with Debian. I'm not giving up
> on Debian by any means, but it is making me feel less gung-ho to
> recommend it to newbies like I've been doing. :-( Configuring hardware
> is still just way too hard for even someone who's technically literate.
> Petrely is right; we need standards (without the straight-jacket that
> could conceivably bring with it). At the least, we need good
> documentation, and that's hard to come by with the extreme complexity
> and variability of Linux systems.
> /End of Rant
Don't give up, i think you are very close to getting sound working, and continue to recommend to newbies, but give advice
to carefully choose the hardware... =)
Andrea
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