pcsnd driver and Pentium
Hi everyone,
I am trying the pcsnd driver patch (from
ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/people/dwmw2/pcsp/) on my Pentium 100MHz
laptop. It is supposed to provide some basic sound through the PC speaker
for those that think that their box is too old to deserve a sound card...
(Running potato on 2.2.17 kernel here)
Now, it doesn't work... Ok, I patched my 2.2.17 kernel source tree and
built the driver as a module; I compiled also vplay in the pcsnd-kit that
is at the same ftp site. The module loads ok and 'vplay' does indeed
produce noise through the speaker... However playing the included
enterprise.raw that is supposed to produce some StarTrek tune I get a
FAX-like noise (you know, that sort of high-pitch rattling noise that you
hear when you pick up the handset and discover it was a FAX...)
A web search revealed that reading IDE devices interferes with the driver
slowing it down, so I tried to play the tune while 'find / -name whatever'
was running: it sounds a bit better but still far from giving the right
frequencies!
Ok, so does anyone have any experience out there?
I had a look at the code and there are comments about the need of a
time-delay loop when Pentiums will become common... (toghether with
warnings that a 386SX may not be fast enough: as you guess the original
code is rather old!) So do I need such a delay loop? On the other hand it
is a mantained patch and I assume that people out there are using it on
new machines...
Of course it may just be a crap speaker...
So, some success/unsuccess reports on machines equal or faster than mine
would be much appreciated. Even better, if you have any idea on how this
works and can diagnose my problem and/or have fixes to suggest...
(Also, has anyone tried to build and use the mono or stereo DAC on
parallel port that the driver is supposed to support?)
matteo
PS I read debian-user only in digest format, so please Cc replies to me if
you are answering on that list only.
---------------
Matteo Semplice
Wadham College
Oxford OX1 3PN
U.K.
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