sound: loading of sound driver fails after reboot from Windows

[Ben Kal <benkal@euronet.nl>]

Hi folks,

Do some of you know more about the following inconvenience I have
with sound on my Linux machine:
  sound works fine if I boot directly into Linux after power-on,
               and if I reboot from Linux back into Linux;
  sound does not work at all after rebooting into Linux from Windows.
In Windows sound works under all circumstances.
(Please don't tell me not to use Windows. I don't, but my children do).

I have found that the immediate cause of the problem is that Linux
is unable to load the driver for the sound card if Windows has been
in use since the last power-on. Knowing this does not help much:
attempts to load the driver with modprobe or insmod simply fail.

This exact phenomenon is not described in the documentation about sound
on my machine, nor could I find a problem story like this on the web.

What I would like to know is:
- can something be done about this, in Windows and/or Linux,
  or is it an inconvenience one has to live with?
- who is to blame, Windows for leaving the sound card in a messy state
  or Linux for not being able to deal with the state of the card?

I already know that:
- one has to disable 'Plug and Play' in the BIOS;
  it IS disabled
- one has to make sure that iomem, ioports and IRQ settings for the
  sound chip have to be the same in Windows and Linux;
  they ARE the same, as follows:
    iomem : FEDF8000-FEDFFFFF
    ioport: FCC0-FCFF
    ioport: FC8C-FC8F
    IRQ   : 9


Some other specifics of my machine:
  make and model: Sony VAIO PCG-F807K (it is a laptop)
  kernel        : Linux 2.4.20
  Debian release: basically woody, but a lot of things upgraded to 'unstable'
  sound chip    : YMF-744B                        | (especially X and GNOME)
  sound driver  : ymfpci.o, dependent upon: ac97_codec.o


The most revealing (error) messages are the following ones,
written to /var/log/syslog during a 'reboot-from-Windows':

from the 'hotplug' phase of booting:

  /etc/hotplug/pci.agent: pcimodules is scanning more than 00:00.0 ...
  insmod: Using /lib/modules/2.4.20-hetkukel-1/kernel/drivers/sound/soundcore.o
  insmod: Symbol version prefix ''
  insmod: Using /lib/modules/2.4.20-hetkukel-1/kernel/drivers/sound/ac97_codec.o
  insmod: Using /lib/modules/2.4.20-hetkukel-1/kernel/drivers/sound/ymfpci.o
  insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.20-hetkukel-1/kernel/drivers/sound/ymfpci.o: init_module: No such device
  insmod: 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
  insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.20-hetkukel-1/kernel/drivers/sound/ymfpci.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.20-hetkukel-1/kernel/drivers/sound/ymfpci.o failed
  insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.20-hetkukel-1/kernel/drivers/sound/ymfpci.o: insmod ymfpci failed
  /etc/hotplug/pci.agent: ... can't load module ymfpci
  /etc/hotplug/pci.agent: missing kernel or user mode driver ymfpci 

later on, when initializing PCI bus devices (device 00:09.0 is the sound card):

  kernel: PCI: Enabling device 00:09.0 (0000 -> 0003)
  kernel: PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 00:09.0
  kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:09.0 to 64
  kernel: ymfpci: YMF744 at 0xfedf8000 IRQ 9
  kernel: ymfpci_codec_ready: codec 0 is not ready [0xffff]


Other sound-related error messages in various places look to me as
merely being the consequence of the ac97_codec and ymfpci modules
not being loaded.


Any information on similar experiences or hints for further investigation
will be appreciated.

Regards,
Ben Kal

-- 

B.F.M. Kal
Anjelierstraat 1,   2014 TC Haarlem,  Netherlands
tel +31 23 5324909, benkal@euronet.nl