Re: Debian Linux 7 and Realtek soundcards
On Sun, 11 May 2014 14:53:06 +0800 (WST)
Bret Busby <bret@busby.net> wrote:
>
> I am therefore wondering whether, somewhere, packages exist (.deb
> packages, that make installation relatively easy for those of us not
> skilled "in the black arts"), for the hardware drivers that may be on
> the firmware ISO's.
Firmware is not the same as driver. Firmware is code that needs the be
present in the hardware device itself. Sometimes this firmware is build
to the device and sometimes the driver needs to load the firmware into
the device each time.
The driver on the other is part of the kernel.
So, the fact that sound doesn't work can be because of a missing driver
instead of missing firmware. If this is new hardware, there is a chance
that the kernel in the stable release doesn't have a driver for your
soundcard.
You can try to upgrade your kernel to a more recent versions from
backports (see backports.debian.org).
If it still doesn't work, check
$ lsusb | grep -i audio
to get more details on what sound card is installed. Then you can do a
targeted search for that card.
>
> I do not know whether the firmware ISO's allow a user to choose which
> desktop environment is installed,
You don't need the sound during the installation, so there is no need
to use the firmware iso just for that. If it was your network card that
wasn't working, it's another matter, as it's hard to do a netinstall
without net :), which is why there is a netinstall iso with firmware.
> and the procedure that I found, for
> dealing with the .tar.bz files from the Realtek web site, seem too
> complicated.
>
That's almost never needed. In Linux, the drivers are integrated in the
kernel. You can never just install a binary driver from a separate site
like you do on windows. If there is a separate driver, it will be a
source patch which has to be recompiled specifically for the kernel you
are running.
So, in short, just try if a more recent kernel fixes it first.
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