Date: Sat, 21 May 2016 14:39:42
From: Martin McCormick <martin.m@suddenlink.net>
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Subject: Re: OSS Versus ALSA Modules
Resent-Date: Sat, 21 May 2016 18:40:01 +0000 (UTC)
Resent-From: debian-user@lists.debian.org
cbannister@slingshot.co.nz writes:
On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 07:55:54AM -0500, Martin McCormick wrote:
I had a thread going on this list with the subject of
"Plug and Pray; my Life with Linux Sound." Thanks to several good
answers, I am on the right track to fixing a problem but there
is, of course, one more question.
The subject line gave me the impression is was a rant/'blog post' style
thread rather than a problem, or something you were seeking help on.
I am sorry. It was a weak attempt at humor tinged with total
frustration.
One has a pile of stuff in front of him or her that should
be good an do great things but one hooks it all together, does
reasonable things to make it work and it not only doesn't, but
there are no log tracks or anything to give a clue why the card
just vanishes after showing up as if it was going to work. One
would hope that the kernel would squawk when two sound cards
tried to occupy the same IRQ or the system couldn't find a driver
for this or that card but what often happens is that there is a
silent lapse somewhere and absolutely nothing happens no matter
what one tries.
The second sound card was going to be a SoundBlaster
sbawe64 Gold I bought several years ago which loads all its
modules in to the kernel but in wheezy, just disappears even
with udev rules as card 1. If you swap cards 0 and 1 in the udev
rules, the SB becomes Card 0 but the CS4236 then does it's own
disappearing act. There is obviously contention of some kind
because never once have both cards listed out at the same time on
that system running wheezy. The SBAWE64 Gold is new enough that
it has no jumpers to change but somehow, either it or the CS4236
poison the well for other sound cards except USB cards. I think I
will put a usb card in and stick the SB back in a box. It works.
I can't stand getting rid of it.
The good news was that a slightly different Dell system I
was having the same battle with is now working fine thanks to a
suggestion from this list. I had also tried that same SBAWE64
Gold on it, gave up and put a usb card on as Card 1 and it is
working like a champ.
Again, thanks to all for all the help.
Martin