ALSA - Soundblaster 16-bit PCI

[IcEbLAze]

Ok before I write anything - I must let you know that I've been googling, checking ALSA.org's website, the post here that ck3k had, linuxquestions.org, all night and I've come up with either nothing or "close, but no cigar".

Here it goes:

I run Soundblaster 16-bit PCI and just installed slackware 9.1. this new ALSA stuff is confusing the heck outta me. any1 with some HELPFUL walkthrough's (I'm sick of reading all the history/'why I need to understand this' I've been doing it all night~) or links on how to install this fast and 'cholesterol free' with SB-16 PCI please, please, send me em!

(This is starting to give me a headache. when I finally got to the point of vi'ing my modules.conf I got some wrong information and ended up not being able to load my dsl afterwards...)

Thanks much for reading-
IcEbLAze

P.S- I'm not even sure if i did had the 'right info' when configuring my modules in a earlier install attempt if it would've worked. Please don't assume thats all I need- thanks again.

[ck3k]

I use alsa on my gentoo boxen, I used the guide that gentoo provided me for the install of alsa and drivers. I like too have sound on my boxes, but on my slackware on I use the typical OSS sound. The sound card you have is really common...soundblaster is one of the better known cards. I am saying to not stress over alsa, yes it is cool, and somewhat interesting, but if you can use OSS it will sound all the same. I scanned over the alsa site, it says that your card is compatable with the use of the sb16 driver. http://alsa.opensrc.org/ provides some excellent infomation on the topic, or you could RTFM at http://www.alsa-project.org/documentation.php3

yes alsa will be the default in the 2.6 kernel but I wouldn't lose sleep over not using it.

[skroo]

P.S- I'm not even sure if i did had the 'right info' when configuring my modules in a earlier install attempt if it would've worked. Please don't assume thats all I need- thanks again.

Just out of curiosity, what does dmesg show as relates to the card? Or a `cat /dev/sndstat' or lsmod? I think this might just be a configuration issue, but I'm not sure *where*.

Also, I'm guessing you already read this: http://www.djcj.org/LAU/guide/Sound-HOWTO.html - section 4 is probably the most relevant to what you're seeing. I feel your pain on the frustration with ALSA, though. It's shotgun approach to clear documentation has kept me using OSS for longer than I'd like.

[IcEbLAze]

Just out of curiosity, what does dmesg show as relates to the card? Or a `cat /dev/sndstat' or lsmod? I think this might just be a configuration issue, but I'm not sure *where*.

Here you go:

root@darkstar:~# cat /dev/sndstat
cat: /dev/sndstat: No such device

root@darkstar:~# lsmod
Module Size Used by Not tainted
snd-seq-midi 3552 0 (autoclean) (unused)
snd-seq-midi-event 3264 0 (autoclean) [snd-seq-midi]
snd-seq 33584 0 (autoclean) [snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event]
ppp_synctty 6016 0 (unused)
ppp_async 7552 1
ppp_generic 15452 3 [ppp_synctty ppp_async]
slhc 5040 0 [ppp_generic]
snd-pcm-oss 37252 0
snd-mixer-oss 11992 0 [snd-pcm-oss]
parport_pc 14724 0
parport 23264 0 [parport_pc]
uhci 24496 0 (unused)
usbcore 58400 1 [uhci]
snd-via82xx 11712 0
snd-mpu401-uart 3136 0 [snd-via82xx]
snd-ens1371 11596 0
gameport 1452 0 [snd-ens1371]
snd-pcm 55904 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-via82xx snd-ens1371]
snd-timer 13252 0 [snd-seq snd-pcm]
snd-page-alloc 6004 0 [snd-via82xx snd-pcm]
snd-rawmidi 12512 0 [snd-seq-midi snd-mpu401-uart snd-ens1371]
snd-seq-device 3920 0 [snd-seq-midi snd-seq snd-rawmidi]
snd-ac97-codec 37240 0 [snd-via82xx snd-ens1371]
snd 27460 0 [snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-via82xx snd-mpu401-uart snd-ens1371 snd-pcm snd-timer snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd-ac97-codec]
soundcore 3332 9 [snd]
8139too 15240 1
mii 2304 0 [8139too]
sis900 13388 0 (unused)
crc32 2880 0 [8139too sis900]
pcmcia_core 40032 0
ide-scsi 9424 0
agpgart 39576 0 (unused)

Dmesg shows nothing about my soundcard there, and when it does isapnp it shows up as: nothing found.

Hopefully this gives you better understanding in what im dealing with, guess ill go and uninstall the packages for ALSA - thanks.

[octalpus]

Does lspci return anything useful?

[IcEbLAze]

Does lspci return anything useful?

lspci-
00:07.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:10.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq 5880 AudioPCI (rev 02)

[ck3k]

I appears you have onboard sound as well, disable that in bios, and try to just get one or the other running.

[IcEbLAze]

I appears you have onboard sound as well, disable that in bios, and try to just get one or the other running.

K so I switched over to GNOME.
For some reason - my BIOS wont disable my onboard sound system, I go into BIOS and cant find anything else to disable sound-wise, yet it still shows up in lspci. here are my settings in GNOME:

bash-2.05b# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8363/8365 [KT133/KM133] (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8363/8365 [KT133/KM133 AGP]
00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 40)
00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586/B/686A/B PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 16)
00:07.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 16)
00:07.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 40)
00:11.0 Ethernet controller: D-Link System Inc RTL8139 Ethernet (rev 10)
00:14.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq 5880 AudioPCI (rev 02)

LSMOD-

snd-pcm-oss 37252 0 (unused)
snd-mixer-oss 11992 1 [snd-pcm-oss]
parport_pc 14724 0
parport 23264 0 [parport_pc]
uhci 24496 0 (unused)
usbcore 58400 1 [uhci]
8139too 15240 1
mii 2304 0 [8139too]
crc32 2880 0 [8139too]
snd-ens1371 11596 1
gameport 1452 0 [snd-ens1371]
snd-pcm 55904 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-ens1371]
snd-timer 13252 0 [snd-pcm]
snd-page-alloc 6004 0 [snd-pcm]
snd-rawmidi 12512 0 [snd-ens1371]
snd-seq-device 3920 0 [snd-rawmidi]
snd-ac97-codec 37240 0 [snd-ens1371]
snd 27460 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-ens1371 snd-pcm snd-timer snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd-ac97-codec]
soundcore 3332 6 [snd]


Any Ideas? I'll keep working on it until i get it working, it looks as though this GNOME doesn't use ALSA at all, hopefully thats a good thing. thanks for all the help on this subject so far-

IcEbLAze

[IcEbLAze]

Ok I got it working on root so far - the problem was I didn't run ALSACONF

made things ALOT easier.

thanks again for helping me with this problem,

IcEbLAze

[octalpus]

If it's working on root, you should just need to change the permissions on /dev/dsp and /dev/audio to get it to work for users too.

[Chris]

If it's working on root, you should just need to change the permissions on /dev/dsp and /dev/audio to get it to work for users too.

Actually, you should never change the permissions on devices. The best way to enable sound for individual users is to add any user that needs sound to the sys group in /etc/group.

[IcEbLAze]

Actually, you should never change the permissions on devices. The best way to enable sound for individual users is to add any user that needs sound to the sys group in /etc/group.

I did this:

(got this from a debian forum)
# chmod o=+rw /dev/mixer*
# chmod o=+rw /dev/dsp*

and also did a chmod 777 to a file which I cant remember off the top of my head (been up all night) but I did go ahead and got a second opinion for what you said Chris and it turns out you are correct~ >_<

http://wombat.san-francisco.ca.us/fa.../cache/21.html

IcEbLAze

[Chris]

Chris and it turns out you are correct~ >_<

IcEbLAze--

If you remember this one statement you will find that things go well for you. Being omniscient is both a blessing and a curse...but it is my lot in life. ;)