[linux-help] Re: setting up sound

[Bruce Bales <bbales@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks a lot Nate.

Nate Bargmann wrote:

> Perhaps the obvious question is, did you build your sound support as
> modules?  I haven't used Red Hat, so I am just guessing that sndconfig
> might be tied to the specific kernel and modules in RH 6.2.

Yes, I rebuilt the kernel the last time to include sound (module) support, but I
believe I did include my sound card.  It's unfortunate if sndconfig is tied to a
specific kernel, but that would explain my former difficulties.

0.4.1 seems quite old and the latest programs written for ALSA will not
work with this version.  I built and installed ALSA 0.9.0beta7 last week

> and it is working very well for me with kernel 2.2.19 (I am using Debian
> Woody (Testing)).

> 0.4.1 was the release used in the mini-howto I was following, so I used

it rather than take a chance on something else.

>
> Per the docs, to use ALSA, compile the kernel with sound support as a
> module, but don't select any sound cards.  Otherwise, I do know you'll
> want to feed the configure script some options as the default without
> any options builds all the sound modules and will install everything in
> /usr/* (I like to install locally compiled stuff in /usr/local/*).  It
> will install the necessary modules in /lib/modules/2.2.1[8|9]/misc for
> the kernel.  I've also had excellent success with the kernel module
> loader installing everything automatically on demand.

Looks like I'd better rebuild the kernel (without the soundblaster module)
and dump all the alsa 0.4.1 and download something newer.  The mini-howto
put it all in /usr/src, but if it doesn't matter, /usr/local makes more sense.

> The correct order for building and installing ALSA is driver, library,
> and utils.  Also, you want to be sure that OSS support is included in the
> driver as there are still many programs that do not yet use the ALSA
> API.  There is a great player program called Alsaplayer that has a
> number of display scopes that works very well.  I am using Xmms and it
> uses the OSS API without problem.

I had driver, lib, and utils, but ran into the error before I got the driver 
compiled.

The only thing I saw about OSS had to do with putting an alias in conf.modules.
Maybe I can work that out.

> I bought a new Creative Sound Blaster PCI512 that I am thrilled with.
> It, X4, and ALSA have turned this box into a nice multimedia station.
>
> GL,
>
> - Nate >>

bruce

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