Re: SB AWE32 PnP module to use?

Hi all, back again.

I am experiencing a slight problem. I am running the latest Gentoo on a 
K6-2 with a Sound Blaster AWE 32 PnP.

Now, I have gone through the audio setup process, and in the end I am 
trying to play a sample WAV file. It plays for the first fraction of a 
second properly, but then cuts off. When using the command line "aplay" 
command to play it, the following error comes up:

	bash-2.05a# aplay /home/music/reviskosample.wav
	Playing WAVE '/home/music/reviskosample.wav' : Signed 16 bit
	Little Endian, Rate 22050 Hz, Stereo
	aplay: pcm_write:968: write error: Input/output error

Thanks to Kerin's step-by-step, I've made it through the Alsa audio 
setup process with only one other error coming up: when I do "amixer set 
Master 100 unmute" after installing alsa-utils, I get the error "amixer: 
Unknown playback setup 'unmute'..". Now, this doesn seem to prevent me 
from doing the rest of the audio setup process, but I including it just 
in case. "Master" has the correct volume of 100% and does not have the 
mute flag after this command, so it seems to work despite the error.

Hoping someone has some ideas.

Kerin Millar wrote:
> Adam Theo wrote:
> 
>> Hi all.
>>
>> I'm trying to install ALSA sound support into my new Gentoo desktop. I 
>> initially ran into trouble emerging alsa-driver, but that was fixed 
>> after I went back and made sure I had supported the Sound Blaster 
>> modules out of the OSS category (But aren't OSS and ALSA two different 
>> sound systems? hm...), then it emerged fine. But now that I have
> 
> 
> Yes, they are two separate sound systems. All that's required to use 
> ALSA is to have Sound Support compiled in to your kernel (i.e. the first 
> option under that category in the kernel configuration menu). You don't 
> have to select support for any specific sound card. However, if you wish 
> to be able to switch between OSS and ALSA, you may select a specific 
> model of sound card in the kernel config menu and compile as a module. 
> For example, I have practically the same card as you (AWE 64) so I 
> selected Sound Support (soundcore.o) and Sound Blaster support (sb.o) as 
> modules. As long as soundcore.o is available, ALSA will start. But I can 
> stop ALSA live with /etc/init.d/alsa stop and modprobe sb if I want to 
> switch on OSS drivers. By the same token, I could have not chosen to 
> compile in Sound Blaster support and ALSA would still have worked 
> perfectly. I just wouldn't be able to switch back to the *real* OSS 
> without a recompile.
> 
>> followed the directions in the Gentoo Desktop config file, I am 
>> running into this error when ALSA is started up at boot:
>>
>> /lib/modules/2.4.19-gentoo-r7/kernel/sound/isa/sb/snd-sbawe.o: 
>> init_module: No such device
>> 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
>> /lib/modules/2.4.19-gentoo-r7/kernel/sound/isa/sb/snd-sbawe.o: insmod 
>> /lib/modules/2.4.19-gentoo-r7/kernel/sound/isa/sb/snd-sbawe.o failed
>> /lib/modules/2.4.19-gentoo-r7/kernel/sound/isa/sb/snd-sbawe.o: insmod 
>> snd-sbawe failed
> 
> 
> Hmm. Alas, I'm not on my Gentoo box at the moment, but I believe the 
> kernel should be looking for the modules in 
> /lib/modules/2.4.19-gentoo-r7/kernel/asound (asound being ALSA sound), 
> so something seems very wrong here. Also have you tried looking at your 
> system log as recommmended? Have a look under /var/log/everything and 
> look at some of the files in there.
> 
> 
>> I have a "Sound Blaster AWE32 PnP" card.
>>
>> I have edited the /etc/modules.d/alsa file as so:
>>
>> ## ALSA portion
>> ## alias snd-card-0 snd-interwave
>> ## alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371
>> alias snd-card-0 snd-sbawe
>> ## OSS/Free portion
>> ## alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
>> ## alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
>>
>> I have also tried the modules "snd-sb16" and "snd-card-sb16" (shots in 
>> the dark from Google results). All the same error. I searched the 
>> Gentoo forums here, but no previous threads.
> 
> 
> Yup, you should be using the snd-sbawe module (which is similar to sb16, 
> but will give you AWE synth support too). Make sure you've got something 
> like (I'm not sure why you have to specify this many entries, but I can 
> assure you things are less problematic if you do):
> 
> alias snd-card-0 snd-sbawe
> alias snd-card-1 snd-sbawe
> alias snd-card-2 snd-sbawe
> alias snd-card-3 snd-sbawe
> alias snd-card-4 snd-sbawe
> alias snd-card-5 snd-sbawe
> alias snd-card-6 snd-sbawe
> alias snd-card-7 snd-sbawe
> 
> and do the same sort of thing for the OSS/Free portion (for backward 
> compatibility):
> 
> alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
> alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
> # ... repeat this up to 7 too ...
> 
>> I have also run the "update-modules" command, and the "rc-update" 
>> command to have ALSA start on boot.
> 
> 
> If you're having problems with ALSA, then perhaps you should use 
> rc-update to remove it from a runlevel. That way you can test it after 
> you've booted, when you're ready with /etc/init.d/alsasound start (and, 
> indeed, stop).
> 
>> Many Google searches later, I still have no idea what sound module to 
>> use for this "Sound Blaster AWE32 PnP" card. Any ideas?
> 
> 
> snd-sbawe, as mentioned above. I believe you could have ascertained that 
> by doing: zmore /usr/share/doc/alsa/INSTALL.gz (where the /alsa/ part 
> probably has the version number included).
> 
> You probably know this but ... remember to check your /etc for updated 
> configuration files that may need to be applied (see my reply to John 
> Batistic re: LS120 problems for some more info on that). In particular, 
> make sure your devfsd is up-to-date (emerge rsync && emerge devfsd), and 
> make sure there are no newer devfsd.conf files that need to be copied 
> over your old one. This may be *critical*!
> 
> If you still have no joy, I would recommend recompiling your kernel and 
> ALSA again - cleanly. Do an emerge rsync first to make sure everything 
> you use is up-to-date. Here are my recommended steps:
> 
> 1) emerge -C alsa-driver (this won't delete your config in /etc and it 
> won't get re-written when you emerge it again)
> 2) cd /lib/modules
> 3) mv 2.4.19 2.4.19.orig
> 4) cd /usr/src/linux
> 5) make mrproper (warning: the kernel will "forget" the settings you las 
> t used so recommend storing the configuration to a file before doing 
> this unless you want to enter all the settings again)
> 6) make menuconfig (load in your configuration, or set everything again. 
> Just choose Sound Support only, unless you want OSS capability too. I 
> compile Sound Support as a module (static should be fine too) but 
> *don't* compile an OSS module statically otherwise ALSA will surely 
> choke!!!)
> 7) make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install (now your new 
> clean module tree will be in /lib/modules/2.4.19 but you backed up your 
> old ones in step 3)
> 8) mount /boot
> 9) cp /boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage.orig && cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot
> 10) umount boot
> 11) Reboot your PC
> 12) emerge alsa-driver (again)
> 13) If you set-up your config before, then it shouldn't need changing 
> now but check it out anyway and do "update-modules". Now reboot. And 
> don't forget to check that a newer alsa template file was merged in 
> (find /etc -iname "._cfg*") ! If so, then copy it over your old alsa 
> file and add the aliases as specified earlier on.
> 14) If everything is in order, you shouldn't get that error anymore - 
> although you will probably see an error to do with "alsactl". This can 
> be solved by:
> 15) emerge alsa-utils
> 
> If things seem to be in order, then you should be able to proceed and 
> lsmod should show a healthy selection of modules belonging to ALSA. Have 
> a look at http://www.gentoo.org/doc/desktop.html in order to test your 
> card. And make sure you have alsa in your make.conf USE flags. If you 
> compiled things like arts (the sound server in KDE) and SDL wihout that 
> flag then you'll have to compile them again. Existing OSS compatible 
> stuff should work just fine.
> 
> Hopefully, you should be OK. I have found that doing "make mrproper" and 
> making sure the kernel cannot see your old modules (as per step 3) is 
> beneficial when re-compiling the kernel. Don't forget that you can go 
> back to your old kernel and module set by undoing the renaming to *.orig 
>  steps you performed.
> 
> Ah yes, and make sure "Set version information on all module symbols" is 
> set to Yes in the kernel config (which is beneficial when compiling 
> kernel modules which weren't supplied as part of the kernel sources - as 
> you are).
> 
> Good luck ...
> 
> --kerframil
> 
> PS: I found that ALSA can be cagey about compiling if you're using any 
> funky kernel patches. I have had had 100% success with the 
> vanilla-sources. I haven't tried with gentoo-sources. But I had problems 
> when using vanilla kernel patched with some of the more popular kernel 
> patches out there. Worth knowing.
> 


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