[linux-audio-user] ALSA drivers don't stick...

tommy illth at gmx.de
Fri Jan 28 16:12:48 EST 2005


after boot up, when the sound is not working, and you need to call 
alsa-conf,
plase enter
``lsmod | grep snd_intel8x0'' . if it prints something like

 > lsmod | grep intel
snd_intel8x0           28768  2
snd_ac97_codec         73696  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_emu10k1
snd_pcm                86408  6 
snd_bt87x,snd_intel8x0,snd_usb_audio,snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc          7428  4 snd_bt87x,snd_intel8x0,snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd                    46628  20 
snd_bt87x,snd_intel8x0,snd_usb_audio,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_hwdep

than your driver have loaded, and u can skip the rest of this mail.
if not, please read on.

im running debian unstable w/ kernel 2.6.10 right now.

my installation has support for umod. you can verify this
by entering ``mount'' in the console, if it does print a line like
``none on /dev type tmpfs (rw,size=5M,mode=0755)'' then you are also 
using udev.

(warning: the is oversimplified and in some cases wrong:)
udev is an userspace daemon that will create the files on-the-fly when a
driver wants them to be created.

tradiditional you had these files on the fs on your harddisk, for all 
kinds of possible devices,
like from /dev/dsp0 to /dev/dsp6 or something. if some app wanted to 
open an device,
it tried to open that file, then the kernel called some user space app 
which parse /etc/modules.conf
and load the aproprate driver. this was called module auto loading.

but now you need first to load the driver, so that the udev deamon can 
create these nodes.
i stepped over this with my parport scanner:

before i had udev the kernel module ppdev was automagical loaded, but 
now it isn't. this
might also happen to your sound driver.

if this is the case, you have two possibilities:
a) during boot up, but AFTER /dev has been mounted as tmpfs, you have to 
create the coresponding
device files, eg with the aid of /etc/udev/links.conf: i add a line like

M    parport0   c 99 0

(for my scanner !)
you have to figure out hot to add files for sound

b) autoload your driver during boot-up, eg by adding a line containing
 ``snd_intel8x0''
to /etc/modules. (this is obviously a little bit more easy)

but i also have to tell you that on my system, every shit that can 
easyliy be discovered,
is loaded during boot-up, by the means of hotplug. so your audio 
*should* propably work out-of-teh-box (tm).

as it does not, this might just be a symptome of an even bigger problem.

-tom



Robert Bailey schrieb:

> looks like you need to move these lines from
>
> /etc/modutils/sound
>
> to /etc/modutils/alsa
>
> and run update-modules
>
> options snd  device_mode=0660
> alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0
> alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0
>
> Bails
>
>
> Erik Thorsson wrote:
>
>>
>> I tried removing both of those modules in turn, but it didn't fix the 
>> problem.  In fact, now when I run alsaconf it can't even detect my 
>> soundcard.  :)
>>
>> I assume there is some kind of modules database and when I moved the 
>> modules out of their normal place, they were removed from this 
>> database.  I just need to add them back in, right?
>>
>> How do you do this on Debian?
>>
>> I could just apt-get ALSA all over again, but I'd rather understand 
>> the problem and how to fix it for the next time it crops up.
>>
>> If anyone could assist, I'd be grateful.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> -E
>>
>> P.S.  Also, neither insmod nor modprobe were successful for loading 
>> the kernel modules manually.
>>
>>
>> paul wisehart wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I had a similiar problem on my laptop ... which is running windows
>>> now, so I can't give you the exact details, but try this:
>>>
>>>
>>> THere are 2 similiar alsa drivers for snd_intel8x0
>>> (I think that the other one has an "m" at the end.)
>>>
>>> Well the wrong one was getting loaded in my machine.
>>> I just move the offending one out of the 
>>> /lib/modules/<kernel-version> directory,
>>> and all is well.  I actually do that each time I build a new kernel.
>>>  
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jan 28, 2005 at 12:46:37AM -0500, Erik Thorsson wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have to run 'alsaconf' every time I boot my Debian Sarge 2.6.8-1 box
>>>> to get sound to work.
>>>>
>>>> It detects the 'intel8x0 Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Sound
>>>> Controller (rev a0)'.
>>>> ...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>




More information about the Linux-audio-user mailing list