8 Jul
2009
8 Jul
'09
10:59 p.m.
Hi, welcome.
A few comments:
1. The RT kernel is the linux real time kernel, and you can get it with any
distro. How your particular distro decides to provide it for you is one of
the things that make distros different. Since Ubuntu is debian-based, it
uses apt-get (or synaptics gui front end) as the package management system.
I'm not sure if you can apt-get the real-time kernel from there. On gentoo,
one runs 'emerge gentoo-sources', which grabs the kernel source tree and
places it in /usr/src/linux. For gentoo, then you need to configure and
compile your own kernel. Ubuntu was designed with the idea that users would
never really compile their own kernel. I left ubuntu because I couldn't get
alsa or jack to work properly, and felt as detached from the system as I did
on windoze.
2. Is Alsa started? I imagine Ubuntu should start alsa on startup, but look
into whether or not your alsa drivers have been configured properly. It will
probably be different for you, but something like '/etc/init.d/alsasound
status' will tell you if its started or stopped. if its stopped, rerun that
command and replace status with start, or --verbose start if it fails to
start.
3. You probably don't know if the alsa drivers are compiled into the kernel
or as loadable modules, but should find out. I found that in-kernel alsa
drivers just don't work, so I compile them all as modules and have them load
at boot. 'lsmod |grep -i snd' should show if alsa drivers are loaded, and
which ones. if you don't get anything that way, try 'modprobe -l | grep -i
snd'. This will list all available LKM (loadable kernel modules). Perhaps
the soundblaster driver has not been loaded. If you find the right module,
but its not showing in lsmod, do 'modprobe <module-name>'. That will load
the driver.
4. Check the Alsa wiki and site. Check them again. Also look at kernel.org:
http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/sound/alsa/ALSA-Configuration.txt
5. If you can't get things going under Ubuntu within a week, ditch ubuntu
(personal opinion). Linux audio is NOT easy, nor for those not willing to
work to make it work. Try other distros like openSUSE, arch linux, gentoo,
centOS. Ubuntu is a great intro, but you may want something more flexible to
handle problems like these. Also keep in mind that a tough install also
usually has more rewards, since you must learn your machine up front.
best,
justin
On Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 8:09 PM, <webmaster(a)seconnecticut.com> wrote:
I have two Ubuntu computers, one running 8.04 and the
other running 9.04.
Since Ubuntu is said to offer a RT kernel and a version that has been
customized for audio work, I was surprised to find that it is not so easy
to
configure audio in Ubuntu. Debian recognized my SoundBlaster audigy card
immediately and used it. For Ubuntu the small app that is supposed to
select
the sound card doesn't seem to do anything.
So I started asking questions of Google and found that there are a number
of
people who are having difficulty configuring Soundblaster on Ubuntu. It
looks to be a chronic problem.
Aside from that SlashDot.org had a link to this last week, although it
seems
to be vintage 2007.
http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/2007/05/welcome_to_the_jungle.html
There is a map of Linux Audio Applications that looks to be useful
documentation. Any comments on the rather critical note ?
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