[SLUG] SUSE installation sound problems

[Martin Webb]

john at johnallsopp.co.uk wrote:
> Hi ppl
>
> OK, the reputation of Linux is on the line here (not to mention mine
> too). I went around to fix the final (?) problem on Lucy's machine
> last night .. sound.
>
> Previously, you may remember, SUSE 10 had failed to recognise the
> sound on the ASROCK 939NF4 motherboard so we thought we'd put in a
> Soundblaster card and that would sort it.
>
> Not so fast. I bought a Soundblaster Live 24 bit SB0410 from
> wossisface near TKMaxx, put that in, and got system sounds .. bootup,
> etc. However, when playing a CD I'm getting, most often, a half-second
> toggle between the song and silence. For those old enough to remember,
> it sounds like the Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club.
>
> I've disabled (and enabled, but currently disabled) the motherboard
> sound in the BIOS, and I've moved the analog audio cable from going
> from the DVD drive to the motherboard to going to the soundcard.
>
> The speakers I'm using are Logitec X-530s.
>
> Frankly, I'm a bit stumped so I'm looking for my best next move. I'm
> thinking I'll work on SUSE for a bit but if it's not playing, I'll go
> for another distro (Ubuntu, maybe even Mepis sounds like it aims to
> work  "out of the box").
>
> If any of you remember the early LPI stuff about isapnp, SUSE has it
> so I'm half tempted to see if that would help .. but the card seems to
> be recognised and installed fine .. mind-you, I did just go for the
> fast/automatic setup.
>
> Whaddyathink?
>
> BTW, Lucy is lurking on this list, so hello.
At least up until very recently, "SB Live! 24 bit" was a no go card for 
Linux, or very poorly supported.  There is not enough info about it 
released for an opensource driver to be constructed.  All the Asrocks 
I've used have had AC'97 chipsets for Sound, and should just work.

On my FC3 rig, this one I'm using now, drivers go in:
/lib/modules/2.6.9-1.667/kernel/sound/pci/
and it is in fact the emu10k1 for the genuine SoundBlasterLive!, not one 
of its emulations.

http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/
is a good page, and you can get good info on many sound cards
put VIA into the search box, and hit Go

On my Whitby box, I had to make changes to:
/etc/sysconfig/hwconf

It ended up as:
class: AUDIO
bus: PCI
detached: 0
driver: snd-emu10k1
desc: "Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1"
vendorId: 1102
deviceId: 0002
subVendorId: 1102
subDeviceId: 8067
pciType: 1
pcidom:    0
pcibus:  0
pcidev:  a
pcifn:  0



The details that I put in here manually, I copied from the Alsa site.

Hope some of this helps.

Dealing with dependencies, and getting sound cards to work would make a 
good evening, if we have someone with the expertise.

Martin