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Thread ID: 48621 2004-08-28 04:40:00 Zipslack Linux - recognising / using hardware D. McG (3023) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
266242 2004-08-28 04:40:00 Greetings,

I have installed this version of Slackware Linux called Zipslack side-by-side with Windows ME so that it uses the FAT32 partition as well (and uses a boot disk to load the Linux OS). I have added all these packages for the libraries, X11 and Gnome from the Internet and Linux Format Magazine's cover CDs (which feature Slackware this month), and managed to get Gnome up and running. (I figured out I had to be logged on as root and run 'gdm' to get the Gnome login screen.)

The question is, how do I get sound from my SoundBlaster Live Value card? The sound mixer has a tab labelled SB Live, so it seems to recognise that I have a SB Live card, but it doesn't seem to know how to use the hardware. I tried playing an MP3 from one of the applications and was told that the hardware couldn't be initialised.

In tradition of PF1 help posts, my system specifications are as follows:
AMD Athlon XP 2600+, using GlacialTech SilentBreeze 462 II HSF
512MB (2x256MB) TwinMos DDR400 RAM
60GB Seagate ATA133 HDD @7200rpm
NVidia GeForce2 MX video card with TV Out
Compro VideoMate Gold TV tuner card
Soltek NV400-L64 motherboard
Creative Labs SB Live Value soundcard
Acer 16X DVD drive
LG 52X CD-RW drive
3.5" floppy drive
PCI 56k modem

External peripherals used:
Canon S520 colour inkjet printer (USB)
A4 flatbed scanner, USB (can't remember brand name)
128MB USB flash drive
Canon Powershot A40 digital camera, USB
Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical (5 buttons)
(here's the rub: ) PC Company keyboard
PC Company-branded Likom 15" TFT monitor with uneven backlight

One partition, using FAT32 file system
Boots to Windows ME by default
Slackware Linux 10 installed from a ZipSlack base
Gnome Desktop / window manager installed
PC Company Restore / Rescue CD for Windows ME, but won't work unless HDD is transferred back to the old PC Company computer.

So far I haven't been able to mount either optical drive or my floppy drive yet - do I need to associate some special 'mount' command for each? Doesn't Gnome automatically mount these drives when you double-click on them? I haven't even tried using my printer, scanner, camera, USB drive or modem in Linux yet.

And in case you're curious, I wanted to avoid repartitioning my hard drive just in case something went wrong. I do keep backups for all my work, but I have no means of backing up the Windows installation so that the boot sector information can be restored with Windows.

If it would be helpful, I can provide a list of all the packages that I have installed on top of the Zipslack base to date.

Thanks for any help. (Chill - you'd know all about this ;-))

D. McG
D. McG (3023)
266243 2004-08-28 04:53:00 Yeah, Im about... Give this a shot as root:
modprobe emu10k1

Im not too sure how to get gdm to start on boot, but iirc its:
chmod 777 /etc/init.d/gdm
Ive been a gentoo user so long its slipping away from me... ;-)

Lemme know how you get on :-)

Cheers


Chill.
Chilling_Silence (9)
266244 2004-08-28 04:54:00 BTW - Try:
chmod 777 /dev/dsp
If it still doesnt do anything...
Modprobe (if successful) wont give any errors and will just return you to the bash prompt :-)
Chilling_Silence (9)
266245 2004-08-28 05:38:00 Just thought I'd re-read your post in case I missed something and I hadnt seen this whole paragraph:

> So far I haven't been able to mount either optical
> drive or my floppy drive yet - do I need to associate
> some special 'mount' command for each? Doesn't Gnome
> automatically mount these drives when you
> double-click on them? I haven't even tried using my
> printer, scanner, camera, USB drive or modem in Linux
> yet.

Im not sure but I think you need to modify either your fstab, or install something extra for GNOME to do it.
Try this from the command line (you may need to be root, may not depending on your /etc/fstab layou):
mount /mnt/cdrom
If you could:
cat /etc/fstab
and post it here, that'd be great too :-)

Camera and USB Drive is easy. The first device you plug in becomes:
/dev/sda1
Second device becomes:
/dev/sdb1
So, try this as root:
mkdir /mnt/camera
mkdir /mnt/thumbdrive
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/camera (Assuming you plugged in ya camera first)
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/thumbdrive

Then before you yank them out, dont forget to un-mount them:
umount /mnt/thumbdrive
umount /mnt/camera

Im not too sure what port the CUPS (Common Unix Printer System) operates on, but you can setup your printers via a web interface. Either that or KDE has a nice GUI to do it :-)


Chill.
Chilling_Silence (9)
266246 2004-08-28 07:22:00 Wow - thanks for all that!

I'll give it a go when I get back home.
BTW, I am using Gnome only, not KDE.

Can these mount commands be set up to automatically run when I insert the USB drive, or plug in the camera and switch it on, much like how Windows automatically responds? And can there be something set up within Gnome so that double-clicking on a CD or Floppy icon on the desktop (or right-clicking and selecting 'mount') will automatically mount the drive?

D. McG
D. McG (3023)
266247 2004-08-28 14:15:00 Yes... I just cant remember how ATM.

Google for GNOME Automount
or Supermount is the other one... :-)


Chill.
Chilling_Silence (9)
266248 2004-08-29 03:28:00 gphoto2 handles the A40 camera nicely. Graham L (2)
266249 2004-08-29 05:14:00 Okay, I've managed to mount the floppy drive and USB drive, but mounting the cdrom comes back with the following:

mount: /dev/cdrom is not a valid block device
(I also got a similar message for the Powershot camera.)

My fstab file contains the following:
/dev/fd2 / umsdos defaults 0 0
/root/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0


I am guessing that the /dev/fd2 is simply the mounting of the rest of the FAT32 Windows partition. I noticed that I couldn't save files to this partition, as if it's read-only. Even when logged on as root, I couldn't copy files to my USB drive.

As for the SB Live card, the 'modprobe emu10k1' command produced the following:
/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/sound/emu10k1/emu10k1.o.gz: init_module: No such device
/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/sound/emu10k1/emu10k1.o.gz: 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/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/sound/emu10k1/emu10k1.o.gz: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/sound/emu10k1/emu10k1.o.gz failed
/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/sound/emu10k1/emu10k1.o.gz: insmod emu10k1 failed


The first chmod command didn't work either, but the second (with /dev/dsp) seemed to do something, as no errors occurred. But I still cannot get any sound, apart from beeps from the PC speaker. Could it be trying to use the Soltek motherboard's onboard sound instead of the SB Live? And would there be some ambiguity as to which optical drive to use? My DVD-ROM drive is set up as the master device and the CD-RW as the slave on the secondary IDE channel, while the HDD is on the primary IDE channel by itself.

And thanks Graham for the info about gphoto2 about the camera - I'll consider it later. I usually prefer to copy the files from the camera in a file manager like Windows Explorer, so I'll see if there is a way to do that first.

Thanks for your help.

- D. McG
D. McG (3023)
266250 2004-08-30 05:17:00 Your DVD and CD drives are /dev/hdc and /dev/hdd . . There will (or should ;-)) be a soft link so that
ls -l /dev/cdrom will give "/dev/cdrom -> /dev/hdc" . It will be pointing at the DVD drive . If you want it to point at the CD drive, you can
ln -sf /dev/hdd /dev/cdrom . (you need the "f" to force the change . And of course you need to be root to do this .

A USB "removable disk" is mounted as read-only . This is because it is pretending to be a SCSI device, and the writer of the Linux code for this has found that Microsoft don't use some of the SCSI "MODE" commands . So some of the hardware manufacturers haven't properly tested the firmware in their devices . This is to the level that when given some MODE commands the firmware crashes . The only safe default was to make the USB disks mount read-only . (Work is continuing . . . the guy knows it's a problem) . There's a letter from him about this in the March 2004 issue of Linux Journal .

You should be able to get around this by remounting: if it's called (e . g . ) /dev/sdc1, do mount -o rw remount /dev/sdc1

Sound can be tricky . Unless the motherboard sound is disabled in the BIOS, it will be very tricky . Do ]dmesg | less . That will show you what hardware is known .

/dev/fd1 , since it's mounting on "/" is the MS directory which contains the Linux system . It's pretending to be a floppy drive . You don't really want to be able to write to that . . . except by the normal operations of the Linux . :D

The hard disk will be /dev/hda1 . . . you could mount that to a mount point (but there are "interesting" :_| things which can happen if you are not careful .
Graham L (2)
266251 2004-08-31 03:21:00 This morning I had a quick look at the code which can cause a USB device to be read-only.

It's the file drivers/scsi/sd.c . It's a bit interesting that the 2.4.22 source in Mandrake 9.2 has a patch included which causes it to default to read-write if the device returns a bad response to the command. Yours is 2.4.26 and defaults to read-only. (The original action). If you try dmesg or tail -20 /var/log/messages just after plugging the USB device in, you'll probably see a message like "sd.c: test WP failed, assuming write protect". The "mount -o rw remount" command should work. My MP3/removable disk USB device doesn't give an error so I can't guarantee that.

Matthew Dharm says that the 2.5/6 code "introduced a new problem -- sd.c wants to check for mode page 8 which causes more devices to die".
But he was writing early this year ... I'm sure they will have done what's possible.
Graham L (2)
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