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Thread ID: 34453 2003-06-13 09:25:00 Linux and Asus P4PE onboard Sound Mike (15) Press F1
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152329 2003-06-13 09:25:00 I've just reinstalled Mandrake 9.1 on my updated system, however the onboard sound is not liked by Mandrake - it detects something, but that's it - I can't hear anything. In XP the sound device is detected as a SoundMax something by Analog Devices Inc (I think), but that doesn't help me much. Has anyone managed to get the audio working on such a device in Linux, and if so can you tell me how?

Thanks,

Mike.
Mike (15)
152330 2003-06-13 11:30:00 What driver does it detect?

If its an AC97 codec I think its name should be related to the motherboard chipset rather than the soundmax thing. eg, mine about has a realtek DAC, but it uses the via driver below.

You can check by opening /etc/modules.conf, and looking for a line like:

alias sound-slot-0 snd-via82xx


If the driver name starts with snd- its using an alsa driver. ALSA drivers default to muting all output channels. You will need to unmute and set the volume for atleast the main and PCM channels.
bmason (508)
152331 2003-06-13 11:40:00 > What driver does it detect?

Intel 810 something I think (I'm in XP at the moment - I'll check in Linux in the morning).

> If its an AC97 codec I think its name should be
> related to the motherboard chipset rather than the
> soundmax thing. eg, mine about has a realtek DAC, but
> it uses the via driver below.

The Soundmax is manufactured by Analog Devices Inc I think, but their site is no help.

> You can check by opening /etc/modules.conf, and
> looking for a line like:
>
> alias sound-slot-0 snd-via82xx
>
> If the driver name starts with snd- its using an alsa
> driver. ALSA drivers default to muting all output
> channels. You will need to unmute and set the volume
> for atleast the main and PCM channels.

That might be what it is then. I'll try that and see what happens. Here's hoping :)

Mike.
Mike (15)
152332 2003-06-13 11:57:00 Little OT - Does Mandrake use ALSA as its primary driver? Im pretty sure RedHat 8/9/KDE use OSS on my system!?!
Is there any advantages or ones I should go for over the other?

Ive also lost the ESound Driver which I had in RedHat 8, which was good because it meant I could turn down the volume in XMMS and leave the other Master/PCM controls up for other apps!
Chilling_Silently (228)
152333 2003-06-13 21:37:00 > What driver does it detect?
> You can check by opening /etc/modules.conf, and
> looking for a line like:
> alias sound-slot-0 snd-via82xx

This is what I found in that /etc/modules.conf thing:

alias sound-slot-0 i810_audio
above snd-intel8x0 snd-pcm-oss

> If the driver name starts with snd- its using an alsa
> driver. ALSA drivers default to muting all output
> channels. You will need to unmute and set the volume
> for atleast the main and PCM channels.

Where should I be looking to unmute everything - I opened up KMix and everythin was already unmuted and volume was set. Just still no sound :)

If I could get my sound to work in Linux I think I would spend a lot of time getting to know it... but no sound really makes a difference.

Mike.
Mike (15)
152334 2003-06-13 21:55:00 Okay I've got it working YAY!

But now I've got another problem - I've got 6 channel audio, but only stereo desktop speakers. Windows XP (and the sound device default) is to have stereo or front speakers plugged into a specific plug. However to get the sound in here I plugged the speakers into a different plug - Line In for Win XP 2 speaker setup (although for the 6 speaker setup this channel is for Centre/Sub). I guess this means I'm going to have to change the plug every time I launch linux, and back again for XP :(

Ah well, it might be worth it maybe.

Mike.
Mike (15)
152335 2003-06-13 23:17:00 Im sure Ive seen a setting in Linux to change that.. as I have a 5.1 channel card..

Can you not otherwise change it from within XP?
Chilling_Silently (228)
152336 2003-06-14 03:49:00 I'm not sure which mandrake prefers. It suggests both for my via ac97 & sb live.

As for OSS vs ALSA:

The OSS ones come with the kernel, while ALSA is seperate (not that it matters with mdk/redhat etc). ALSA also uses a different interface, but has an OSS compatability layer. ALSA will become the main one when 2.6 is release.

ALSA is aparantly better, but I don't notice a difference. I'm sure the ALSA website will give you an unbiased answer :-).
bmason (508)
152337 2003-06-14 03:52:00 > Ive also lost the ESound Driver which I had in RedHat
> 8, which was good because it meant I could turn down
> the volume in XMMS and leave the other Master/PCM
> controls up for other apps!

Esound is a software mixer used by gnome. KDE uses ARTs. It should be on your distro cds somewhere.
bmason (508)
152338 2003-06-14 03:53:00 > Im sure Ive seen a setting in Linux to change that..
> as I have a 5.1 channel card..

Well if you remember how... :)

> Can you not otherwise change it from within XP?

Nah - the software for the SoundMax is somewhat limited (compared to the SBLive! I had in my other machine.

Mike.
Mike (15)
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