Re: HELP: Cannot get ALSA working on via82xx

From: Timothy Miller
Date: Fri Jul 16 2004 - 09:36:56 EST




From: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@xxxxxxx>
To: Timothy Miller <miller@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
CC: Timothy Miller <theosib@xxxxxxxxxxx>,linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: HELP: Cannot get ALSA working on via82xx
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 18:09:29 +0200

At Thu, 15 Jul 2004 12:08:47 -0400,
Timothy Miller wrote:
>
> Thank you for responding!
>
>
> Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > At Wed, 07 Jul 2004 14:26:54 -0400,
> > Timothy Miller wrote:
> >
> >>I must once again reiterate my begging for help on this topic. I've
> >>gotten lots of help on the gentoo forum, but none of it's fixed my
> >>problems, and I've only gotten one response on LKML.
> >>
> >>*BEG* *BEG* *BEG*
> >>
> >>Please, won't someone take pity on me? :) Thanks!
> >
> >
> > via82xx doesn't support MPU401 by itslef although via686 does.
>
> I'm not sure if I have via686 or not. Various tools like lspci don't
> seem to reveal much.

Hmm, lspci must show the string like 'VIA86C686A' or 'VIA8235' ('VIA'
can be 'VT').

Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)

Is this meaningful?

Here's the whole thing:
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400/KT600 AGP] Host Bridge
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 PCI Bridge
0000:00:0b.0 RAID bus controller: 3ware Inc 3ware 7000-series ATA-RAID (rev 01)
0000:00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev 0c)
0000:00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
0000:00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
0000:00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
0000:00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
0000:00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
0000:00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
0000:00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
0000:00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 If [Radeon 9000] (rev 01)
0000:01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Radeon 9000] (Secondary) (rev 01)



> That's one of the problems I keep running into with Linux. There aren't
> good tools for finding out what you have, and even when you do find out
> what you have, it's hard to figure out which modules you need, because
> the module names don't correspond well with the chipset name.

You can use alsaconf script. It will detect the right module.

I ran that just now... it ripped out the dxs_support option, it didn't seem to do anything with regard to modules, and the sound system is going completely nuts.


> Furthermore, there doesn't seem to be a good way to relate module names
> with menuconfig entries. When someone says to use xyz module, I can't
> figure out which menuconfig option to select, so I have to compile ALL
> of them as modules, and when someone tells me to use a given menu
> option, I can't figure out which module corresponds to it.

That's true. The sure way would be to retrieve the pci id table from
the source code...

> > You can try snd-mpu401 module instead.
>
> Well, I have a module snd-mpu401, but when I modprobe it, I get an error
> about a non-existant device.

Then you might need to give the correct port number and the irq
number as module parameters. Perhaps you can get them from BIOS.


I'll have to look, but I'm not sure the BIOS says anything about it. Shouldn't it be "plug and play" anyhow? I thought the days of manually configuring IRQ's were gone...


> > When ACPI is enabled, the
> > configuration will be done automatically.
> > The midi device can be available as the second card.
>
> Ah, well, I had nightmares trying to use ACPI. I use just APM for
> things like power-off (power-off works with APM, but not with ACPI).
> Maybe some of the experts can help me to figure out how to get it all to
> work.
>
> I'm about ready to give up on ALSA and go back to OSS. Maybe someone
> can help me to figure out how to get MIDI sequencing to work with OSS
> instead. OSS would at least do audio right without noise and popping
> sounds, etc.

I guess you see a kernel message when you load snd-via8xx driver
regarding dxs_support option (suppose that your chip is VIA823x)?

In worst case, you can eliminate the noises with dxs_support=2
option.

Everyone else says to use 3, but since that doesn't work, I guess I'll try 2. :)



> I apologize for the impatient nature of this post... I've been
> struggling for weeks to get audio working right with ALSA, but every
> piece of advise I get seems only to make things worse.
>
> From what I read on various web sites, ALSA for via82xx is so buggy
> that it's really not worth using yet.

Sorry, no, the chipset on many mobos is so buggy :)
That's why we need so many workarounds.

OSS driver has no problem regarding clicking noises because it doesn't
support the DXS channels, the multiple playback. ALSA supports it as
default. dxs_support=2 options disables it.
See ALSA-Configuration.txt for details.

Anyway, OSS VIA driver also doesn't support MIDI for VIA823x.
It's for VIA686 only, as well as on ALSA driver.

Hmm... maybe I don't have MIDI hardware then. Time to look into timidity.

_________________________________________________________________
MSN 9 Dial-up Internet Access helps fight spam and pop-ups ? now 2 months FREE! http://join.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200361ave/direct/01/

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/