Sound Card Woes (SiS card again)

[Calum]

So, i found out yesterday that my brand spanking new mandrake 8.2 doesn't autodetect and configure my SiS 7018 sound card. This is something that Druaga (Master of Reality? i forget...) told me already, but i just found out for myself last night. I ran XMMS, and i could see the sound going through the little VU meter on the GUI, so i know that the system is really playing the sound, but the sound card is not making a peep.

The odd thing about this is, back when i had red hat 7.0, the sound card worked fine and dandy, as i remember i did no configuration at all for it, and it worked. Why should it not work in mandrake 8.2 but more to the point, is there some rpm that i can get off of my red hat 7.0 CDs to make my sound card work?

I don't know what to start looking for really, or if there's some program that can help me set up this sound card or if there's just a few significant lines needing added to some distant config file somewhere, so please, any ideas?

I know in my heart of hearts that VoidMain will probably be the first to try and help here, so thanks VoidMain and thanks to anybody else who can help also...

[creedon]

I have an SiS6326 sound card.  Just for shits & giggles, I figured that I'd take a look at the SiS website to see what was there.  It appears they support most of their current soundcards in Linux, so you might want to give them a try.  Might also want to set up ALSA, I'm fairly certian it'll support your card.  Remember, GOOGLE is your friend!

[Calum]

i thought i didn't have to recompile? just install the driver from the site? i'd rather apply a patch than wait for 27 Mb of data to come down the phone line, the actual recompiling is not a big hassle though, as you'd know if you had ever used a real OS.

Not to count a gift horse's teeth before they're hatched though, guys, thanks for the answers. I just assumed that SiS didn't support their kit in linux, since i have not found any real support for my SiS modem or my SiS video card (this latter is supported by newest version of mandrake, and i hear by red hat 7.2 also), then again, the only website i could find for SiS was written in Chinese...
elusive buggers!

[Calum]

i'll just take the opportunity to post this url: http://www.sis.com/support/driver/linux.htm because it's the page from sis.com with all their official linux drivers on it, that you guys mentioned. I wanted to post it because i have bumped into a few other disgruntled people online with grumps about the SiS chipsets and i want to direct them to this page so they can get all the urls all in one...

Now, thanks for looking out those links for me, i had found the first two modem ones already although i haven't had a chance to try them out yet, i will tonight, your last link, seems to be specific to the 2.2 kernel. I do actually have the 2.4 kernel, and as SiS snidely point out on their drivers page, Audio support can be compiled in in the 2.4 kernel. It seems odd to me that this was not automatically done when i installed mandrake, since it is possible to do it. No matter, i will try and do that tonight too (after i have tried that patch).
The video links are no longer necessary, since mandrake configures the SiS630 (but not the 650 apparently) fine all by itself, although i am using the framebuffer, fearing catastrophe if i go for full 3D support. I am told it is a bug in the hardware, but what it is is moot if they can work around it.

Okleydoke, thanks again, i'm just confused about how the SiS 7018 card actually did work with red hat 7.0 (2.2 kernel), with no tweaking from me!?!?!?

[ May 08, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]

[voidmain]

Just curious Calum.  What are the permissions on /dev/dsp?  I've seen a lot of distros shipped that only allow write access to it via root. Also, what is the output from the commands "/sbin/lspci" and "cat /proc/devices"?

And finally, thanks to Zombie for good input.

[ May 08, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]

[voidmain]

I would welcome your normal input if we were on the "Linux Eradication Society" site, but since we're not...

[voidmain]

Calum, check this out:
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?lang=en&sid=2050

[Calum]

quote:Just curious Calum. What are the permissions on /dev/dsp?

There is no /dev/dsp , there is a /dev/sound which is a directory with permissions 'rwxr-xr-x', and a /dev/snd with the same permissions. It contains eight character special files called "controlC0" to "controlC7". All have permissions of 'rw-------'. Is this bad? should i change those? i see they are not writable except by the owner, and as you say, the owner is root. Does this mean only root can currently listen to sounds?
 

quote:Also, what is the output from the commands "/sbin/lspci" and "cat /proc/devices"?

That
threw me for a bit! lspci is actually in /usr/bin, to my confusement! Anyway, here's the output of lspci:

Code: [Select]

And here's the output of cat /proc/devices:

Code: [Select]

To me, this is Greek, hope you understand it, and thanks for taking the time...

i haven't got round to doing any fiddling yet, from any of the sites mentioned above, i can't while i'm on the internet, as my modem doesn't work yet! catch 22!

[voidmain]

It appears that the kernel recognizes your sound card just fine.

If the sound daemon runs as root then anyone should be able to play sound, however if it does not then you will want to change those permissions (won't hurt to change them either way). Just do a "chmod a+rw /dev/snd" etc on each of the sound devices (su to root first). But I think you should have a dsp device unless something has changed recently. Also, if you are using KDE, did you check in the Control Center->Sound section to make sure the sound server is enabled? And that you have the volume turned up in the mixer (I'm sure you've done that part). On my KDE under Sound Server I have these checked:

- Start aRts soundserver on KDE startup
- Run soundserver with realtime priority
- Autosuspend if idle for 60 seconds


And I use "kmix" to adjust the volumes.

Last thing.  Did you look at the link from the Mandrake web site I sent you?  It looks like it is a similar problem that you have and a simple resolution.

And to create the /dev/dsp just to see if that is the problem type this as root:

mknod -m a=rw /dev/dsp c 14 3

[ May 08, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]

[creedon]

Yeah, VoidMain's right; ALWAYS check the volume settings on your mixer- a lot of them are set to the lowest level by default.
Don't feel bad about your sound problems; I'm using LibraNet 2.0 (based on Debian "Woody"), and sound works just fine in KDE 2.2.2, XFCE. IceWM,and BlackBox, but when I start Gnome 1.4, all I get is a 1 second burst of white noise, then silence, then the white noise again, over and over- it drives me NUTS; I'll figure it out eventually- it's really no big deal; I just don't use Gnome all that often.  Ain't Linux GREAT!?!?!?

[Calum]

voidmain's always right!    i'm F. glad voidmain is so consistent in coming up with help.

I have been using Gnome and all the bog standard low end window managers, but i might have to start using KDE if it comes to it, i just like to go the long way round, to see if i can pick up any extra knowledge and info on the way. I haven't had a look at the control dialogue in KDE yet, as a result. I will, and i haven't tried that fix from the mandrake forums yet either, thanks for all the help guys (ie VoidMain) and i'll post again if it doesn't work,,,

[creedon]

quote:Originally posted by Calum:
voidmain's always right!     i'm F. glad voidmain is so consistent in coming up with help.

I have been using Gnome and all the bog standard low end window managers, but i might have to start using KDE if it comes to it, i just like to go the long way round, to see if i can pick up any extra knowledge and info on the way. I haven't had a look at the control dialogue in KDE yet, as a result. I will, and i haven't tried that fix from the mandrake forums yet either, thanks for all the help guys (ie VoidMain) and i'll post again if it doesn't work,,,

Give XFCE a try; it's a really nice little WM, it's small and FAST!!

[Calum]

well, i did all that stuff, that voidmain said, i went and fiddled with my KDE sound server control panel, and i also turned up all the volumes on the audio mixer from the men u bar. (some of them were turned right down) and still no luck, i had those settings the same as you already, voidmain, except the autosuspend if idle, which was set to one second. i changed it to 60 seconds, but i don't know what it does (i know what it sounds like it does, but i think i must be wrong since i can see no reason why it would want to do that).

Right, so then i tried to create /dev/dsp and apparently it is already there! funny business here, so i did an 'ls -al /dev/dsp' and sure enough, there it is, larger than life, i think it had permissions of r-xr-xr-x.

Anyway, i went and ran kmix, as my next systematic attack, and guess what? all the sliders are turned down to nothing! i turn up the PCM volume (and all the rest, never know when you might want to play a CD or record from the mic), and hey presto, SOUND!

so i feel like a prize dope. turn up the volume. an idiot i am for not thinking of it in the first place, but an even worse idiot for thinking that i had when i hadn't! i am just a bit confused about how aumix failed to turn up the controls for me, and kmix did...

Is there a way btw (i know there is, but what is it?) to customise the startbar and menus? in KDE2.4 that is? i want to put kmix on there instead of aumix (i think that's what it is anyway).

Thanks for all your help guys, but it just goes to show that what they say about human error is true...

PS i tried XFCe, and quite liked it. i want to get used to all those windows managers, so i don't get dependent on one or the other too much. Everybody raves about enlightenment, but it's far too top heavy and klunky for me, even if it looks good and has a few nice features...

also, i now know what lspci does.

[ May 10, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]

[voidmain]

Do you mean you want kmix to show up on your start/task bar like an applet?  It's the one I have running on my task bar. It's in the kmix options (Dock Into Panel).

[Master of Reality]

quote:Originally posted by Calum:
i'll just take the opportunity to post this url: http://www.sis.com/support/driver/linux.htm because it's the page from sis.com with all their official linux drivers on it, that you guys mentioned. I wanted to post it because i have bumped into a few other disgruntled people online with grumps about the SiS chipsets and i want to direct them to this page so they can get all the urls all in one...

Now, thanks for looking out those links for me, i had found the first two modem ones already although i haven't had a chance to try them out yet, i will tonight, your last link, seems to be specific to the 2.2 kernel. I do actually have the 2.4 kernel, and as SiS snidely point out on their drivers page, Audio support can be compiled in in the 2.4 kernel. It seems odd to me that this was not automatically done when i installed mandrake, since it is possible to do it. No matter, i will try and do that tonight too (after i have tried that patch).
The video links are no longer necessary, since mandrake configures the SiS630 (but not the 650 apparently) fine all by itself, although i am using the framebuffer, fearing catastrophe if i go for full 3D support. I am told it is a bug in the hardware, but what it is is moot if they can work around it.

Okleydoke, thanks again, i'm just confused about how the SiS 7018 card actually did work with red hat 7.0 (2.2 kernel), with no tweaking from me!?!?!?

[ May 08, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]

i dont know if you remember this far back, but did you use the ddriver from that page^^ and use the binary that comes with it to install?? OR did  you actually recompile your kernel with support for it???

[ October 27, 2002: Message edited by: The Master of Reality / Bob ]