Alsa problem


Forum: Multimedia
Topic: Alsa problem
started by: blip

Posted by blip on Dec. 29 2007,16:52
Hi everyone
Forgive me...i'm using DSL 3.4 for now....but this applies to me using 4.2 as well.

I can't work out why alsa isn't working with my bog standard soundcard ( Creative labs sb16). I've had it working in the past.....I wonder if it's these pcs  ( they are identical Asus Terminators )....I can't imagine that could be the problem.

Alsa says it can't find any soundcards..........I've tried re-installing.....tried XMMS with Alsa (doesn't work)...it doesn't seem to detect the Soundblaster on startup.........

Can anyone think of what I can do? If you can't support 3.4 no problem...I do understand.........

PS LSPCI does list the Soundblaster................here's some output below---thanks alot




dsl@box:~$ alsaconf
You must be root to use this script.
dsl@box:~$ sudo alsaconf
Building card database..
/usr/sbin/alsaconf: line 454: /var/tmp/alsaconf.cards: No such file or directory
/usr/sbin/alsaconf: line 1140: /var/tmp/alsaconf.cards: No such file or directory
/usr/sbin/alsaconf: line 1140: /var/tmp/alsaconf.cards: No such file or directory
No card database is found..
dsl@box:~$
dsl@box:~$ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by    Tainted: P  
wlan_wep                4224   1 (autoclean)
ndiswrapper           175740   0
nls_iso8859-1           2844   0 (autoclean)
mousedev                3832   0 (unused)
hid                    22372   0 (unused)
input                   3168   0 [mousedev hid]
soundcore               3428   0 (autoclean)
cloop                  39364   0 (unused)
af_packet              13544   0 (autoclean)
agpgart                42660   0 (unused)
wlan_scan_sta           9632   1 (autoclean)
ath_pci                66932   1
ath_rate_sample         7484   0 [ath_pci]
wlan                  137500   1 [wlan_wep wlan_scan_sta ath_pci ath_rate_sample                                                                                     ]
ath_hal               172656   1 [ath_pci ath_rate_sample]
sis900                 11980   0
crc32                   2816   0 [sis900]
serial                 52068   0 (autoclean)
usb-ohci               18088   0 (unused)
usbcore                57824   1 [ndiswrapper hid usb-ohci]
pcmcia_core            39840   0
thermal                 6532   0 (unused)
processor               8976   0 [thermal]
fan                     1568   0 (unused)
button                  2508   0 (unused)
battery                 5888   0 (unused)
asus_acpi               8748   0 (unused)
ac                      1792   0 (unused)
ide-cd                 28704   0
ide-scsi                9040   0
rtc                     7004   0 (autoclean)
dsl@box:~$


box:~$ sudo lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 0650 (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5591/5592 AGP
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 0961
00:02.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001 (rev 07)
00:02.3 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001 (rev 07)
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE] (rev d0)
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS7012 PCI Audio Accelerator (rev a0)
00:03.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 10/100 Ethernet (rev 90)
00:0e.0 Ethernet controller: Unknown device 168c:0013 (rev 01)
00:0f.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq 5880 AudioPCI (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 6325
dsl@box:~$

Posted by blip on Dec. 29 2007,18:15
Ok it not's often I get to solve something and post the solution up :D

I couldn't work out what this was.......... in the end I went to the Bios ( it's an old Pentium 4 ) and checked out the IRQ assignment...it was set to 'Auto' for the PCI cards....so I manually set an IRQ for the Creative Soundblaster.....now when you run Alsa setup it sees the card......

Thank god! I wouldn't have known what to check there. And 2 identical pcs were doing the same thing.....

I alsa want to say as I have before...despite my little gripes about DSL at times it's fantastic.....it is so quick! I've got Vista on a dual core laptop and it's so slow compared to DSL on 256MB Ram on a p4. Admittedly DSL can't do as much ...granted...but it's lighting fast for web browsing and firefox.  It really puts windows to shame.....anyone reading this should try it out....


Also Muse is a very good sequencer that runs in DSL.....it's pretty basic but I haven't come across a better interface for making music yet ( Logic 8 looks very good by the way!). Ok so Muse won't do VST plug ins ( in this version of DSL/Muse) but it's a great midi sequencer. It's very well thought out and not unlike Cubase...........I recommend you try it if you want to make music...I have the ideal setup now...Muse on DSL with a p4 and I run Forte (paid) that hosts my various plug ins...it's nice as you have 2 dedicated screens for the arranger and the instruments.....I am very happy with this setup now....and what's great is I can go online at the same time as making music....all thanks to DSL.....so thanks everyone...a happy new Year to everyone at DSL.

Posted by lucky13 on Dec. 29 2007,19:23
Hmmm, what you do "admittedly" mean DSL can't do as much? Can you run Vista from a CD or USB stick, much less load it to RAM?
Posted by blip on Dec. 30 2007,01:19
Sorry Lucky13 I didn't mean it to phrase it like that....yes it's amazing you can run DSL from USB stick/Ram...........truly amazing.....you can build a silent PC that is easy to backup.........a first in my book. Just some of the more well known apps are not always present....VST instruments..sequencers... e.t.c ...I wasn't trying to knock it at all....and with Wine it's amazing how many apps will run ( on such a lightweight os).

I did try Ubuntu ...it was quite slow in comparison ( I used Xubuntu for a while).........DSL is lightining fast compared to any other Linux Distro. To think of all those PC's people chuck out...my P4 feels faster than my dual core............I am going to move over to DSL now as my main OS.

I don't need to knock Vista anymore than it has been but it's amazing to think - what - 7 years work on it .....from a massive company like Microsoft............I am getting to the stage of not wanting Aero eye candy but going back to a simpler interface that just gets the job done...........I liked OS 9 because of this........I much prefer it to OS X.

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Dec. 31 2007,01:23
OT:
Quote
Can you run Vista from a CD or USB stick, much less load it to RAM?
You probably could, if you had the hardware (and/or an optimized/stripped down version) and the time to make one.

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