intel8x0m and conexant ac97 modem codecs

intel8x0m and conexant ac97 modem codecs

[Jared D. McNeill]

Hi folks, not sure if this is the right place to ask but I might as
well give it a shot anyway --

I'm working on adding AC97 modem support to NetBSD, and I have run
into a stumbling block. From what I've read, it looks like Conexant
AC97 modem codecs aren't supported by the ALSA intel8x0m / slmodem
solution. What are the technical reasons for this?

Thanks,
Jared (jmcneill AT NetBSD.org)


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Re: intel8x0m and conexant ac97 modem codecs

[Lee Revell]

On Tue, 2005-04-12 at 13:05 -0300, Jared D. McNeill wrote:
> Hi folks, not sure if this is the right place to ask but I might as
> well give it a shot anyway --
> 
> I'm working on adding AC97 modem support to NetBSD, and I have run
> into a stumbling block. From what I've read, it looks like Conexant
> AC97 modem codecs aren't supported by the ALSA intel8x0m / slmodem
> solution. What are the technical reasons for this?

Do you know if any open source driver ever existed for these?  "Lack of
documentation" is the obvious suspect...

Lee



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Re: intel8x0m and conexant ac97 modem codecs

[Jared D. McNeill]

On Apr 12, 2005 3:05 PM, Lee Revell <rlrevell@joe-job.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-04-12 at 13:05 -0300, Jared D. McNeill wrote:
> > Hi folks, not sure if this is the right place to ask but I might as
> > well give it a shot anyway --
> >
> > I'm working on adding AC97 modem support to NetBSD, and I have run
> > into a stumbling block. From what I've read, it looks like Conexant
> > AC97 modem codecs aren't supported by the ALSA intel8x0m / slmodem
> > solution. What are the technical reasons for this?
> 
> Do you know if any open source driver ever existed for these?  "Lack of
> documentation" is the obvious suspect...

I was under the impression that all AC97 modem codecs were supposed to
work the same (as in, use them as the AC97 spec says to). The NetBSD
driver appears to be working for non-Conexant codecs, but I can't get
a Conexant chip to power up through the same initialization routine.
ac97_read(as, AC97_REG_EXT_MODEM_CTRL, &reg) always returns 0xff00
("everything powered down" in the AC97 modem world) on the few
variations of Conexant codecs we've tried.

"Lack of documentation" is most likely the reason; I guess I was just
looking for confirmation from another group that either "Yes, these
chips are broken, we don't support them because we don't have any
documentation", or "Yes, these chips are broken, we had to work around
the problem by doing foo".

Meanwhile, I'm still working on getting some useful documentation from
Conexant..

Cheers,
Jared


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Re: intel8x0m and conexant ac97 modem codecs

[Jared D. McNeill]

On 4/13/05, Sasha Khapyorsky <sashak@smlink.com> wrote:
> There was same 0xff00 with some non-Connexant modems too. Look for recent
> modem related patches in asla-kernel/pci/ac97/ac97_codec.c - it solves
> '0xff00'.

I'll have a peek, thanks for the heads-up.

> About Conexant codec and intel8x0m: I don't know how to run it too and
> there are few reports in alsa-project bug db.

The majority of the NetBSD developers I've discussed this with are
unfortunate enough to have Conexant codecs. I've only done the driver
work for our auich (ICH audio driver), since I don't have any of the
other hardware handy. One of our developers has a Silicon Labs codec,
and he's able to take his modem off-hook and read/write audio without
a problem.

> Some data sheets are here ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/datasheets/conexant,
> but it is unclear (for me) how to hook-off line. I'm looking for CXT "infected"
> machine (hope playing with register may help), but didn't find it yet. Do you
> have one? (BTW: as reported it is IBM TP X40 and higher X, TP R50e, Aspire 1692WLI,
> ASUS a3n and some others).

I've looked at the SmartMC II datasheet -- it doesn't even document
the EXT_MODEM_CTRL register! From what I've read about Conexant HSF
modems, it looks like the majority of them need firmware to be loaded
before they're usable; I don't see any documentation on how to do this
in the AC-Link version, but I wouldn't be suprised if this was the
case.

I'm unfortunate enough to have a CXT codec in my laptop (Dell Latitude D600):
  auich1 at pci0 dev 31 function 6: i82801DB (ICH4) AC-97 Modem
  auich1: interrupting at irq 11
  auich1: ac97: Conexant D480 MDC V.92 Modem codec; no 3D stereo
  auich1: ac97: ext mid 4001<LINE1>, secondary codec
  auich1: codec not responding, status=0xff00

I've had reports that the NetBSD driver is now talking to non-Conexant
codecs just fine. Since I can't power on my Conexant codec, I can't
test this.

Once I get this working, I can finally continue my work on porting
slmodem to the NetBSD audio subsystem.

Thanks!

Cheers,
Jared


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Re: intel8x0m and conexant ac97 modem codecs

[Jared D. McNeill]

On 4/14/05, Sasha Khapyorsky <sashak@smlink.com> wrote:
> On 19:53 Wed 13 Apr     , Jared D. McNeill wrote:
> >
> > I've looked at the SmartMC II datasheet -- it doesn't even document
> > the EXT_MODEM_CTRL register! From what I've read about Conexant HSF
> > modems, it looks like the majority of them need firmware to be loaded
> > before they're usable; I don't see any documentation on how to do this
> > in the AC-Link version, but I wouldn't be suprised if this was the
> > case.
> >
> > I'm unfortunate enough to have a CXT codec in my laptop (Dell Latitude D600):
> >   auich1 at pci0 dev 31 function 6: i82801DB (ICH4) AC-97 Modem
> >   auich1: interrupting at irq 11
> >   auich1: ac97: Conexant D480 MDC V.92 Modem codec; no 3D stereo
> >   auich1: ac97: ext mid 4001<LINE1>, secondary codec
> >   auich1: codec not responding, status=0xff00
> 
> How could I look for NetBSD driver sources?

http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/sys/dev/ic/ac97.c
http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/sys/dev/pci/auich.c

Cheers,
Jared


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Re: intel8x0m and conexant ac97 modem codecs

[Jared D. McNeill]

On 4/13/05, Sasha Khapyorsky <sashak@smlink.com> wrote:
> There was same 0xff00 with some non-Connexant modems too. Look for recent
> modem related patches in asla-kernel/pci/ac97/ac97_codec.c - it solves
> '0xff00'.

Are you talking about rev. 1.183 of ac97_codec.c ? If so, we already
do this in NetBSD. No dice in the Conexant case.

Cheers,
Jared


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Re: intel8x0m and conexant ac97 modem codecs

[Peter Zubaj]

Hi,

Last time I google for this I found, that no one knows how to setup 
analog part of modem - no docs.
One not technical reason - licence of slmodem package forbit use of 
their drivers with modem not made by them - then there is no modem 
software to use alsa modem driver.

Peter Zubaj
 
Jared D. McNeill wrote:

>Hi folks, not sure if this is the right place to ask but I might as
>well give it a shot anyway --
>
>I'm working on adding AC97 modem support to NetBSD, and I have run
>into a stumbling block. From what I've read, it looks like Conexant
>AC97 modem codecs aren't supported by the ALSA intel8x0m / slmodem
>solution. What are the technical reasons for this?
>
>Thanks,
>Jared (jmcneill AT NetBSD.org)
>
>  
>



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Re: intel8x0m and conexant ac97 modem codecs

[Jared D. McNeill]

On Apr 12, 2005 3:17 PM, Peter Zubaj <pzad@pobox.sk> wrote:
> Last time I google for this I found, that no one knows how to setup
> analog part of modem - no docs.

Interesting -- figures that the only hardware that I can actually test
myself would be broken.

> One not technical reason - licence of slmodem package forbit use of
> their drivers with modem not made by them - then there is no modem
> software to use alsa modem driver.

The slmodem sources that I've been working with (slmodem-2.9.9b) don't
mention this restriction. The COPYING file in 2.9.9b appears to be a
standard BSD license; the COPYING file in 2.9.10 mentions this
restriction though.

Cheers,
Jared


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Re: intel8x0m and conexant ac97 modem codecs

[Peter Zubaj]

I am not lawyer.

slmodem consists from two part one comes with source (BSD Licence) and 
second only as compiled object (dsplibs.o part).

Peter Zubaj

Jared D. McNeill wrote:

>On Apr 12, 2005 3:17 PM, Peter Zubaj <pzad@pobox.sk> wrote:
>  
>
>>Last time I google for this I found, that no one knows how to setup
>>analog part of modem - no docs.
>>    
>>
>
>Interesting -- figures that the only hardware that I can actually test
>myself would be broken.
>
>  
>
>>One not technical reason - licence of slmodem package forbit use of
>>their drivers with modem not made by them - then there is no modem
>>software to use alsa modem driver.
>>    
>>
>
>The slmodem sources that I've been working with (slmodem-2.9.9b) don't
>mention this restriction. The COPYING file in 2.9.9b appears to be a
>standard BSD license; the COPYING file in 2.9.10 mentions this
>restriction though.
>
>Cheers,
>Jared
>
>
>  
>



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Re: intel8x0m and conexant ac97 modem codecs

[Jared D. McNeill]

On Apr 12, 2005 3:42 PM, Peter Zubaj <pzad@pobox.sk> wrote:
> I am not lawyer.
> 
> slmodem consists from two part one comes with source (BSD Licence) and
> second only as compiled object (dsplibs.o part).

Sure. We can add a note to the package in pkgsrc (it won't be shipping
with the base system) to this effect.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Cheers,
Jared


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Re: intel8x0m and conexant ac97 modem codecs

[Jared D. McNeill]

On 4/13/05, Sasha Khapyorsky <sashak@smlink.com> wrote:
> On 20:42 Tue 12 Apr     , Peter Zubaj wrote:
> > I am not lawyer.
> >
> > slmodem consists from two part one comes with source (BSD Licence) and
> > second only as compiled object (dsplibs.o part).
> 
> I am not a lawyer too, but originally it was my idea to put ALL slmodem
> stuff under BSD-like license (I've worked for SL some time ago) - there
> is default COPYING + explicit BSD-like header with sources. Unfortunately
> SL decides to change this default with slmodem-2.9.10 (new license for
> dsplibs.o is unclear, but again IANAL). But slmodem != 2.9.10 should be ok.

I have no problems working off slmodem-2.9.9b. What was the original
license for dsplibs.o? It's unclear from the documentation shipped
with the source.

Cheers,
Jared


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