AWE64 initial questions

AWE64 initial questions

[Dave Wreski]

Hi all.  I haven't played with my SB AWE64 in quite a while, so I'm no
longer sure how to get it going again.

Can someone tell me how to get the PnP stuff going?  Where do I get
started?  Whereis the FAQ?  Is the isapnptools necessary under 2.1 still?

Also, if I was looking for a sound-playing program, where is the best
place to look?  Is there one program that does CD audio, and other audio
file formats?

Thanks,
Dave
 

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Emil Stephan]

Dave Wreski wrote:
> 
> Hi all.  I haven't played with my SB AWE64 in quite a while, so I'm no
> longer sure how to get it going again.
> 
> Can someone tell me how to get the PnP stuff going?  Where do I get
> started?  Whereis the FAQ?  Is the isapnptools necessary under 2.1 still?
> 
> Also, if I was looking for a sound-playing program, where is the best
> place to look?  Is there one program that does CD audio, and other audio
> file formats?
> 
> Thanks,
> Dave
> 
Hello Dave and all,
here is what i did with isapnp to my AWE64Gold:

(CONFIGURE CTL009e/4234717 (LD 0
#     ANSI string -->Audio<--
(INT 0 (IRQ 5 (MODE +E)))
(DMA 0 (CHANNEL 1))
(DMA 1 (CHANNEL 5))
(IO 0 (BASE 0x0220))
(IO 1 (BASE 0x0330))
(IO 2 (BASE 0x0388))
(ACT Y)
))
(CONFIGURE CTL009e/4234717 (LD 1
#     ANSI string -->Game<--
(IO 0 (BASE 0x0200))
(ACT Y)
))
(CONFIGURE CTL009e/4234717 (LD 2
#     ANSI string -->WaveTable<--
(IO 0 (BASE 0x0620))
(IO 1 (BASE 0x0A20))
(IO 2 (BASE 0x0E20))
(ACT Y)
))

A problem might be, that pnpdump is not generating the second and third
io for
the wave table synth. Another on is (for me), that midi output to my
keyboard
(musical not computer :-) ) does not work, neither with OSS/Free nor
with
OSS/Linux.

You can find Your Win95 config in a file named CTPNP.CFG in the Windows
directory
and set the values accordingly to avoid resource conflicts.

Remember that you have to download a sound font bank to the Wave table
with a command like this:

/usr/local/bin/sfxload
/win95/Programme/Creative/ctsnd/sfbank/synthgs.sbk

Bye, Emil.

--

--------------------------------------------------
Emil Stephan, Marktplatz 39, 53773 Hennef, Germany
voice: +49-2242-84438

Accelerate Windows: 9.81 m/sec^2 would be adequate

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Dave Wreski]

>> Can someone tell me how to get the PnP stuff going?  Where do I get
>> started?  Whereis the FAQ?  Is the isapnptools necessary under 2.1 still?
>
> Hello Dave and all,
> here is what i did with isapnp to my AWE64Gold:

Ok, as it turns out, I did get it going.  I used the sndconfig program found at
ftp.redhat.com:/pub/sound/ and it generated an /etc/isapnp.conf file identical
to yours.  Has anyone else used this program, or must I go to
redhat-sound@redhat.com for questions on this?

After using 'isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf', how can I tell it worked?  It didn't
complain, but there was also no information available in the normal /proc files,
such as /proc/{interrupts,dma,ioports} etc..  Should there be, or only after the
sound module is installed?

> You can find Your Win95 config in a file named CTPNP.CFG in the Windows
> directory and set the values accordingly to avoid resource conflicts.

Umm... yeah.. No windows here..

> Remember that you have to download a sound font bank to the Wave table
> with a command like this:
> 
> /usr/local/bin/sfxload
> /win95/Programme/Creative/ctsnd/sfbank/synthgs.sbk

Where can I find these necessary files?

Any idea why an RPM hasn't been created for the SBAWE64 yet?  I would think this
methodical process would be easy to create an RPM for...

Thanks,
Dave

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Maddog Abel]

insmod sound
cat /dev/sndstat

Maddog


Dave Wreski wrote:
> 
> After using 'isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf', how can I tell it worked?  It didn't
> complain, but there was also no information available in the normal /proc files,
> such as /proc/{interrupts,dma,ioports} etc..  Should there be, or only after the
> sound module is installed?

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Juan Lupion]

> After using 'isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf', how can I tell it worked?  It didn't
> complain, but there was also no information available in the normal /proc files,
> such as /proc/{interrupts,dma,ioports} etc..  Should there be, or only after the
> sound module is installed?

I f*cked my isapnp.conf config using RedHat's sndconfig. If it
works for you, MY mileage varied. I used pnpdump and then
edited the file by hand, remembering my Win95 setup. No problem
then.  I forgot to uncomment the wave synth section (I had
some headaches till I found the commented entries!)     

There was also a problem with /etc/conf.modules and the dma
entries.  (if you get a error like 'sound: too many values for dma') 
you have the problem. If you see 'AWE32 detected (512k RAM)' 
after loading the module, everything is ok.

> > Remember that you have to download a sound font bank to the Wave table
> > with a command like this:
> > 
> > /usr/local/bin/sfxload
> > /win95/Programme/Creative/ctsnd/sfbank/synthgs.sbk
> Where can I find these necessary files?

In your AWE64 CD (installed automatically when using Windows).  
Remember to tweak the command line parameters to sfxload,you
may experience better sound using the -atenuate option. 

> Any idea why an RPM hasn't been created for the SBAWE64 yet?  I would think this
> methodical process would be easy to create an RPM for...

I havent seen RPMs of patched kernels... 

---------------------------------------------------------------------
J.Lupion Lopez              |   
http://face.el.uma.es/~lupi |   [[[ In Stereo where available ]]]
                            |
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Emil Stephan]

Hello Dave,

Dave Wreski wrote:
> ...
> 
> After using 'isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf', how can I tell it worked?  It didn't
> complain, but there was also no information available in the normal /proc files,
> such as /proc/{interrupts,dma,ioports} etc..  Should there be, or only after the
> sound module is installed?

In /proc You really see nothing, if the driver is not loaded. Same with
other
modules here, e.g. those loaded by kerneld.

But did You use pnpdump to create a prototype isapnp.conf or did You use
the one,
that came with Your Linux distribution ?

> 
> > You can find Your Win95 config in a file named CTPNP.CFG in the Windows
> > directory and set the values accordingly to avoid resource conflicts.
> 
> Umm... yeah.. No windows here..
> 
> > Remember that you have to download a sound font bank to the Wave table
> > with a command like this:
> >
> > /usr/local/bin/sfxload
> > /win95/Programme/Creative/ctsnd/sfbank/synthgs.sbk

Oh Sorry, these are only used if Your AWE64 has RAM on board. These come
with
the win95 drivers of the card. But since You have no Win95, they aren't
installed.
Have a look at the AWE drivers web site:
http://bahamut.mm.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~iwai/awedrv/

You'll find the sources for sfxload there and some links to sound banks,
i hope.

Another fine site for linux sound is:
http://www.bright.net/~dlphilp/linux_soundapps.html

There are many links to sound apps for Linux.

> Where can I find these necessary files?
> 
> Any idea why an RPM hasn't been created for the SBAWE64 yet?  I would think this
> methodical process would be easy to create an RPM for...
> 
> Thanks,
> Dave

Bye, Emil.
-- 
--------------------------------------------------
Emil Stephan, Marktplatz 39, 53773 Hennef, Germany
voice: +49-2242-84438

Accelerate Windows: 9.81 m/sec^2 would be adequate

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Dave Wreski]

> > After using 'isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf', how can I tell it worked?  It
> > didn't complain, but there was also no information available in the
> > normal /proc files, such as /proc/{interrupts,dma,ioports} etc.. 
> > Should there be, or only after the sound module is installed? 
> 
> I f*cked my isapnp.conf config using RedHat's sndconfig. If it
> works for you, MY mileage varied. I used pnpdump and then
> edited the file by hand, remembering my Win95 setup. No problem
> then.  I forgot to uncomment the wave synth section (I had
> some headaches till I found the commented entries!)     

I think the version I used was just released a day or so before I used it.
Perhaps the problems you had have been fixed now.  It's still got some
problems, however, but I managed to trick it into working.

I think it's very important that sound works effortlessly on Linux.  The
average Window's convert won't have the patience to go thru all these
steps...

Dave

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Bill Nottingham]

Dave Wreski (dave@nic.com) said: 
> Ok, as it turns out, I did get it going.  I used the sndconfig program found at
> ftp.redhat.com:/pub/sound/ and it generated an /etc/isapnp.conf file identical
> to yours.  Has anyone else used this program, or must I go to
> redhat-sound@redhat.com for questions on this?

Actually, that's sound-list@redhat.com. But no, you don't need to
go there.

> After using 'isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf', how can I tell it worked?  It didn't
> complain, but there was also no information available in the normal /proc files,
> such as /proc/{interrupts,dma,ioports} etc..  Should there be, or only after the
> sound module is installed?

No; the information will only show up in /proc after the resources
have been allocated by the kernel (i.e., the drivers have been loaded).

> > Remember that you have to download a sound font bank to the Wave table
> > with a command like this:
> > 
> > /usr/local/bin/sfxload
> > /win95/Programme/Creative/ctsnd/sfbank/synthgs.sbk
> 
> Where can I find these necessary files?

sfxload is part of the awesfx package, available from
	http://bahamut.mm.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~iwai/awedrv/index.html
There's an RPM in contrib (I haven't tested it, but it should work
fine).

synthgm.sbk/synthgs.sbk should be on your AWE64 driver disk/CD.

Bill

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Dan Hollis]

On Wed, 9 Sep 1998, Dave Wreski wrote:
> I think it's very important that sound works effortlessly on Linux.  The
> average Window's convert won't have the patience to go thru all these
> steps...

This is why isapnp under linux needs some serious work.
(Underscore, blink, neon lights, until SOMEONE gets the message).

Right now its not acceptable for isapnp to work better under doze95 than
linux. :-(

-Dan

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Dave Wreski]

>> After using 'isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf', how can I tell it worked?  It didn't
>> complain, but there was also no information available in the normal /proc
>> files, such as /proc/{interrupts,dma,ioports} etc..  Should there be, or
>> only after the sound module is installed?
> 
> No; the information will only show up in /proc after the resources
> have been allocated by the kernel (i.e., the drivers have been loaded).

Hmm.. There must be _something_ I can use to discern whether or not it's
worked...

Dave

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Juan Lupion]

> Hmm.. There must be _something_ I can use to discern whether or not it's
> worked...

Only after you 'modprobe sound' and everything goes ok. 
Something like 'AWE synth detected (512K)' appears on my
system.   Before inserting the module you cannot tell
anything. (Am I wrong...?)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
J.Lupion Lopez              |   "No se pueden tomar vacaciones
http://face.el.uma.es/~lupi |    en la escuela de la vida"
                            |              --- Espartaco Santoni
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Dave Wreski]

On 09-Sep-98 Dan Hollis wrote:
> On Wed, 9 Sep 1998, Dave Wreski wrote:
>> I think it's very important that sound works effortlessly on Linux.  The
>> average Window's convert won't have the patience to go thru all these
>> steps...
> 
> This is why isapnp under linux needs some serious work.
> (Underscore, blink, neon lights, until SOMEONE gets the message).
> 
> Right now its not acceptable for isapnp to work better under doze95 than
> linux. :-(

I think what we need is a Linux Publicity Group, which serves to make the
companies aware of just what functionality is currently available.  In other
words, inform the sound manufacturers of our current "Proof of Concept".  It is
in fact possible to produce sound on Linux, and the board can work correctly if
a full-blown driver was written for it..

Maybe someone's interested in putting together an Applix document describing
the current functionality of the sound driver, that is presentable to various
companies?  Or is it abominally poor at this point?

Or does none of what I said sound like even a remotely good idea? ;)

Dave

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Dan Hollis]

On Thu, 10 Sep 1998, Dave Wreski wrote:
> On 09-Sep-98 Dan Hollis wrote:
> > On Wed, 9 Sep 1998, Dave Wreski wrote:
> >> I think it's very important that sound works effortlessly on Linux.  The
> >> average Window's convert won't have the patience to go thru all these
> >> steps...
> > This is why isapnp under linux needs some serious work.
> > (Underscore, blink, neon lights, until SOMEONE gets the message).
> > Right now its not acceptable for isapnp to work better under doze95 than
> > linux. :-(
> I think what we need is a Linux Publicity Group, which serves to make the
> companies aware of just what functionality is currently available.  In other
> words, inform the sound manufacturers of our current "Proof of Concept".  It is
> in fact possible to produce sound on Linux, and the board can work correctly if
> a full-blown driver was written for it..

This isnt going to help.

The fundamental problem is a lack of proper isapnp support in the linux
kernel itself. Until this gets fixed, nothing is going to work right.

Right now getting isapnp devices working under linux is an evil mess.

-Dan

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Hamish Moffatt]

On Wed, Sep 09, 1998 at 05:03:35PM +0200, Juan Lupion wrote:
> > After using 'isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf', how can I tell it worked?  It didn't
> > complain, but there was also no information available in the normal /proc files,
> > such as /proc/{interrupts,dma,ioports} etc..  Should there be, or only after the
> > sound module is installed?
> 
> I f*cked my isapnp.conf config using RedHat's sndconfig. If it

Even worse, sndconfig (at least the version I tried last) is aimed
at using Red Hat-specific sound modularization patches. This give different
module names & parameters than the stuff in Linux 2.1 or the stuff
in OSS/Linux (the commercial sound driver).


Hamish
-- 
Hamish Moffatt, StudIEAust              hamish@debian.org, hamish@moffatt.nu
Student, computer science & computer systems engineering.    4th year, RMIT.
http://hamish.home.ml.org/ (PGP key here)             CPOM: [*******   ] 73%
Get a stable, reliable &  upgradable operating system free at www.debian.org

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Hamish Moffatt]

On Wed, Sep 09, 1998 at 03:13:09PM -0700, Dan Hollis wrote:
> On Wed, 9 Sep 1998, Dave Wreski wrote:
> > I think it's very important that sound works effortlessly on Linux.  The
> > average Window's convert won't have the patience to go thru all these
> > steps...
> 
> This is why isapnp under linux needs some serious work.
> (Underscore, blink, neon lights, until SOMEONE gets the message).
> 
> Right now its not acceptable for isapnp to work better under doze95 than
> linux. :-(

What's wrong with isapnptools? Works fine for me. Setting up /etc/isapnp.conf
is a bit harder than letting Windows do it for you, but Linux is general
requires more intelligence than 95/98 at present. As a result, you get
more flexibility; isapnp doesn't care where you stick your hardware, while 
Windows will do everything it can to stop you manually allocating machine
resources.

To me, Linux uses isapnp just like software setup of ethernet cards; it lets
me pick where to put hardware without changing jumpers, rather than allocating
it where it THINKS it fits.


Hamish
-- 
Hamish Moffatt, StudIEAust              hamish@debian.org, hamish@moffatt.nu
Student, computer science & computer systems engineering.    4th year, RMIT.
http://hamish.home.ml.org/ (PGP key here)             CPOM: [*******   ] 73%
"Note that in C++, as in life, friendship is not transitive" -- TC++3 manual

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Dave Wreski]

> What's wrong with isapnptools? Works fine for me. Setting up /etc/isapnp.conf
> is a bit harder than letting Windows do it for you, but Linux is general
> requires more intelligence than 95/98 at present. As a result, you get
> more flexibility; isapnp doesn't care where you stick your hardware, while 
> Windows will do everything it can to stop you manually allocating machine
> resources.

There's nothing wrong with isapnptools, necessarily.  It would just be
nice if first it was easy to do, then it was very customizable.  While
we're boasting about how configurable it is to use, the idiot windows
users are listing to the latest Pearl Jam, and playing Quake.

> To me, Linux uses isapnp just like software setup of ethernet cards; it
> lets me pick where to put hardware without changing jumpers, rather than
> allocating it where it THINKS it fits. 

Well, I also agree here, but if we keep demanding this, it could later
provide unecessary constraints on PC vendors, requring they ship a machine
with a jumper-based board.  (Among other problems, I'm sure...)

Dave

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Adam Wiggins]

On Fri, 11 Sep 1998, Hamish Moffatt wrote:
> What's wrong with isapnptools? Works fine for me. Setting up /etc/isapnp.conf
> is a bit harder than letting Windows do it for you, but Linux is general
> requires more intelligence than 95/98 at present. As a result, you get
> more flexibility; isapnp doesn't care where you stick your hardware, while 
> Windows will do everything it can to stop you manually allocating machine
> resources.
> 
> To me, Linux uses isapnp just like software setup of ethernet cards; it lets
> me pick where to put hardware without changing jumpers, rather than allocating
> it where it THINKS it fits.

I agree pnpdump/isapnp is a snap to use once you get used to it, but it's
pretty difficult at the start when you just want to get your sound card
working.

At the moment I think a little shell script which worked like xf86config
or even the kernel "make config" would be a big improvement.  Ie, it just
seds the pnpdump file and gives you options:

% pnpsetup
Detected: "Creative Labs PnP Sound Chip"
Use this device? (y/n) y
What IO base? (220, 240, 260, 280, 2A0, 300) 280
What IRQ? (5, 7, 9, 10, 11) 10

Etc.  With a little bit of smarts it could keep track of which irqs were
already in use (and check /proc/pci to not overlap with non-isa pnp
stuff) and warn of conflicts.  This would be highly useful to a person who
is perfectly familiar with setting up their sound blaster to run DOS games
- a "computer person" without being a unix wizard, who is probably Linux's
biggest potential target audience right now.

I'd do it myself if I could program shell scripts worth a damn.  Or does
something like this already exist?

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Hamish Moffatt]

On Fri, Sep 11, 1998 at 11:59:04AM -0700, Adam Wiggins wrote:
> At the moment I think a little shell script which worked like xf86config
> or even the kernel "make config" would be a big improvement.  Ie, it just
> seds the pnpdump file and gives you options:
> 
> % pnpsetup
> Detected: "Creative Labs PnP Sound Chip"
> Use this device? (y/n) y
> What IO base? (220, 240, 260, 280, 2A0, 300) 280
> What IRQ? (5, 7, 9, 10, 11) 10

Actually, that does sound pretty cool. I might write it, unless
someone else has more time than I do (not hard) or more interest than I do
and wants to volunteer. I'll test it; I have PnP sound cards
and modems here, although not in the same box.


Hamish

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[rtlynch]

I would like to work on this.  I've been running linux for a while now but
never have bothered with sound. The last time I compiled my kernel I
included sound as a module but haven't made time to play around with
getting the plug-n-prey to work.  This would be good experience for me as
well as force me to finish my system setup :->

I was thinking of just implementing the script with perl. (Seems easy
anough.)  Are there any common pit falls that anyone can think of?  

	- Rusty Lynch (rtlynch@aracnet.com)

On Sat, 12 Sep 1998, Hamish Moffatt wrote:

> On Fri, Sep 11, 1998 at 11:59:04AM -0700, Adam Wiggins wrote:
> > At the moment I think a little shell script which worked like xf86config
> > or even the kernel "make config" would be a big improvement.  Ie, it just
> > seds the pnpdump file and gives you options:
> > 
> > % pnpsetup
> > Detected: "Creative Labs PnP Sound Chip"
> > Use this device? (y/n) y
> > What IO base? (220, 240, 260, 280, 2A0, 300) 280
> > What IRQ? (5, 7, 9, 10, 11) 10
> 
> Actually, that does sound pretty cool. I might write it, unless
> someone else has more time than I do (not hard) or more interest than I do
> and wants to volunteer. I'll test it; I have PnP sound cards
> and modems here, although not in the same box.
> 
> 
> Hamish
> 

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Dave Wreski]

On 12-Sep-98 rtlynch@aracnet.com wrote:
> I would like to work on this.  I've been running linux for a while now but
> never have bothered with sound. The last time I compiled my kernel I
> included sound as a module but haven't made time to play around with
> getting the plug-n-prey to work.  This would be good experience for me as
> well as force me to finish my system setup :->
> 
> I was thinking of just implementing the script with perl. (Seems easy
> anough.)  Are there any common pit falls that anyone can think of?  

Guys, while I think this is a good idea, and something that surely can help a
lot of people, perhaps your efforts would be better applied if you focused on
the sndconfig utility that already has a moderately-working implementation.

Wouldn't it be better to start with the internals of sndconfig, port it to your
version of Linux, and resubmit the changes back to the maintainer of sndconfig?

Perhaps someone wants to make it gtk-capable, so we can have a graphical means
of controlling our PnP devices...

Dave

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Jim]

For the sake of sounding rude...
But if we did that, and make it all simple like, wouldnt we then have
windoze?

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Wreski <dave@nic.com>
To: rtlynch@aracnet.com <rtlynch@aracnet.com>
Cc: Linux Sound Mailing List <linux-sound@vger.rutgers.edu>; Linux Sound
Mailing List <linux-sound@vger.rutgers.edu>; Adam Wiggins <adam@angel.com>;
Hamish Moffatt <moffatt@cs.rmit.edu.au>
Date: Saturday, September 12, 1998 9:00 PM
Subject: Re: AWE64 initial questions


>
>On 12-Sep-98 rtlynch@aracnet.com wrote:
>> I would like to work on this.  I've been running linux for a while now
but
>> never have bothered with sound. The last time I compiled my kernel I
>> included sound as a module but haven't made time to play around with
>> getting the plug-n-prey to work.  This would be good experience for me as
>> well as force me to finish my system setup :->
>>
>> I was thinking of just implementing the script with perl. (Seems easy
>> anough.)  Are there any common pit falls that anyone can think of?
>
>Guys, while I think this is a good idea, and something that surely can help
a
>lot of people, perhaps your efforts would be better applied if you focused
on
>the sndconfig utility that already has a moderately-working implementation.
>
>Wouldn't it be better to start with the internals of sndconfig, port it to
your
>version of Linux, and resubmit the changes back to the maintainer of
sndconfig?
>
>Perhaps someone wants to make it gtk-capable, so we can have a graphical
means
>of controlling our PnP devices...
>
>Dave
>

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[llornkcor]

No- 
        Linux wouldnt crash....

On 13-Sep-98 Jim wrote:
> For the sake of sounding rude...
> But if we did that, and make it all simple like, wouldnt we then have
> windoze?
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Wreski <dave@nic.com>
> To: rtlynch@aracnet.com <rtlynch@aracnet.com>
> Cc: Linux Sound Mailing List <linux-sound@vger.rutgers.edu>; Linux Sound
> Mailing List <linux-sound@vger.rutgers.edu>; Adam Wiggins <adam@angel.com>;
> Hamish Moffatt <moffatt@cs.rmit.edu.au>
> Date: Saturday, September 12, 1998 9:00 PM
> Subject: Re: AWE64 initial questions
> 
> 
>>
>>On 12-Sep-98 rtlynch@aracnet.com wrote:
>>> I would like to work on this.  I've been running linux for a while now
> but
>>> never have bothered with sound. The last time I compiled my kernel I
>>> included sound as a module but haven't made time to play around with
>>> getting the plug-n-prey to work.  This would be good experience for me as
>>> well as force me to finish my system setup :->
>>>
>>> I was thinking of just implementing the script with perl. (Seems easy
>>> anough.)  Are there any common pit falls that anyone can think of?
>>
>>Guys, while I think this is a good idea, and something that surely can help
> a
>>lot of people, perhaps your efforts would be better applied if you focused
> on
>>the sndconfig utility that already has a moderately-working implementation.
>>
>>Wouldn't it be better to start with the internals of sndconfig, port it to
> your
>>version of Linux, and resubmit the changes back to the maintainer of
> sndconfig?
>>
>>Perhaps someone wants to make it gtk-capable, so we can have a graphical
> means
>>of controlling our PnP devices...
>>
>>Dave
>>

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Adam Wiggins]

> Guys, while I think this is a good idea, and something that surely can help a
> lot of people, perhaps your efforts would be better applied if you focused on
> the sndconfig utility that already has a moderately-working implementation.

Enlighten us, then.  What is sndconfig and where can we find a copy?

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Dave Wreski]

> > Guys, while I think this is a good idea, and something that surely can help a
> > lot of people, perhaps your efforts would be better applied if you focused on
> > the sndconfig utility that already has a moderately-working implementation.
> 
> Enlighten us, then.  What is sndconfig and where can we find a copy?

Check out:

ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/sound/sndconfig

It seems to be able to probe your system for PnP sound cards.  Actually,
I'm not sure if it's capable of probing for more than just SB cards.
Also, I think it's configured to use the new sound modules available in
the development kernels, and a patch to 2.0.35.

Perhaps the gentleman from RH can respond?

Dave

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[rtlynch]

Just this last weekend I was looking at the source code for sndconfig.  As
far as the probing sound cards go, sndconfig just runs pnpdump and then
parses through the output looking for sound blaster entries. If there are
no sound blaster entries then your out of luck.  Adding other sound cards
doesn't look like it would be to hard to do.

Although, I found that my CS4236B ANSI entries from pnpdump has a nasty
habit of sticking a null on the end.  When sndconfig parses through the
pnpdump output, it dumps out as soon as it comes across the CS4236B entry.
Has anyone else seen pnp sound cards that stick null's within pnpdump's
output? 

On Mon, 14 Sep 1998, Dave Wreski wrote:

> 
> > > Guys, while I think this is a good idea, and something that surely can help a
> > > lot of people, perhaps your efforts would be better applied if you focused on
> > > the sndconfig utility that already has a moderately-working implementation.
> > 
> > Enlighten us, then.  What is sndconfig and where can we find a copy?
> 
> Check out:
> 
> ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/sound/sndconfig
> 
> It seems to be able to probe your system for PnP sound cards.  Actually,
> I'm not sure if it's capable of probing for more than just SB cards.
> Also, I think it's configured to use the new sound modules available in
> the development kernels, and a patch to 2.0.35.
> 
> Perhaps the gentleman from RH can respond?
> 
> Dave
> 
> 

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Bill Nottingham]

Dave Wreski (dave@nic.com) said: 
> Check out:
> 
> ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/sound/sndconfig
> 
> It seems to be able to probe your system for PnP sound cards.  Actually,
> I'm not sure if it's capable of probing for more than just SB cards.
> Also, I think it's configured to use the new sound modules available in
> the development kernels, and a patch to 2.0.35.
> 
> Perhaps the gentleman from RH can respond?

While I have no idea who this gentleman is you speak of...

sndconfig is more or less (for PnP cards) a wrapper that
reads the output of pnpdump and writes an isapnp.conf file.
Currently (i.e., the beta version in /pub/sound/sndconfig)
it recognizes SB, ESS, GUS, Ensoniq SoundScape,
CS4232 & (one) Turtle Beach PnP cards through a verrrry
simple algorithm. It takes advantage of the '--config' option
of pnpdump to attempt to autoconfigure PnP cards - this option
tells pnpdump to attempt to find nonconflicting values
(via looking at /proc/interrupts, etc.). What it notably *doesn't*
do is actually read the pnpdump output to determine the ranges
of settings to use; the choices available are hardcoded if the user
is inputting them. It probably should be changed to do this.
It also may not quite configure all the cards that it tries
to correctly, as we don't have all of them to test. :)

Yes, it does require the sound drivers from either a 2.1.late
kernel, or Alan's sound patches.

Of course, if anyone wants to use this as a base point for
a generic PnP configuration utility, they can. It certainly
isn't a particularly complicated program/idea; there's probably
quite a few ways to do the same thing.

Bill

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Hamish Moffatt]

On Mon, Sep 14, 1998 at 04:09:04PM -0400, Dave Wreski wrote:
> > > Guys, while I think this is a good idea, and something that surely can help a
> > > lot of people, perhaps your efforts would be better applied if you focused on
> > > the sndconfig utility that already has a moderately-working implementation.
> Check out:
> ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/sound/sndconfig
> 
> It seems to be able to probe your system for PnP sound cards.  Actually,
> I'm not sure if it's capable of probing for more than just SB cards.
> Also, I think it's configured to use the new sound modules available in
> the development kernels, and a patch to 2.0.35.

But that's sound configuration -- I think we are talking about
a generic PnP utility to handle sound, modems, network cards etc.
I certainly was.

Last time I looked at sndconfig (a while back) it did not use
the new sound modules, but some Redhat-specific sound modularization
patches. Hence it did not work for me on my Debian system; otherwise
we would probably have a Debian package of it.


Hamish
-- 
Hamish Moffatt, StudIEAust              hamish@debian.org, hamish@moffatt.nu
Student, computer science & computer systems engineering.    4th year, RMIT.
http://hamish.home.ml.org/ (PGP key here)             CPOM: [*******   ] 73%
"Note that in C++, as in life, friendship is not transitive" -- TC++3 manual

Re: AWE64 initial questions

[Hamish Moffatt]

On Sat, Sep 12, 1998 at 12:54:21PM -0700, rtlynch@aracnet.com wrote:
> I would like to work on this.  I've been running linux for a while now but
> never have bothered with sound. The last time I compiled my kernel I
> included sound as a module but haven't made time to play around with
> getting the plug-n-prey to work.  This would be good experience for me as
> well as force me to finish my system setup :->
> 
> I was thinking of just implementing the script with perl. (Seems easy
> anough.)  Are there any common pit falls that anyone can think of?  

perl is where I'd start too. No pitfalls that I know of, but I haven't
done a lot of perl myself either.


Hamish
-- 
Hamish Moffatt, StudIEAust              hamish@debian.org, hamish@moffatt.nu
Student, computer science & computer systems engineering.    4th year, RMIT.
http://hamish.home.ml.org/ (PGP key here)             CPOM: [*******   ] 73%
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