Alsa problem
Forum: Multimedia
Topic: Alsa problem
started by: blip
Posted by blip on Dec. 29 2007,16:52
Hi everyoneForgive 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 
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
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| Can you run Vista from a CD or USB stick, much less load it to RAM? |