Problem detecting this ISA non PnP sound card(SOLVED)

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fernan
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Joined: Tue 23 Jan 2007, 13:56
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Problem detecting this ISA non PnP sound card(SOLVED)

#1 Post by fernan »

HI,

I'm trying to install PUPPY 2.16 in an Epson Action PC 5600 series.

200Mhz processor, 128 Mb ram , 1,8 Gb HD.

And a legacy ISA sound card

NewCom Inc. High Fidelity 16i(HF16i)
OPTi 82C929A: Main chip
Analog Devices AD1848KP: Codec/Mixer(WSS chip)
TL084BC: General Purpose J-FET Quad Operational Amplifier
Philips TDA1521A: 6W x2 stereo hi-fi audio power amplifier
Yamaha YMF262-M + YAC512-M: OPL3 FM chip

I've found a web site with this data and a picture of the card.
http://www.dearhoney.idv.tw/Museum/OPTi/HF16i.htm
The only difference with my card, is the chipset labeled AD1848 , that in my card is labeled AD1846. The rest of the card is exactly the same.

After running ALSA wizard, Puppy tells me to use the snd-sb8 module, and it adds the following options to modprobe.conf : irq8=5 dma8=1

But the sound doesn' t work. Just some static noise from the card.
I've tried PUPPY 2.10 with the same result.

I've tried to manually load the module snd-opti92x-ad1848 wich seems to match the chips located in my card, but I get a message telling something like "no such device".

I've also tried replacing the lines added by ALSA in modprobe.conf, replacing "snd-sb8" by "snd-opti92x-ad1848", keeping the irq and dma options, but I also get an error in /var/log/messages related to "invalid option" or "unknown option" (sorry, I don' t remember well)

Is snd-sb8 the right module for this card?

How to get the right IRQ and DMA information?

Is it another module to drive this card? How can I load it, and how to add irq and dma options (I mean, right sintaxis)

I was looking at this, but I don' t know what options are needed:
http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index. ... 92x-ad1848
http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index. ... Module-sb8

Thanks in advance.

Fernan.-

>> I've removed the picture according to instructions "Images -> Maximum Upload Size: 0 Bytes"
The original picture can be found in the link http://www.dearhoney.idv.tw/Museum/OPTi/HF16i.htm
Last edited by fernan on Wed 26 Mar 2008, 22:08, edited 4 times in total.

Sage
Posts: 5536
Joined: Tue 04 Oct 2005, 08:34
Location: GB

#2 Post by Sage »

Please resize your picture according to instructions!
Is snd-sb8 the right module for this card?
Yes, but......
I've not had a lot of luck with old Opti nor Yamaha ISA cards.

Sometime recently, Barry tweaked one of his releases that enabled me to get genuine SB and Crystal ISA sound cards to work. I reported this, so search under my handle.
Of course, as I'm sure I reported, there are major advantages in resurrecting ISA sound cards, apart from saving landfill, in that many contained a decent OP chip sufficient to run a decent pair of hi-fi speakers in a smallish office directly without recourse to yet another power adapter or those expensive but crappy tin boxes that pass for speakers.
Get your big old hi-fi speakers from a roadside skip (if necessary, open them up, add baffle wadding and glue additional stiffening battens across the frame; reseal with a draft-proofing gasket) and ditto your SB cards - millions are discarded daily!

fernan
Posts: 449
Joined: Tue 23 Jan 2007, 13:56
Location: Buenos Aires

#3 Post by fernan »

Looking for a solution, before posting this question, I was reading your post about the advantages of ISA cards, and many others related to legacy ISA cards, but I didn't find a solution for this card.

According to your answer I will keep triyng with sb8 module.

About
Barry tweaked one of his releases
Does it mean "last version of Puppy"? or do I need to download some patches created for this pourpose?

Anyway I'll try PUPPY 3.01 retro and post the results...

Thanks

Sage
Posts: 5536
Joined: Tue 04 Oct 2005, 08:34
Location: GB

#4 Post by Sage »

I can't remember which version - you'll find that when you find my comments - but it just happened without extra patching.
Where are you? Please edit your profile. There's a faint chance I've got something in the spares box, but no promises!

Sage
Posts: 5536
Joined: Tue 04 Oct 2005, 08:34
Location: GB

#5 Post by Sage »

Ooooo! Buenos Aires is a long way off! Shouldn't you be concentrating on the Mardi Gras Carnival?!

fernan
Posts: 449
Joined: Tue 23 Jan 2007, 13:56
Location: Buenos Aires

#6 Post by fernan »

Actually in Buenos Aires there isn' t too much "Carnaval"... Brasil is better for that...

Regarding the sound card... Puppy 3.01 does the same: snd-sb8 module, but no sound out of the card... Perhaps I should try W98 and see what happens.

Anyway I could buy anther card, but the PC was a gift, and I prefere use it as it is...

I'll try also another distros, to see what happens...

regards

fernan

Sage
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Joined: Tue 04 Oct 2005, 08:34
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#7 Post by Sage »

I was under the impression that Carnival stretched all the way down from New Orleans, through the Caribbean, Brasil, Argentina down to Puntas Arenas where my ancestors settled?!!
Your card will work in W98 - drivers exist. If you have problems, send me a PM and I'll email the drivers.
That word 'buy' sits uneasily for any city dweller - surely you can find plenty of scrap PCs down there? A Skt7/P1 is most likely to contain a genuine SB card. It's child's play to install it. If you're lucky, you might even find an SB128 on a PCI card.
You might find that Knoppix3, one of the major distros, or one that claims to cater for older machines with an i386 build could work. There are a lot of Opti cards out there - they were very popular; the company was taken over several years ago.

fernan
Posts: 449
Joined: Tue 23 Jan 2007, 13:56
Location: Buenos Aires

#8 Post by fernan »

Is it possible to use ndiswrapper and W98 drivers???

sb8 seems not to work...

What about the opti92x-ad1848 module?

Thanks

(I could swap this sound card with another W98 computer...)(but I want to learn how to make it work !!!! )

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steevieb
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Location: Poole, Dorset. UK

#9 Post by steevieb »

mixer channels are muted by default
what happens if you open rxvt and type
alsamixer

(arrow keys move though the options and set levels)

Sage
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#10 Post by Sage »

steevie is right, but you'll also "learn more" by swapping stuff around!
I've just uncovered a nice SB CT4180 Vibra16 on ISA. Not sure whether we can get it down to B.A. in one piece? Perhaps the RAF can fly it down to one of those nearby islands?!

tempestuous
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#11 Post by tempestuous »

fernan,
Your sound card probably supports SoundBlaster emulation, that's why the snd-sb8 is identified as being a valid driver.
But yes, the snd-opti92x-ad1848 driver should be optimal.
Forget about alsaconf, just do the configuration manually.

First check that the snd-opti92x-ad1848 driver is accessable, because quite a few people on this forum experience problems with the zdrv file (driver collection).
Do this

Code: Select all

rmmod snd-sb8
modprobe snd-opti92x-ad1848
If there are no errors, it means that the snd-opti92x-ad1848 driver loaded, and sound might actually work. If sound doesn't work, then the driver probably failed to set the correct IRQ and DMA values.
The next step would be to specify these settings as module options ... but we will be faced with the difficult task of finding out these values.
My first approach would be to Google for the settings, and my second approach would be to guess the settings (most ISA sound cards seem to take IRQ 5).
As a last resort you could temporarily install Windows to find these values!
But cross that bridge when you come to it. First see if the driver can be accessed, and loaded.

Oh, and you should remove (delete, or comment out) all ALSA configuration lines in /etc/modprobe.conf, because these will be configured for the snd-sb8 module.

Sage
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Joined: Tue 04 Oct 2005, 08:34
Location: GB

#12 Post by Sage »

Just for the record (sorry about that one!), I checked out this SB / Vibra16 chip with ALSA on ISA-legacy-SB16driver using 3.02alpha on an ancient C400 board. Immediate response - no need to adjust mixer from defaults to get 'one bark'. No need to tweak anything. Wouldn't risk Dingo for all sorts of reasons, but P3.02 is OK for ISA.
Seem to remember BK(?) already telling us that ESS drivers don't work (on ESS cards, presumably) - but then ESS cards can be a pig on W9x.

tempestuous
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Location: Australia

#13 Post by tempestuous »

Google found this ALSA documentation relating to your card:

Module snd-opti92x-ad1848
Module for soundcards based on OPTi 82c92x and Analog Devices AD1848 chips.
Module works with OAK Mozart cards as well.
This module supports only one card, autoprobe and PnP.

port - port # for WSS chip (0x530,0xe80,0xf40,0x604)
mpu_port - port # for MPU-401 UART (0x300,0x310,0x320,0x330)
fm_port - port # for OPL3 device (0x388)
irq - IRQ # for WSS chip (5,7,9,10,11)
mpu_irq - IRQ # for MPU-401 UART (5,7,9,10)
dma1 - first DMA # for WSS chip (0,1,3)

So if it's necessary to specify options when loading your module, according to this information the command should be:

Code: Select all

modprobe snd-opti92x-ad1848 port=0x530 irq=5 dma1=0
The midi-related options are not important.

fernan
Posts: 449
Joined: Tue 23 Jan 2007, 13:56
Location: Buenos Aires

#14 Post by fernan »

thanks everybody for your answers. I´m still triyng every option, even without writing here all the results.

tempestuous, I was looking at the info about opti92x module (see the first post) here:
http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index. ... 92x-ad1848

but I didn´t know what options to load.

regarding this command line:
So if it's necessary to specify options when loading your module, according to this information the command should be:
Code:
modprobe snd-opti92x-ad1848 port=0x530 irq=5 dma1=0

The midi-related options are not important.
Are this the options for my card, or do I need to check port and dma numbers? (I know my card uses irq5, but I´m not sure about the rest).
This is what the puppy alsa wizard detected:
After running ALSA wizard, Puppy tells me to use the snd-sb8 module, and it adds the following options to modprobe.conf : irq8=5 dma8=1
I´ve found that adding the option isapnp=no I don´t get the message "no such device".
I will try anyway in a ram session, to have a clean puppy install.

fernan
Posts: 449
Joined: Tue 23 Jan 2007, 13:56
Location: Buenos Aires

#15 Post by fernan »

The card is now working !!! Thanks.

This is what i've done:

Booted puppy 3.01 retro. Installed to HD (frugal).

Reboot.

Run ALSA wizard, to see irq and dma detected by the wizard.

ALSA added this lines to modprobe.conf
alias snd-card-0 snd-sb8
alias sound-slot-0 snd-sb8
options snd-sb8 dma8=1 irq=5
Sound didn't work.

Replaced the ALSA lines by these ones:
alias snd-card-0 snd-opti92x-ad1848
alias sound-slot-0 snd-opti92x-ad1848
options snd-opti92x-ad1848 irq=5 dma1=1 isapnp=no
rebooted.

The sound is working :-)

I hope this can help somebody else.

Now I'm going for the modem..... (Zoltrix 33.6, ISA, non PnP, PCtel PCT288-IA chip...)

Thanks .

fernan

fernan
Posts: 449
Joined: Tue 23 Jan 2007, 13:56
Location: Buenos Aires

#16 Post by fernan »

Because of an error message related to IRQ5 (in dmesg), I've removed the "irq=5" option, and the sound card still works.

Fernan.-

Sage
Posts: 5536
Joined: Tue 04 Oct 2005, 08:34
Location: GB

#17 Post by Sage »

Nice piece of work, fernan. This is the sort of thing we need to extract and propagate as a template. Could try sending it to Lobster or someone to incorporate into wiki, sticky, w.h.y.

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