How to add ALSA to Puppy 1.0.4 HD install

[jcoder24]

Reply to post http://www.murga.org/~puppy/viewtopic.php?t=4454

Well the installs proceeded with the only problem that my next to final message being "could not load alsa drivers".

"could not load alsa drivers" usu occurs if the oss modules are not removed before trying to install the alsa modules. You can try lsmod | grep sound to verify that oss wasn't unloaded. You can check /var/log/messages or run insmod snd-xxxx where snd-xxxx is the module for your card for more info.

What was the name of the alsa pup file you downloaded?

Since there was no uninstall for alsa pup I attemted to remove "alsa" by deleting two alsa folders.

You should be able to uninstall the dotpup via pupget package manager. However, that wouldn't cleanup the /etc/rc.d/rc.local script.

Which two alsa folders did you delete?

I now have problem on boot up where script shows my /etc/modules.conf is more recent than /lib/modules/2.4.29/modules.dep

This isn't really a problem, just a system notice.

AND in addition there appears to be a reference in file rc.d that needs to be edited or removed since the follwing message also appears:

"Copying alsa modules into place...
/etc/rc.d/rc.local: /etc.rc.d/rc.loadalsa: No such file or directory'

I'll create a script to uninstall alsa. Untill then you can manually clean up /etc/rc.d/rc.local by deleting all of the following lines:

Code: Select all

echo Copying alsa modules into place....

cp -r /usr/lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/sound/* /lib/modules/2.4.29/sound > /dev/null
depmod

#load alsa
/etc/rc.d/rc.loadalsa

jc

[jcoder24]

Flash

The installation doesn't require a reboot or xwin restart.

The icon should be puppy's wizard icon, so I hope that the right program ran. Maybe I should remove the menu entry?

As for the system freezing I'm at a lost, if only we had some logs. It would be nice to see what happens with a 'clean' pupxxx file.

The Gizmo scenario is a bit weird. I'll run some test tonight and try to compile an updated gizmo package.

NB To verify that alsa is loaded you can run /etc/rc.d/rc.alsa status.

jc

[krumpli]

It appears that the topic was moved to this forum.

The two pup files downloaded were (from this forum):
alsa-1.0.10-1207a.pup and alsa-oss.pup. The oss pup did show in the removal list when you went to the package manager, but the alsa did not appear. I must also mention that I do not recall seeing the alsacfg pup listed above the oss pup in this forum. I actually downloaded the pup by clicking on a link in the forum that connected to rapid upload and was then shown the alsa pup to download. In addition it was unclear which should be run first. My procedure was to run the alsa extraction first and then the oss extraction and finally the alsacfg script.

Afterwards when I rebooted my boot script had a new portion added at the end that started with grep and some instructions, but can provide no more info since the screen was scrolling too quickly.

Sorry to say that I do not recall what the two folders were that I deleted but can add that they both had alsa as the whole name or part of the name..

There also was an issue in the forum with removing the oss drivers first. BUT it appeared to me (my interpretation skills as you can see are weak) that one of the installation scripts did the removal.

In my PM with Flash he stated he could not find where the download for either alsa or oss went onto his filesystem. I did not have this problem. Both downloads were in the expected folder. Both extracted well. Then I ran the command alsacfg from the rxvt console window (and yes there was a menu added to the start menu that most likely would have done the same). Finally when the alsa config was nearing completion the notice that "could not load alsa drivers".

On a closing note I most likely did not fare to well with my reading comprehension either since you will note that this forum heading has to do with adding Alsa to a Puppy HD installation and I am using Puppy as a live cd option 1 ( I do have a gig of ram) so maybe/most likely therein lies the problem.

Thanks again,
PaulM

[Flash]

...In my PM with Flash he stated he could not find where the download for either alsa or oss went onto his filesystem....

Just so nobody can claim I caused more than my fair share of confusion, at that time I think I had only tried the alsa pupget; I had not yet tried jcoder24's alsa dotpups. I still have no idea where the OSS files are, but jcoder24's alsa dotpups seem to work without requiring me to, so I'm a happy camper.

[jcoder24]

Removed alsa-oss package as it appears not to be needed.

Uploaded new/updated files to original post.

Changes
- Updated libasound (for version consistency) in the original package and provided it as separate package.
- Updated the run-alsacfg menu entry to run in the foreground in a rxvt console.
- Added some error checks to configuration and startup scripts.
- Created rmalsa to uninstall alsa.
- Backup /etc/modules.conf on boot so that alsa can be easily reconfigured at any time.

jc

[Flash]

Hey jcoder, thanks. Should it work ok with 1.0.7a do you think?

[jcoder24]

Hey jcoder, thanks. Should it work ok with 1.0.7a do you think?

It should. I'll test it and post my results.

**EDIT** Works fine in 1.0.7a

[jcoder24]

Finally when the alsa config was nearing completion the notice that "could not load alsa drivers".

Next time run lsmod before you run alsacfg and post the details here. Note what happens while alsacfg is running especially the part that reports if any OSS drivers were found. Also, post the contents of /etc/alsa.conf if it exists.

On a closing note I most likely did not fare to well with my reading comprehension either since you will note that this forum heading has to do with adding Alsa to a Puppy HD installation

The package should work for both hard drive and live cd 'installations' of puppy. However, the package is still in the testing phase and there may be something about your system that I may need to pay more attention to.

[Flash]

I downloaded the alsa dotpup package and installed it in 1.0.7a, apparently without a hitch.

In the alsa thread in the Add'l S'ware forum,
[quote="tempestuous"]...I originally added ALSA to my version of Puppy because I noticed that with my ESS ES1879 and OSS that music playback was the wrong speed

[tempestuous]

Flash,
I think you have a different problem to the one that I described.

Any firmware initialisation of your sound card is lost when you power down.
So your sound card is "free" of any effect of the Windows driver when you cold boot to the Puppy CD.
The problem I described happens when you boot into Windows first, then reboot into Linux without fully powering down.

[jcoder24]

Quoted from http://www.murga.org/~puppy/viewtopic.php?t=4618

When I try to adjust volume in alsamixer I get this error:

alsamixer: relocation error: alsamixer: symbol snd_mixer_selem_get_play
back_dB, version ALSA 0.9 not defined in file libasound.so.2 with link time
reference

Any help would REALLY be appreciated!!!

I'm assuming the alsapup you downloaded came from this thread.

From the error is looks like a version incompatibility issue. If you used a version of the alsa.pup downloaded before Dec 11, try downloading and install the libasound.pup. Alternatively you can download the newly updated package.

[jcoder24]

Update.

The libasound.pup solved cheepgeek's problem. Other than the one major problem flash encountered when installing alsa initially, the testing seems to be going well. It would be nice if we can have some additionaly testers though.

Any takers?

Also, for those of you who have tested the package so far, do you have any suggestions?

jc

[Flash]

Flash

The installation doesn't require a reboot or xwin restart.

The icon should be puppy's wizard icon, so I hope that the right program ran. Maybe I should remove the menu entry?

I'm not clear on what you're saying.

As for the system freezing I'm at a loss. If only we had some logs. It would be nice to see what happens with a 'clean' pupxxx file.

What about installing the dotpup in a 1.0.7(a) CD booted with option 4 (no hard drive)? That's how I usually test new programs before I install them, but not your alsa dotpup. I installed it straight to a pup001 file.

[Flash]

jcoder, I booted 1.0.7(a) CD with option 4 (no hard drive), got online, downloaded your alsa dotpup package, clicked it and got the first screen shot you see below. I didn't restart but simply clicked OK then clicked on the "alsacfg" gear icon which showed up, leading to the second screen shot. The top two choices in the second screenshot are from a Hauppauge TV tuner card. Apparently alsacfg thinks it's a sound card.

As shown in the third screen shot, I flipped a coin and chose to modify /etc/modules.conf. At the very end of the install sequence the text said "unable to install alsa something or other" but went away quickly so I couldn't get a screen shot of it. My sound is working though, so how do I tell if alsa is actually installed and acting as my sound driver?

[jcoder24]

At the very end of the install sequence the text said "unable to install alsa something or other" but went away quickly so I couldn't get a screen shot of it.

Prob the message saying something like "no alsa state found" (not in puppy now so I can't verify). Nothing to worry about since there wouldn't be any previous alsa states.

My sound is working though, so how do I tell if alsa is actually installed and acting as my sound driver?

/etc/rc.d/rc.alsa status

[Flash]

At the very end of the install sequence the text said "unable to install alsa something or other" but went away quickly so I couldn't get a screen shot of it.

Prob the message saying something like "no alsa state found" (not in puppy now so I can't verify). Nothing to worry about since there wouldn't be any previous alsa states.

No, it definitely started out "unable to install alsa..."

My sound is working though, so how do I tell if alsa is actually installed and acting as my sound driver?

/etc/rc.d/rc.alsa status

/etc is a symlink to /root/.etc (is that because I booted with option 4?), where there is no /rc.d/rc.alsa status, but there is a /rc.d/rc.alsa.

[jcoder24]

/etc is a symlink to /root/.etc (is that because I booted with option 4?)

/etc is always a symlink to /root/.etc

where there is no /rc.d/rc.alsa status, but there is a /rc.d/rc.alsa.

status is the option being passed to the script /etc/rc.d/rc.alsa (or /root/.etc/rc.d/rc.alsa).

If /etc/rc.d/rc.alsa does not exists then alsa wouldn't load. In that case, try searching the system for rc.alsa find / -depth -name rc.alsa.

PS I've successfully installed the alsa dotpup with an option 4 boot. The only 'negative' message displayed is "No state present for card AudioPCI"

[Flash]

Ah, I was supposed to run "rc.alsa" and ask for status? I'll try when I can find time to mess with Puppy again.

[menno]

Flash did you try lsmod ? I saw that my old sound driver was not remove by the script (I did have the time to look why not , sorry) so I had to remove by hand and rerun the alsa script . Than it worked .

[jcoder24]

menno

Can you post a pre-alsa lsmod for your system? I'll like to see if I can get the alsacfg script to automagically rmmod your oss drivers.

jc