On-board ES1887 PnP (WDM) on Twinhead laptop P79TX

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of computer audio hardware
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richard.a
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On-board ES1887 PnP (WDM) on Twinhead laptop P79TX

#1 Post by richard.a »

I did a search on this on-board sound chip and "No topics or posts met your search criteria" was returned.

I'm attempting to use a 1997 vintage Twinhead P79TX laptop with Puppy as a mobile demo of Puppy running on an old machine. Limitation is size of HDD (2Gb) and therefore probably it will remain a demo machine, although one could always use reasonable size USB pen drives for storage, or even an archive server running NASlite.

This is part of a project I'm looking at implementing as an old folks facility volunteer to teach a small number of users about computers using Puppy and laptops.

Sadly I don't get any sound from whatever version of Puppy I try to run on the Twinhead. My preference would be for 2.15ce or 2.16ez, or both.

Anyone got any suggestions to offer?

BTW the Trident onboard video will work, albeit at 800x600 in XOrg, but not XVesa. I had excellent network results with a Belkin FSD5020 PCMCIA Card Bus card.

Image

I also wonder if the Infra-red system can be enabled for puppy... the ID as reported in Windows98 is PNP0510

Richard in Adelaide
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tempestuous
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#2 Post by tempestuous »

You have an old ISA-based audio device, and these are difficult to auto-detect in Linux.
Run the ALSA Sound Wizard, probe for Legacy sound cards, choose "es18xx".

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richard.a
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#3 Post by richard.a »

I appreciate your reply, but unfortunately I get a console message saying No legacy drivers are available which is a bit of a bummer.

Thanks anyway.

However I'm amazed at how well overall it works. Although elderly, I supports a 4port (self-powered) USB hub on its single USB-1 port and I've used 3 of the 4 ports concurrently, with mouse and two USB pen drives - which together provide more storage than the 2Gb HDD :)

Sound or no sound, it'll be a good ambassador for open source in general, and PuppyLinux in particular.

Richard
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tempestuous
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#4 Post by tempestuous »

richard.a wrote: unfortunately I get a console message saying No legacy drivers are available
Well all versions of Puppy since v1.08 have contained the full collection of ALSA legacy drivers, so there's a problem with alsaconf, or there's a problem with your installation.
Ultimately, alsaconf is just a configuation tool, nothing more. It can easily be bypassed.
I suggest you try to manually load the correct ALSA module, like this -

Code: Select all

modprobe snd-es18xx isapnp=0 irq=5 dma1=1 dma2=5

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richard.a
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#5 Post by richard.a »

Thank you, tempestuous, for your advice.

This is the first time I've run Puppy on a machine with an ISA type soundchip/soundcard and your advice makes good sense.
tempestuous wrote:Well all versions of Puppy since v1.08 have contained the full collection of ALSA legacy drivers, so there's a problem with alsaconf, or there's a problem with your installation.
Ultimately, alsaconf is just a configuation tool, nothing more. It can easily be bypassed.
I suggest you try to manually load the correct ALSA module, like this -

Code: Select all

modprobe snd-es18xx isapnp=0 irq=5 dma1=1 dma2=5
By running a live 2.02retro2 ISO I've discovered that indeed ALSA will recognise the chip, and I've played wave, mp3 and realaudio via the desktop drag-n-drop icon on 2.02r2's desktop.

I have downloaded the 2.15ce 2nd edition twice over now, having installed from my first download (from mid last year). Running the second download (from the end of last year) live, I find it still rejects the configuration, either by the CLI code you posted, or by using the configuration client.

It appears there are no drivers there, because when I tried it on the 2.02r2 CD, I was (eventually) presented with a menu from which to choose the soundcard I wanted to kick-start.

The 2.15ce didn't show that menu, just scrolled a list very quickly, on both the downloads I did (6 months apart).

This suggests to me that 2.15ce ALSA sound is broken

Brings me to a point. I've seen an ALSA dotpup somewhere, and I was wondering - if I can find it in the various repository labyrinths - if I would be likely to break the system if I attempted to install it?

Or maybe if I could find where the apparently missing drivers are located on 2.14 or 2.16, could I copy the appropriate part of the directory structure over, as the ALSA configuration seems to know what to look for, and can't find it? I would need to know what I was looking for :)

Or do you have any other suggestions please?

Richard in Adelaide
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tempestuous
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#6 Post by tempestuous »

richard.a wrote:This suggests to me that 2.15ce ALSA sound is broken
Don't make hasty conclusions. The ALSA version in 2.15CE is actually better than in the other Puppy versions with the same kernel (2.12,2.13,2.14,2.16) ... because the ALSA drivers in 2.15CE are matched to the libraries, as reported here -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=16495
Several forum members have reported much improved compatibility with troublesome audio devices under 2.15CE.
richard.a wrote:I find it still rejects the configuration
This gives me no clue as to what process you followed, and what the error messages were.
But I can probably take a stab at your problem; your installation is unable to access the zdrv (driver collection) which is a common and annoying problem. The necessary ALSA modules probably won't load because they can't be located.

You haven't mentioned whether you have a frugal installation, or full installation.
If frugal, the solution will be to locate the zdrv file in a location where Puppy can find it. I think this is /mnt/home ... but I'm not sure, others on this forum will know more about this.

If full HD install, then the only solution is to uncompress the contents of the zdrv file into your filesystem.

As a quick form of troubleshooting, I suggest you boot to the Puppy 2.15CE CD using the "puppy pfix=ram" boot parameter so it's a fresh boot, then run alsaconf during this session. At first boot, the zdrv file is reliably accessible from the CD.

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richard.a
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#7 Post by richard.a »

This response was composed during the time that the forum website was down (again). Seems to happen every 3 or 4 weeks, and I wonder if it is something to do with excess traffic.

I have revisited my Twinhead laptop's ISA audio problem, to attempt to show that 2.15ce has to be the "fly in the ointment". I did not say "all puppies" won't recognise the chip. I said "my Twinhead laptop running 2.15ce" didn't.


I have run live, with pfix=ram, the following versions: 2.02, 2.02r2, 2.10pro, 2.14, 2.15ce, 2.16, 3.0, and of them, only in 2.15 does the sound not work.

Edit: also Grafpup v2 (in which ALSA works on this machine)

I have run live, with saved home directory (in hda1), the following versions: 2.02, 2.02r2, 2.10pro, 2.14, 2.15ce, 2.16, 3.0, and of them, only in 2.15 does the sound not work.

Edit: also Grafpup v2 (in which ALSA works on this machine)

I even ran the original release CD of 2.15ce, in case the update was where the problem existed, but no.


2.15ce 2nd release is also fully installed (type 2), and even with multiple copies of zdrv_215.sfs in different places - in case the 'broken' problem is the system looking for the squash file in the wrong place - and still ALSA does not work.

I tried copying and renaming the zdrv_214.sfs (which works in 2.14) to 215 - because 2.15 was based on 2.14 - and that does not work either.

The characteristics are what I wrote earlier. It just reaches the end of the config process and says there are no drivers there; right at the end it does not give the menu of choices where you normally choose which drivers to not try.

Edit: and yes, I also tried the command line syntax suggested, the same, it goes through its paces and eventually returns a reply "no driver found".

Either the 2.15 system is stuffed, its interface with its zdrv_215.sfs is stuffed, or the squash file is. And I cannot find a repository where I can laboriously search for yet another sfs to try it out. And I've done two separate downloads of the ISO several months apart, and burned them on two different computers.


Really, I rest my case. One has to wonder if anyone apart from me actually tried this distribution with this squash file specifically on an older computer with an ISA bus sound card (or chip). That is not a whinge, I understand that no amount of alpha and beta testing can include ALL hardware.

Others have commented about the lack of co-ordination, particularly of downloadable resources. It is very off-putting particularly to those who would like to replace Microsoft Windows. A major goal of puppy is to "just work". Wish it did. That is what this laptop project was headed towards in a specific environment in a retirement village.

Richard in Adelaide.

Edit:
added a couple of comments. It's disappointing but never mind. I have located the ALSA dotpup I found from a link on one of the links given, and saved it, as well as the modules.tar.gz and when I get some time, perhaps I'll try installing it, but will need to be on a duplicate of pup_save.2fs to save breaking the installation which I've already customised successfully in several other regards.

Richard
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