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baslinux - [BL] BL2 sound device drivers not being created - kernel module bug

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  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: BasicLinux <baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [BL] BL2 sound device drivers not being created - kernel module bug
  • Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2004 16:08:13 +0000 (UTC)

My SB16 cards will play CD audio but three different wav playing programs complain about audio size buffer or ioctl devices and it appears to have something to do with DMA size buffer not being set properly and /dev/dsp
(none of which I understand). Someone said after a lot of experimenting his problems suddenly fixed themselves and the /dev/dsp suddenly created itself and it had something to do with /audio/dev (which he thought disappeared somehow). Lots of confused people dealing with this problem.

Problems occurred with SB16 and its imitators ESS 1370 and 1371, which use the sb module, but not with a PCI SB card.

Someone else reported that it worked with kernel 2.2.13 but not some later kernels and by 2.3.something it was working again - some sort of kernel bug. But I used the same kernel for ESS as for SB so perhaps the module itself has a bug?

Someone else said he followed instructions for creating the dsp files but did not say where he got them.

I looked at /dev/dsp on my computers with SB16 and on a computer where sound works that has ESS SOLO sound chip and module and on my computer the devices audio and audio1 (for a second soundcard) are there but dsp and dsp1 have a 0 in the fourth column where the working computer has a 14 and so do the audio devices audio and audio1.


I looked in my big 1995 reference book and there is a section on Creating Device Files.

The book says I should have dsp pointing to dsp0, dsp0, dsp1, and the same for audio. I have audio and audio1 (which look identical) but no audio0, and I have a 0 dsp and no dsp0 or dsp1. Looks like something got messed up somehow. Some time since 1995 a fourth column also got added.
On the good computer dsp entry has root sys and on mine it has root root.

crw-rw-rw 1 root 14, 3 Aug 22 00:01 dsp0 - in the book
I don't have this file at all.

crw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 14, 4 Aug 22 00:01 audio - on my computer (works)


'The first time the kernel sound driver is configured you need to create the sound device files. Cut the short shell script from the end of the file Readme.linux in the directory /usr/src/linux/drivers/sound and run it as user root.'

This is supposed to replace existing incorrect device files with correct ones.

I don't have a kernel sound driver, do I? I am using bare.i kernel. Maybe the module is not working correctly for this SB card.

I don't have the drivers directory - is this part of the kernel source?
If so, could Steven or someone else with a full distribution possibly pick out that script or at least tell me where to look for it?

'Some older Linux distributions [older than 1995 - but I have SW71] provided install scripts which created incorrect sound device files. You may also have a /dev/MAKEDEV script for creating device files. Using the script included with the kernel sound driver is preferred since it should always be up to date with the latest supported sound devices'.

For SB16 and /dev/dsp I don't think this matters. MAKEDEV is in devs.tgz and I will try it but I need to explodepkg devs.tgz to get it. (The package does not seem to include the psd device itself). Perhaps James or Steven would like to post this file if it works for me, and something could be added to the BL2 FAQ about the 2.2.14 kernel being buggy for sound with sb.o (since that is what most of our sound discussion has been about).

Ron, are your SB16 cards PCI?

dsp is supposed to be a link to dsp0 and there are no dsp0 or dsp1. audio should be a link to audio0 but I have audio set up to look like audio0 should look, and no audio0 and I have audio1. Is that what was used to play the audio CD with workbone (which worked, amazingly).

This looks incorrect to me. I hope /MAKEDEV can fix it.

Can I or modify these files manually to match what is in the book (plus adding the column with sys)? Looks like I need to assign root, sys, and two numbers and a name. I have the list of what they should be (on the other computer). Or I suppose I could plug in an ESS SOLO card and run esssolo1.o and maybe that will make the files for me. Might have been what miraculously helped someone else who was experimenting with this.

keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org




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