Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Sun, 29 May 2005, David Moberg wrote:

> ----- Original Message ----- From: "sindi keesan" 
> <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
>
> > Does this mean I do NOT need to insmod opl, just awe_wave?
>
> Yes, if you only want AWE32 MIDI support instead of FM.
>
> > Do I
> > really need isapnp or do I just need to figure out the correct
> > settings for the insmod awe_wave file, from what worked for other
> > people.
>
> You really need isapnp or DOS isapnp. Try insmodding opl3 before
> and after isapnp and you'll see what I mean.
>
> I'm not sure if awe_wave really needs isapnp, but opl3 sure does.

This seems like an excellent reason to use AWE32 instead of OPL.

> > I just acquired a PCI soundblaster Live card.  If this is awe32,
> > would it be easier to set up?  PCI cards don't seem to require
> > specifying io etc.
>
> I don't think it is awe32. The Live card is much newer than the
> awe32. It appears to want ALSA, from what I've read.
>
> David

It seems to be circa 1999 or shortly before that.  I did some reading just 
now and found one site which recommended using ALSA rather than some 
non-GPL driver sold for $35.  Then I found a 1999 site with broken links 
to binaries for OSS drivers for this card (kernel 2.2.10 or older).  Then 
I found someone else's problems with the card and it needs emu10k1.o which 
SW7.1 does have (dependencies are listed in the modules directory, it 
needs only soundcore, like my other PCI cards esssolo1 and trident), along 
with a joystick module for this card.

The person with problems posted something that might be dmesg, and it 
could not find sound-slot-1 and sound-service-0-6, which I hope are not 
required modules for this card.  He seemed to have two SB cards in the 
same computer.

I doubt DOS supports the card, but the awesfx site said there were 
soundbanks specifically for it.

Win98FE has no driver for the card so it is probably 1999 and the lack of 
free drivers for OSS has since been remedied.

I got another of these cards at a yard sale yesterday ($5 included a 15GB 
IDE drive from someone who switched to SATA hardware).  I may first test 
it with a driver for Win98FE.  Since it is not ISA, no problems with 
isapnp in linux.  It might even free up a DMA for the DVD-ROM drive and, 
unlike two of the AWE32 cards, you can plug in more than one sound cable 
so I can still use the scsi CD-ROM burner to listen to CDs if the DVD-ROM 
is not fixable with hdparm.

hwinfo reveals that ALL my IRQs are taken, and if I free one up by 
disabling USB onboard, the video card grabs it.  Does the video card work 
better with an IRQ?  If so, I will leave USB disabled unless this PCI 
sound card also frees up an IRQ for video.  The scsi card grabbed an IRQ.

We were also given three more AGP video cards with big heat sinks and/or 
fans and up to 128MB RAM.  Would they be better than the 64MB 
heat-sink-less Nvidia for DVDs?

I will report back if this card is BL3/BL2 compatible with this module.
I will need to recompile my sound kernel to use it after testing with 
bare.i kernel.