Redhat 8 and Soundblaster Live!

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07-15-2003
confuted

Redhat 8 and Soundblaster Live!

Redhat 8 has problems with the Soundblaster Live! cards. There is an elaborate process that you can go through involving a driver called emu10k1 and a bunch of commands to get it to work... which I need to do... but I'm a complete newb just trying to get my sound card to work. I tried the instructions here and the instructions here and then tried some combinations of the two since neither one worked (they're old). I did a bunch of stuff... I really don't know what I'm doing, but I've been trying for a few hours. I even somehow managed to recompile the kernel (heh, that involved hitting enter a lot and letting it use the defaults). After recompiling the kernel, the directions in the first of those two links almost worked, but then something messed up and the soundcard still doesn't work.

I know there are a lot of people on this board who use Linux regularly... are there any of you with AIM that would be willing to spend some time to walk me through this? It's given me crap every time I've tried it on my own. Thanks in advance, my AIM is afrikanswallow.
07-15-2003
mart_man00

i had alot of problems with is, i still do.

under redhat(8&9) i got it to work (easily) under oss. it sounded good. supposedly emu10k1 sounds bad, i never gotten it to work to tell.

are you using kde? arts has some problems with the cards.

by any chance is it a value card? thats what i have and i have stumped alot of people(real life and a couple boards).

you might want to try a place like justlinux.
07-15-2003
confuted

Yeah, it's a Value. The first link I posted was from justlinux... it didn't work.

What is OSS? Like I said... there's a newb at work here.

I don't think I'm using KDE, but I have it installed. I believe I'm using XWindow, but I'm really really not sure and have no idea how to tell... or switch :( I installed basically everything with RH 8. I'm going to attach a screen shot incase that can help you know if I'm using KDE or not.

Gah, I'm such a noob. Maybe I should just buy a new soundcard.
07-15-2003
mart_man00

lol, in redhat they try to confuse you. they make gnome and kde look the same with a theme(called blue curve).

on the console you can type in 'switchdesk kde' and 'startx' will now bring up kde with the blue curve theme. some people dont like it, but i wish gentoo had it by default.

oss is a open source sound system. its easier to install but your supposed to pay for it, but it will work for free. you just need to restart it once in a while(unless theres a new hack i didnt hear of).

dont worry about being a n00b, linux guys are nicer than coders.

i was thinking about getting a new sound card to, but theres no reason. the sblives are very good cards.

you might want to check out the oss site and install it, its very easy(almost windows like). it worked great for redhat. he sound is good.

sorry, i forgot you posted justlinux.

<edit>
if you go into the control center thing it will tell you what your running and the version, if your wondering. i bet its gnome.
07-16-2003
confuted

yeah, looks like GNOME.

When I typed the KDE thing into the terminal, I got this

Code:

[blackrat@localhost blackrat]$ switchdesk kde Red Hat Linux switchdesk 3.9 Copyright (C) 1999-2001 Red Hat, Inc Redistributable under the terms of the GNU General Public License Desktop now set up to run KDE. For system defaults, remove /home/blackrat/.Xclients [blackrat@localhost blackrat]$ startx Fatal server error: Server is already active for display 0 If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock and start again. When reporting a problem related to a server crash, please send the full server output, not just the last messages. Please report problems to [email protected]. [blackrat@localhost blackrat]$

I'll look into OSS.
07-16-2003
confuted

Hmmm... I just tried installing OSS. Everything appeared to install correctly, and it detected my soundcard, but when I went to "play test sound" no sound came out :-/ Also, I think I messed *something* up when I recompiled the kernel, because there are some warning messages on boot about outdated modules or something. I'm about to use the Redhat Network to update to the latest version of the kernel... is that going to fix whatever I messed up?
07-16-2003
FloatingPoint

Quote:

[blackrat@localhost blackrat]$ startx

Fatal server error:
Server is already active for display 0
If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock
and start again.

You were trying to run X w/in an X! That's not possible. After that switchdesk thing, log out and then log in again. Well, I havent used switchdesk myself, so I'm just assuming it should work.

As for the soundcard, luck :)
07-16-2003
confuted

Quote:

Originally posted by FloatingPoint
You were trying to run X w/in an X! That's not possible. After that switchdesk thing, log out and then log in again. Well, I havent used switchdesk myself, so I'm just assuming it should work.

As for the soundcard, luck :)

Heh, that did it. I have KDE now... I'm assuming that there's a reason that I'm using this instead of GNOME :confused: Ah, I'll see what I can do.
07-16-2003
FloatingPoint

Your sole reason would be in xtra eye candies :D
07-16-2003
mart_man00
Quote:

Your sole reason would be in xtra eye candies

more or less, yes.

but i did get oss under redhat 8 and 9 working in kde.

how did you recompile your kernel? you should of done:
- make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install
  cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot
and made the sound support a module and sblive as nothing. it should all be in the install guide.
07-16-2003
confuted

I believe that when I was recompiling the kernel I was in /usr/src and typed make dep. Then it had a bunch of prompts (Y/n/?) and such, asking me a bunch of questions I didn't know the answers to, so I pushed enter. There were a ton of pages of questions, and then it told me to do something else, so I typed that in.

Quote:

make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install
cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot

and made the sound support a module and sblive as nothing. it should all be in the install guide.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean. I'm downloading the most recent kernel and source right now - will I need to recompile it to get the sound to work? What, exactly, do I type to recompile the kernel correctly with the options I need? Thanks for all the help so far.
07-16-2003
mart_man00

when you select something in menuconfig you can make it built in (*) or as a module(M). you should check out the new docs, but i think sound should be a module. so you hit space by sound support until there is a 'M' in the ().

dep makes the dependacies, it doesnt ask you anything. it will either work or spit out errors, normall(for me anyway) it still works.

so you have to run 'make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install' to get something working.

bzImage is the kernel itself. so you copy that over to your boot partition. now you can edit your /etc/lilo.conf file.

if you dont want to play with lilo(the thing that will actually boot the kernel. the new one not the old one) you can just run 'make install' after the other commands.

or just check out the kernel howtos. its not as bad as it sounds.
07-16-2003
confuted

You lost me (again) :-/ Where/what is "menuconfig"?
07-16-2003
mart_man00

o sorry.

you go into the kernel dir, /usr/src/linux-blah-blah. then you start up the 'wizard' with make menuconfig(or make xconfig if your in x).

that where yoy set thing up.

then you compile the kernel, with the commands in my last post.

i remember fighting with this stuff awhile ago, you are going to screw something up! but it can be fixed (quickly) and it will make sense soon.

theres alot of good howtos for this(the one at justlinux has a howto just for a redhat, most people like the normal way. they one i typed out).
07-16-2003
confuted

Alright, I got into menuconfig and the sound support was set to a module. Then I typed make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install and it compiled everything successfully. What is the next step? You said I need to copy something somewhere?
07-16-2003
mart_man00

make sure your boot partition is mounted(if in doubt, just run 'mount /boot').

now you copy your kernel over, so 'cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot'. now the kernel is in there but it wont boot, nothing is telling it too.

so now you have to update your bootloader(either lilo or grub. i only know lilo). so you open up the config file(like /etc/lilo.conf or grub.conf), and add a new section folling the format. basicly the exact same thing with a different title and image(same root too).

or just cheat and run 'make install' :) then you can test out your new kernel on next restart.

<edit>
more typos than usual.
07-16-2003
confuted

Alright, I've copied bzImage to /boot, and now I'm logged in as root. This is what /etc/lilo.conf.anaconda contains

Code:

prompt timeout=50 default=DOS boot=/dev/hda map=/boot/map install=/boot/boot.b message=/boot/message linear image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 label=linux initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.18-14.img read-only append="hdd=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/" other=/dev/hda1 optional label=DOS

I think I need to change the image line, but I don't know whta to change it to. The directory that I copied bzImage from was /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-18.8/i386/boot (I think you need that?)

I really hope that I get the sound working when I'm done with this :)
07-16-2003
confuted

I looked a little closer, and I thought that this would work, so I changed it to this:

Code:

prompt timeout=50 default=DOS boot=/dev/hda map=/boot/map install=/boot/boot.b message=/boot/message linear image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-18.8 label=linux initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-18.8.img read-only append="hdd=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/" other=/dev/hda1 optional label=DOS

If that doesn't work, I'll edit this post and say what happened.

edit: It worked, but I got the following error message several times while everything was loading

Quote:

Warning: modutils is reading from /etc/modules.conf and ignoring /etc/conf.modules. The use of /etc/conf.modules is deprecated, please remove /etc/conf.modules as soon as possible. Command rm /etc/conf.modules

Can I just type rm /etc/conf.modules, or will something break? Also, what do I do now to get the sound card to work? I'm going to try the OSS thing again.
07-16-2003
mart_man00

you want lilo.conf, i have no idea what your file is. probally the installers copy or something.

Code:

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 label=linux initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.18-14.img read-only append="hdd=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/"

this is a normal 'block'. so you can copy and past it and just adjust,

so image = will have to change to the bzImage you just copied(you might want to rename what you cp, but you dont have to).

the "append" doesnt always work, the "LABEL" needs some dorky kernel option, so you should change your new kernel "block" to 'append="hdd=ide-scsi root=/"'

so yours will look something like

Code:

prompt timeout=50 default=DOS boot=/dev/hda map=/boot/map install=/boot/boot.b message=/boot/message linear image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 label=linux initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.18-14.img read-only append="hdd=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/" image=/boot/bzImage label=linux-new initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.18-14.img read-only append="hdd=ide-scsi root=/" other=/dev/hda1 optional label=DOS

when your done with that you have to save the settings. instead of closing the file you need to rerun lilo, '/sbin/lilo'. that will update the bootsector/mbr.

Quote:

I really hope that I get the sound working when I'm done with this

lol! nothing works the first time! but learning how to recompile a kernel is important.

sound should just be a matter of playing with the oss install guide. i only gotten oss to work with my value under redhat, but people say you can get alsa to work with it. but they dont have value cards :).

its kind of annoying, im using gentoo with no sound:mad: i might go back to redhat just for xmms(linux winamp).
07-16-2003
confuted

#1) See the edit on my last post.

#2) I don't have a lilo.conf. Maybe what I did didn't work. Hmmm... here's grub.conf. How do I tell which file I need to modify?

Code:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda # # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file # NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that # all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg. # root (hd1,1) # kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb3 # initrd /initrd-version.img #boot=/dev/hda default=2 timeout=10 splashimage=(hd1,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-18.8) root (hd1,1) kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-18.8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi initrd /initrd-2.4.20-18.8.img title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14) root (hd1,1) kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi initrd /initrd-2.4.18-14.img title DOS rootnoverify (hd0,0) chainloader +1
07-16-2003
mart_man00

its basicly the same thing as with lilo

looks like you did run make install, did you? if you did you can restart and give it a shot(grun doesnt need to be updated).
07-16-2003
confuted

I did run make install, but I don't think that it worked. It had an error message. I think that the reason there are two entries for Linux there is because I downloaded the new kernel through the redhat network, which automatically updates everything. Should I try this?

Code:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda # # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file # NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that # all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg. # root (hd1,1) # kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb3 # initrd /initrd-version.img #boot=/dev/hda default=2 timeout=10 splashimage=(hd1,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz title Red Hat Linux (recompiled) root (hd1,1) kernel /bzImage ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi initrd /initrd-2.4.20-18.8.img title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-18.8) root (hd1,1) kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-18.8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi initrd /initrd-2.4.20-18.8.img title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14) root (hd1,1) kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi initrd /initrd-2.4.18-14.img title DOS rootnoverify (hd0,0) chainloader +1

That's basically a guess...

Edit: Do I need to change the default= line to default=3 to have DOS be the default?
07-16-2003
mart_man00

Quote:

Edit: Do I need to change the default= line to default=3 to have DOS be the default?

yes

id try change the "root=LABEL=/ "s to "root=/ " and then give it a shot.

they changed it alittle from what i used todo(like with the name "Red Hat Linux (recompiled)").
07-16-2003
confuted

I did the title... :)

Alright, I made the changes, time to try a reboot.
Wish me luck :)

edit: didn't work. I booted up to the older one again. This is what I have in grub.conf ATM

Code:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda # # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file # NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that # all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg. # root (hd1,1) # kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb3 # initrd /initrd-version.img #boot=/dev/hda default=3 timeout=10 splashimage=(hd1,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz title Red Hat Linux (recompiled) root (hd1,1) kernel /bzImage ro root=/ hdd=ide-scsi initrd /initrd-2.4.20-18.8.img title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-18.8) root (hd1,1) kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-18.8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi initrd /initrd-2.4.20-18.8.img title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14) root (hd1,1) kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi initrd /initrd-2.4.18-14.img title DOS rootnoverify (hd0,0) chainloader +1

Also, I'm still getting that error message that I mentioned earlier... can I type rm /etc/conf.modules or will it break something?
07-16-2003
mart_man00

you have modules support in your kernel right? basicly everything in that category.
07-16-2003
confuted

rm /etc/conf.modules worked okay and got rid of the warning messages, but I still didn't get the sound card to work. I tried the OSS installation some more, but it wouldn't work on the updated kernel from Redhat (2.4.20-18.8) and I haven't been able to boot to the one that I made. The installation worked on 2.4.18-14, and I configured everything... but the sound still didn't work.

I want to kill it.

Is there another distro of Linux/unix that I can get for free that will recognize this sound card and work *without* me hacking the crap out of the thing?
07-16-2003
mart_man00

why cant you boot the new one? i though you did the kernel and the rm worked(id like to know how, maybe thats the old one..).

if you want to compeletly chicken out madrake is the only thing easier, but its just redhat.
07-16-2003
confuted

I can't boot the new one because I haven't figured out quite what to put in grub.conf for it. The last thing I posted about that didn't work - it hung after doing some bare initialization that I'm guessing doesn't depend on the kernel at all. I must need to change one or more of these lines

Code:

title Red Hat Linux (recompiled) root (hd1,1) kernel /bzImage ro root=/ hdd=ide-scsi initrd /initrd-2.4.20-18.8.img

Any ideas on that?

From the error message

Quote:

Warning: modutils is reading from /etc/modules.conf and ignoring /etc/conf.modules. The use of /etc/conf.modules is deprecated, please remove /etc/conf.modules as soon as possible. Command rm /etc/conf.modules

I would assume that what I rm-ed was old. rm said something about it being an empty file.
07-16-2003
mart_man00

when you run make install it copies the bzImage into boot under a different name(like normal).

so
cd /boot
ls

and change the grun file to the new image(should be easy to find).
07-16-2003
mart_man00

Quote:

News -- February 12, 2003

The Dell CT0200 -- The new Live 5.1 card from Dell (CT0200) is not based on the EMU10K1 chip, so the EMU10K1 driver available at SourceForge won't work with it. Fortunately, 4Front Technologies (www.opensound.com) has developed a driver.

--http://opensource.creative.com/

i have a vaule card, but it is from dell. this could be a problem...
07-17-2003
confuted

I got sick of trying to hack the crap out of RH8 to get the stupid sound card to work. If I knew what I was doing with Linux, it wouldn't be as bad... but... well... I don't.

So, I just downloaded bittorrent and started downloading Mandrake 9.1 from here. Maybe the card will work with Mandrake... or maybe it'll at least be easier for me to figure out :-/

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