Re: isapnp support in kernel

[Stephen Gardner <stephen-rhel uk org>]

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005, Reuben D. Budiardja wrote:

> Is the kernel that comes with RHEL 4 built with isapnp support ? I could not
> get any sound, nor detect my soundcard (creative soundblaster awe 32). On
> RHEL 3, the support comes with kernel-unsupported RPM.
[...]
> there is no isapnp support in kernel.

Reuben,
        I think you're right in that RHEL4 doesn't support isapnp. A quick 
look over the RHEL4 kernel config file shows that although the ISA bus is 
supported (CONFIG_ISA) neither ISA PNP (CONFIG_ISAPNP) nor SoundBlaster 
AWE32 support (CONFIG_SND_SBAWE) are included. I don't believe ISAPNP is 
strictly necessary as module parameters could probably get the AWE32 
working but... without the actually sbawe module itself there's not much 
that can be done.

        A couple of (almost certainly unsupported) routes to get it 
working are to download the RHEL4 kernel source package and build your own 
kernel including the necessary options. Alternatively, investigate the 
possibility of pushing the Fedora Core 3 kernel onto your RHEL4 system as 
the FC3 kernel config does indicate that it includes both the elements you 
need for your soundcard. kernel-2.6.9-1.724_FC3 booted successfully for me 
under VMware but that shouldn't be taken as a recommendation and I don't 
have any idea how something like that would affect your support status.

        Hopefully someone else may have a significantly more reliable and 
supportable suggestion.

Regards,
        Stephen

References:
kernel-2.6.9-i686.config  file from  linux-2.6.9-5.0.3.EL.src.rpm  package
kernel-2.6.9-i686.config  file from  kernel-2.6.9-1.724_FC3.src.rpm package
[ haven't looked at the FC3 v2.6.10 builds for this query ]