How I got my Soundblaster 16 PnP working

[Donovan Rebbechi <elflord pegasus rutgers edu>]

OK, as requested, here's one for the mailing list archives.

First fact worthy of mention: compiling the kernel really isn't that bad.
When you build a new kernel, you still have the old one in place as backup
if things don't work out. One can read the kernel HOWTO for more info on
this. First, I configured the kernel by going into /usr/src/2.0.30 and
typing make xconfig. Using xconfig to configure the kernel is probably the
best way for the beginner.

Here's how I configured the kernel for a Soundblaster PnP 16 card.

First, I checked the autoexec.bat file in msdos. It should have a line
that looks something like this:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6

the 'T6' bit is DOS specific (it's how dos classifies what 'type' of card
you have) the other numbers are important. You should have something that
looks similar, though the numbers may be different.

Once you've written down this line, you're ready to configure the kernel.
As root, go into /usr/src/2.0.something and type 
make xconfig

The only options that need changing are under the sound submenu.

The numbers correspond to entries under the sound subsection of xconfig as
follows:

A220: This entry determines what you put under

'in I/O base for SB check from manual of card' , ie I put 220 here.

I5: The number after I goes in the setting

'Soundblaster IRQ check from manual of card'

D1: put the number here in the following setting:

'Soundblaster DMA 0, 1 or 3'

P330: this goes under the setting:

MPU401 I/O base of SB16, Jazz16, and ES1688 check from manual of card


Other 'variables':

'SB MPU401 IRQ (Jazz 16 , SM Wave and ES 1688) Use -1 with SB 16'

well this one's self explanatory- you just do what it says! 

'Audio DMA Buffer size 4096, 8192, 16324, 32768, 65536': 

65536 is what I put. This is the default.


The settings under the sound subsection of my kernel configuration are as
follows:
of the y/m/n or y/n options,
these items all have 'yes' selected, the others all have 'n' selected.

Sound support 		
Soundblaster (SB, SBPro, SB16, clones) support 
Generic OPL2/OPL3 FM Synthesiser support
/dev/dsp and /dev/audio support 
Midi interface support
FM Synthesiser (YM3812/OPL-3) support

It's highly probable that you don't need all the 'y's that I have. But in
any case, it doesn't hurt to have them.

then leave xconfig (save and exit)
type 'make dep'
type 'make clean'
type 'make zImage' and make yourself some coffee. If you're using a 386,
go out for a meal (:

If all goes well, the kernel is compiled, and in a file called
arch/i386/boot/zImage
so you can copy it to a new file in /boot 
cp arch/i386/boot/zImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.0.30-sound

then use lilo to add the kernel to your boot options. Note: do NOT
over-write your old kernel. You need your old kernel to reboot from in
case something goes wrong with the new one. I have compiled a kernel and
had it not boot before. But this is not a problem if you keep your old
kernel.

well, hope this helps some-one out there!

-- Donovan