FYI: ISA sound cards no longer supported

[Mikkel L. Ellertson]

Kam Leo wrote:
> On 5/3/07, Mikkel L. Ellertson <mikkel at infinity-ltd.com> wrote:
>> Kam Leo wrote:
>> > If you are using FC6 or FC7 and have problems with sound your problem
>> > may be due to the developers removing support for legacy ISA sound
>> > cards. The driver for the card will no longer be automatically loaded.
>> > I discovered this after filing this bug report,
>> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=234021 .
>> >
>> > If ALSA still supports your card all is not lost. The fix is to
>> > manually tell the kernel to load the driver. In my case I edited
>> > /etc/rc.local and appended the following two lines:
>> >
>> > modprobe -r snd-sbawe
>> > modprobe snd-sbawe
>> >
>> > Change snd-sbawe to whatever is appropriate for your system.
>> >
>> Maybe I am missing something here, but wouldn't it work to edit
>> /etc/modprobe.conf and add something like: (You would need to run
>> depmod after making the change.)
>>
>> alias snd-card-0 snd-sbawe
> 
> That entry for my sound card was been in /etc/modprobe.conf since the
> original installation of FC6 which used the 2.6.18 kernel. The entry
> is still there. The problem is that the newer kernels no longer load
> the module during the boot process.
> 
> Troubleshooting the problem I used system-config-soundcard. The
> utility correctly identified my sound card. Pressing the Test button,
> however, produced no sound. Clicking the System tab and Reload
> restored sound. But when I rebooted my system the sound module did not
> load. I used Google and found a thread where someone used
> /etc/rc.local to fix an Intel chipset sound problem.
> 
> 
>> Also, why are you removing the snd-sbawe module in rc.local?
>>
> 
> Somewhere the system keeps score and knows that the module has
> previously been loaded. If you run "modprobe snd-awe" again you get an
> error. Thus, I had to first remove any reference to the module before
> the module would actually load
> 
The system know about the modules that are currently loaded.
(/sbin/lsmod) So it will not loaded a module that is already loaded.
The fact that you get an error message when you try to load the
module, unless you remove it first shows that the module is getting
loaded on boot. The fact that sound does not work without removing
and reloading the module shows that there is a problem initializing
the hardware the first time the module is loaded. It may be that
another module needs to be loaded first, and this is not listed as a
dependency of the snd-awe module.

One thing that may be worth doing is to comment out your lines in
/etc/rc.d/rc.local, and change the line in /etc/modprobe.conf to
something like "alias snd-card-0 off". Then reboot the system. Now
try something like:

lsmod > /tmp/modlist_1.txt
modprobe snd-sbawe
lsmod > /tmp/modlist_2.txt

Now see if the sound works. If it does, then it points to a module
loading order. If it doesn't, then you can run:

modprobe -r snd-sbawe
modprobe snd-sbawe

and see if the sound now works. If sound only works after removing
and reloading the module, then something changed in the way the
sound card is initialized. Running "diff /tmp/modlist_1.txt
modlist_2.txt" will generate a list of the modules involved. From
there, you can file a bug report.

If sound works with just the first modprobe, then you can uncomment
the "modprobe snd-sbawe" line in rc.local and have things working
while the bug is being fixed. But it is worth filing a bug report in
any case, and the more information about what is going on that you
can give, the better chance of it getting fixed. A report that says
"My ISA sound card does not work." will generate a request for
information, and left there. A report that says "My SB AWE sound
card does not work if the module is loaded at boot, but does if
loaded afterwards." or "My SB AWE sound card does not work unless I
first load the module, remove it, and reload it." gives the
developer a lot more to go on. Add a list of the modules that are
loaded when running "modprobe snd-sbawe" and they have a lot more
information about what is going on. They can then ask for specific
tests or information.

It will probably turn out to be something like the wrong DMA or IRQ
being set when the module is loaded at boot or some other ISA Plug
and Play problem.

Mikkel
-- 

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