Update 1 Beta question

Fri Apr 15 14:17:21 UTC 2005

On 4/15/05, Scott Mertens <smertens at mho.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-04-15 at 06:55 -0700, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > On 4/15/05, Scott Mertens <smertens at mho.com> wrote:
> > > I have been told by Redhat support that the drivers for my sound card
> > > are not in my current release.  Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 4
> > > (Nahant)
> > >
> > > I was also told they were included in Update 1 Beta which would be
> > > supported for one month if applied.  Hopefully by that time the official
> > > release would be out. In looking at the website it looks like a complete
> > > reinstall of Linux?  I might be wrong on this, but when I added myself
> > > to the beta list it took me to a page to download ISO's.
> > >
> > > My question is to apply this update, do I need to burn ISO's and do a
> > > complete re-install of RHES?  Or is there another way?
> > >
> > > When I installed I did not care about sound as this is a server in a
> > > workgroup.  However I am being asked if I can put an answering maching
> > > on this Linux box, Yes the old Real-to-Real tape finally broke after 20
> > > years!  and of course first I have to get sound working to play back
> > > messages.
> > >
> > > To that end if anyone is aware of any RH software that will answer phone
> > > and take messages, let me know.
> > >
> > > Thanks
> >
> > Scott,
> >    It will be interesting to hear some of the more experienced Linux
> > guys responses on this.
> >
> >    Since the 2.6 kernels Alsa has been included in the kernel. I
> > (speaking as an audio guy, not a RH guy or a sys admin / IT guy) would
> > suggest you consider building your own kernel. This way you don't
> > really change the guts of your system, you just put a new kernel and
> > new modules along side the existing one. You can choose which one to
> > run at boot time. If the new one works, then great. If not then you go
> > back to what you are running right now and consider their update.
> 
> >    Granted, building a kernel is a bit daunting for a newbie, but it's
> > one of those rights of passage that pretty much anyone working with
> > Linux eventually goes through. If you have fairly straight forward
> > hardware (x86, Intel or AMD,) no major issues with video performance
> > and you're comfortable digging into understanding this a bit then it's
> > a really great experience and fun when they boot and  you know more
> > than you did before. If you're a hands off sort of guy then it's
> > likely not for you.
> 
> It's a little frustrating because as a newbie, I sort of have to be led
> by the hand when doing these types of things.  Just the other day I was
> trying to find a file, and I found the man pages on "find" very
> frustrating and hard to understand. I purchased a book on Linux, but it
> had only a paragraph on find, and no examples.  Took me over an hour to
> work out how to find a hidden file.  ie:  find ./ -name filename.  Good
> thing is I won't forget it anytime soon.
> 
> I would venture to say that hands on is the way most people learn. It
> would be too difficult to sit back and take notes and watch someone
> else.

Been there, done that. We all have. It's a major issue with Linux that
jsut takes folks some time to get through. That's mostly why these
lists exist and why we all write each other.

Again, building a kernel is 'complicated' and 'taxing' but it's not
'magic'. You can do it if you want to and nothing I know if is going
to get hurt by trying.

Using their update will be 'easy'. ;-)

Consider this though. What sort of strange hardware devices do you
want to hook to this machien sometime in the future. The moment you
find that they are not built into the Redhat kernel (and it will occur
eventually) you'll be right back in this situation. (OH YEAH! - a
sound card is a 'weird hardware device'!) ;-)

> >
> >    In my experience this would be what I'd do in your case as it's
> > exactly what I've done in my case. I do not use Redhat or Fedora
> > kernels on any of my machines. My kernels come either from outside
> > sources or built myself from code downloaded at http://www.kernel.org
> > .
> >
> >    So that you're not totally worried (it's good to be worried a
> > little bit!) ;-) I'll report that I've been doing this for about 4-5
> > years now and have NEVER hurt a machine by building my own kernel.
> > there are only a couple of places that you need to be careful to not
> > overwrite existing data. Other than that it's very simple now that we
> > all use grub. (you do use grub, correct?)
> 
> How can I tell which boot loader I use?

ls /boot | grep grub

I'm sure you do use grub but I'm just beign careful here to look at the issues.

> 
> >
> >    Anyway, that's my input. New kernel code will most certainly have
> > your sound card software.
> >
> >    There is a more complicated way you could approach this where you
> > take the Redhat kernel source tree and patch it with your necessary
> > Alsa stuff but for a newbie I would not suggest that path. I don't do
> > it either.
> >
> >    Good luck whatever you decide, and as I say, I'll be interested in
> > other folks answers to this question.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Mark
> >
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