Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] Best setup?
From: Paul Winkler (slinkp23_AT_yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Nov 02 2001 - 01:15:16 EET
On Thu, Nov 01, 2001 at 03:25:12PM -0600, Joseph Zitt wrote:
> I'm getting a Dell Latitude CPi 266 MHz, and am wondering about which
(snip)
> Another other suggestions, or things to look out for?
Yes. I have the Latitude CPi 366; if you have the same built-in
soundcard as mine (NeoMagic 256), the input is absolutely
horrible. Output sounds OK - roughly like a typical consumer CD
player. Input sounds like a broken telephone. I'm not kidding. Also
the 2.2 kernel driver for this card has a tendency to make only
horrible screeching sound the first time you use the soundcard (for
some reason it "fixes itself" if you stop and re-start
playback). Haven't tried ALSA on this machine yet.
Also, try to find out if it supports the newer style of laptop hard
drives. The manufacturers started supporting a common size / shape
sometime around 1998 or 1999. If your machine dates from before the
standard, it'll be harder to upgrade the drive if you need to.
OTOH, according to http://www.pihl.org/linux/linux-dell.html#sound you
might be getting a Crystal CS4237B chip in there if you're getting the
D266 XT. Crystal-based soundcards have the potential to not suck if
the analog stuff around it is tolerable.
As for me, I'm looking into getting a USB audio device. Latency might
be bad but apparently they're now quite usable with linux 2.4. (as
long as the manufacturer is following USB audio spec).
Distros... I run RedHat 7 on my laptop, and I've been a RedHat guy
since I first picked up linux in 1997. But after all this crap with
lame compilers, and increasing frustration with RPM, I'm seriously
considering jumping ship to Debian.
Nothing particularly weird or difficult about installing RedHat on the
CPi-A 366. I've only had a couple of oddities: it occasionally doesn't
resume when I open the lid, so I have to hard-reboot and fsck; and I
somehow completely hosed my hard drive at one point - I *think* it was
the "suspend to disk" "feature" which I've since disabled in the
BIOS. At least I'm praying that was it... it hasn't happened since
then. I had some un-backed-up data I really needed, too. I got it all
back, but it took 3 days of insanity. Thou shalt always make backups.
--paul winkler home: http://www.slinkp.com music: http://www.reacharms.com calendars: http://www.calendargalaxy.com
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