Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] New Kernel; No Sound. Linux-2.6.5 ALSA
From: Martin McCormick (martin_AT_dc.cis.okstate.edu)
Date: Tue Apr 13 2004 - 15:59:27 EEST
tim hall writes:
>Now you need to configure it
>I have it in /etc/alsa/modultils/
>then do 'update-modules'.
I am still not there yet, but I keep finding new reasons why.
update-modules does nothing but exercise my fingers and return a new
shell prompt without so much as a single squawk about anything.
Unfortunately, there is no alsa directory in /lib/modules/2.6.5
although one can sure see all the modules in their proper directory.
The whole problem stems from the fact that the
module-management environment was and still probably is broken. I
installed Debian Linux in January of 2002 and things were different
then. Last night, I discovered that depmod which gets its replacement
if you install module-init-tools, was a symlink to the old depmod from
then. Also, modprobe is another symlink between /sbin/modprobe and
something called insmod which documentation says is for inserting
modules in to a running kernel. Two years ago, you just inserted
modules but never removed them. The code to remove them was there,
but experimental.
I took the liberty of re-doing both those links so they point
to the new versions of depmod and modprobe.
I then built a new 2.6.5 kernel, made the modules and
installed them. There was no complaining from the process at all. I
then did another update-modules and, as is the hallmark of this quest,
absolutely nothing new happened.
References to /dev/[anything audio] produce "no such device"
errors.
Another blast from the past that has been haunting me all this
time was that I had unsuccessfully tried to get alsa going in 2002
when it was a separate application. It was something like
/etc/init.d/alsa and was started and stopped at boot and shutdown by a
script in /etc/rc2.d and another in /etc/rc1.d called S20alsa. Those
were still trying to work. They are gone now.
At this time, that is where I stand. I did try another
MAKEDEV.snd script run from the scripts directory in the 2.6.5 source,
but that just repeated the same futile action as before. The audio
devices all exist, but return "no such device" errors when used.
I think it is really funny that usually, it is the hardware
end of the setup that is problematic, but log messages show PNP
finding the right card and the correct driver being registered.
The only thing I see on boot that even looks pathological is a
depmod message complaining about something called AF_PACKET not being
found. I don't think that relates to sound, so one thing at a time
for now.:-)
What else could it be? I've sure learned a lot about how
modules do or don't get installed, but I bet there is something really
stupid behind this whole standoff. I'd say someone stupid, but that's
getting close to home.
In my straw-grasping mode, I wonder if I should rebuild
module-init-tools after discovering the depmod and modprobe links
weren't right, but somehow, that doesn't sound really necessary.
Any more ideas besides starting from scratch? Many thanks.
Martin McCormick
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