[plug] Laptops and sound

Gavin Rogers grogers at vk6hgr.echidna.id.au
Tue Nov 20 10:13:34 WST 2001


Hi All.

Just a reply to my post for the benefit of anyone who might be
interested, or for the benefit of the archives if this problem comes up
again :-)

Turns out, that the sound card in this laptop has a strange DMA channel
setup. Doesn't help that the built-in stuff on this laptop isn't even ISA
PnP compatible. Wierd hardware is probably not unusual for a laptop, I
suppose.

So after a lot of guesswork, the opl3sa2 driver works fine with a low DMA
value of 1 and a '16 bit' DMA channel of 0. This is backwards to the way
every other soundcard I've used has it, the 8-bit DMA channel is usually
the lowest one. Even Windows got it wrong, dunno how it worked...


Gavin.




>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gavin Rogers" <grogers at vk6hgr.echidna.id.au>
> To: <plug at plug.linux.org.au>
> Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2001 7:31 PM
> Subject: [plug] Laptops and sound
>
>
> > Hi All.
> >
> > I've got a frustrating problem with a Toshiba 440CDX and Linux.
> >
> > To put it simply, the sound doesn't work! I've tried kernel 2.2.14 and
> > 2.4.15 with the same results.
> >
> > I'm quite sure I have the IRQ and DMA settings correct (copied from the
> > windows installation) and playing sound through the device works just fine
> > except when I try to record, I get the error:
> >
> > kernel: Sound: DMA (input) timed out - IRQ/DRQ config error?
> >
> >
> > The modules I've tried are the ad1848 and opl3sa2. (apparently the Yamaha
> > chipset in the laptop should work better with the opl3sa2 module - but the
> > same results all around). If it helps, opl3sa2 says the chipset is a
> > YMF715B or YMF719B. Confusingly, the chipset is supported by ALSA sound
> > drivers as well as OSS, but I don't know if one is any better than the
> > other...
> >
> > I've searched the net and it seems that a lot of people have problems (and
> > many have this same problem, but no solutions) with these horrible windows
> > sound system cards... the best solutions so far have been to throw the
> > card out! Unfortunately, this card is too firmly attached to my laptop.
> >
> > Any suggestions?
> >
> >
> >
> > ---
> > Gavin Rogers                    |    Amateur radio station VK6HGR
> > grogers at vk6hgr.echidna.id.au    |    http://vk6hgr.echidna.id.au/
> >
> >
>
>

---
Gavin Rogers                    |    Amateur radio station VK6HGR
grogers at vk6hgr.echidna.id.au    |    http://vk6hgr.echidna.id.au/



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