From alsa-user-owner@alsa.jcu.cz  Tue May 12 20:08:56 1998
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	Tue, 12 May 1998 10:09:34 -0700
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 10:09:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: Aaron Newsome <aaron.d.newsome@wdc.com>
To: Jaroslav Kysela <perex@jcu.cz>
cc: Aaron Newsome <aaron.d.newsome@wdc.com>, alsa-user@alsa.jcu.cz
Subject: Re: Could not open /dev/dsp with mpg123
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I also still have the OSS commercial drivers on the system.

The single command 'soundon' activates these drivers, and yes they do work
(with the same dma, irq and i/o listed). I purchased these drivers from
4Front-Tech, and they mostly work OK, but later kernel versions (post
2.0.30) have been hanging *hard* after about 30 hours hours of continous
sound output. 

I have considered going back to an earlier kernel version, but I am trying
everything I possibly can first. The card is an AWE-32 PnP, last Friday
it was a Sounblaster 16 PnP. I got a new card, thinking that the card was
causing my machine to lock up so hard. That wasn't it. I even moved to the
development kernel versions to see if that would help, but it didn't.

The lockups are hugely frustrating, considering the 10GB of disk space on
4 hard drives takes *forever* to fsck after being shutdown dirty. I
frequently brag to my friends about my Linux machines *never* needing
reboots. I try to avoid talking about my P200 though, since this machine
rarely stays up longer than 4 days, although without sound running, it
truly never does crash - it is a very stable machine.

I proved this yesterday while sound was off. I was using netscape to
browse the web, compiling a kernel, burning a CD with my Sony burner (real
burn, not dummy), doing a tape backup with 4mm dat , running top and an
xosview window. Not even a hiccup. Turn on OSS and start listening to
music and sometimes as quick as 1hour, but usually many more hours later
the machine will lock hard. No ping from other hosts, no numlock action on
the keyboard, no nothing.

Does anybody have a clue what might be happening. I have been trying to
track this down since about January and I am nearly exhausted, and about
to give up.

Is there anyone on this list besides Jaroslav ?

Does anyone know how to make the ALSA drivers work with an SB AWE32. Does
anyone know of another drivers I could try with AWE32, or another sound
card I could buy that have drivers available for Linux ? Are there are
cards that can be bought still that have native kernel support.

I have a SB16 non PnP (very rare nowadays) in my PC here at WD, with
kernel drivers compiled in and this works very nicely. I think I would
like to have a card that kernel drivers can be used for, if this is more
reliable. I don't really care about eSound daemons and multi mix
/dev/dsp's and all that fancy stuff. I just need a card/driver combination
that can play continous sound - forever, without crashing.

Any thoughts comments or ideas are appreciated.

Thanks,

Aaron Newsome
aaron.d.newsome@wdc.com
office: 714-932-7321
pager:  714-810-9205  

On Tue, 12 May 1998, Jaroslav Kysela wrote:

> On Tue, 12 May 1998, Aaron Newsome wrote:
> 
> > I did a 'modprobe snd-pcm-oss' and it seemed to load fine.
> > 
> > I then tried to use mpg123 to play an mp3 file (and x11amp). This time I did
> > not get a 'could not open /dev/dsp' error, but yet no sound came out. The
> > mpg123 progress indicator never moved either.
> 
> I'm out of ideas. Looks like you have some hardware conflict (try another
> IRQ and DMAs) or there is still some initialization bug in ALSA driver for
> SB16. Can you write me which type of SB16 you have (looks like you have SB
> AWE 32 / PnP - by DSP version 4.13)?
> 
> Can someone write me, if configuration:
> 
> port 0x220
> irq 5
> dma 1,6
> 
> is working for standard SB 16 (not Plug & Play)? I don't have non-PnP SB16
> soundcard to test it..
> 
> 						Jaroslav
> 
> -----
> Jaroslav Kysela <perex@jcu.cz>
> Academic Computer Centre, University of South Bohemia
> Branisovska 31, C. Budejovice, CZ-370 05 Czech Republic
> 
> 


