This section answers some of the questions that have been commonly asked on the Usenet news groups and mailing lists.
These are the most "standard" device file names, some Linux distributions may use slightly different names.
Sun workstation compatible audio device (only a partial implementation, does not support Sun ioctl interface, just u-law encoding)
digital sampling device
sound mixer
second sound mixer
Patch Manager (not implemented)
Patch Manager (not implemented)
low level MIDI, FM, and GUS access
high level sequencer interface (partially implemented)
1st raw MIDI port
2nd raw MIDI port
3rd raw MIDI port
4th raw MIDI port
displays sound driver status when read
for second sound card
for second sound card
The PC speaker driver provides the following devices:
equivalent to /dev/audio
equivalent to /dev/dsp
equivalent to /dev/mixer
Sun workstation (.au) sound files can be played by sending them to the
/dev/audio device. Raw samples can be sent to
/dev/dsp. Using a program such as play is
preferable, as it will recognize most file types and set the sound
card to the correct sampling rate, etc.
Reading /dev/audio or /dev/dsp will return sampled
data that can be redirected to a file. A program such as vrec
makes it easier to control the sampling rate, duration, etc. You may
also need a mixer program to select the appropriate input device.
Up to two sound cards is supported. It's possible to install a Gravis UltraSound or MPU-401 with a SoundBlaster, SoundBlaster Pro, SoundBlaster16 or ProAudioSpectrum16. It's not possible to have a ProAudioSpectrum16 and SoundBlaster at the same time (the PAS16 has an SB emulator in it). It's also not possible to have more than one card of the same type at the same time -- for example, a GUS + GUS combination is not possible.
You can change the sound card configuration parameters at boot time
using command line options from a boot loader such as LILO. See the
kernel sound driver file Readme.linux for details.
No such file or directory for sound devices You need to create the sound driver device files. See the section on creating device files. If you do have the device files, ensure that they have the correct major and minor device numbers (some older CD-ROM distributions of Linux may not create the correct device files during installation).
No such device for sound devices You have not booted with a kernel containing the sound driver or the I/O address configuration doesn't match your hardware. Check that you are running the newly compiled kernel and verify that the settings entered when configuring the sound driver match your hardware setup.
No space left on device for sound devices This can happen if you tried to record data to /dev/audio or /dev/dsp without creating the necessary device file. The sound device is now a regular file, and has filled up your disk partition. You need to run the script described in the Creating the Device Files section of this document.
device busy for sound devices Only one process can open a given sound device at one time. Most likely some other process is using the device in question. One way to determine this is to use the fuser command:
% fuser -v /dev/dsp
/dev/dsp: USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
tranter 265 f.... tracker
In the above example, the fuser command showed that process 265 had the device open. Waiting for the process to complete or killing it will allow the sound device to be accessed once again.
device busy errors! According to Brian Gough, for the SoundBlaster cards which use DMA channel 1 there is a potential conflict with the QIC-02 tape driver, which also uses DMA 1, causing "device busy" errors. If you are using FTAPE, you may have this driver enabled. According to the FTAPE-HOWTO the QIC-02 driver is not essential for the use of FTAPE; only the QIC-117 driver is required. Reconfiguring the kernel to use QIC-117 but not QIC-02 allows FTAPE and the sound-driver to coexist.
(the following explanation was supplied by Harald Albrecht
albrecht@igpm.rwth-aachen.de)
Some soundcards support using DMA channel 0. The sound driver configuration program allows this, and the kernel compiles properly, but accessing the sound device results in a "device busy" error message.
The reason is that the Linux kernel reserves DMA channel 0 for DRAM refresh. This is no longer true for modern 386/486 boards which use their own refresh logic. You can correct it by changing this line in the file /usr/src/linux/kernel/dma.c:
static volatile unsigned int dma_chan_busy[MAX_DMA_CHANNELS] = {
1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0
};
Replace the first 1 with a 0; this enables DMA channel 0. Don't do the same with DMA channel 4 as this is cascade and won't work! The code should now look like this:
static volatile unsigned int dma_chan_busy[MAX_DMA_CHANNELS] = {
0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0
};
Recompile and reboot with the new kernel.
The symptom is usually that a sound sample plays for about a second and then stops completely or reports an error message about "missing IRQ" or "DMA timeout". Most likely you have incorrect IRQ or DMA channel settings. Verify that the kernel configuration matches the sound card jumper settings and that they do not conflict with some other card.
Another symptom is sound samples that "loop". This is usually caused by an IRQ conflict.
Playing MOD files requires considerable CPU power. You may have too many processes running or your computer may be too slow to play in real time. Your options are to:
If you have a Gravis UltraSound card, you should use one of the mod
file players written specifically for the GUS (e.g. gmod).
The version 1.0c and earlier sound driver used a different and
incompatible ioctl() scheme. Obtain newer source code or make
the necessary changes to adapt it to the new sound driver. See the
sound driver Readme file for details.
Also ensure that you have used the latest version of
soundcard.h and ultrasound.h when compiling the
application. See the installation instructions at beginning of this
text.
This is probably the same problem described in the previous question.
See the Readme and CHANGELOG files included with the
sound driver kernel source.
If you are using version 1.0c or earlier, you definitely need to upgrade. Version 1.0c is not compatible with the applications written for version 2.0 or later.
There have been no significant changes after version 2.0, so if you don't have problems and that particular version fulfills your requirements, there are no compelling reasons to move to a more recent version (this should be true at least until September 1994).
The latest official version is in the latest Linux kernel distribution. There may also be some test and prototype versions lying around. If the version number is smaller than 2.9, the version should be quite safe. Any driver release having a version number of the form 2.99.XX is an incompletely implemented and experimental test release.
If you run DOOM under Linux, see the related question later in this document.
If you are interested in development of the sound driver, join the linux activists SOUND channel.
During configuration of the sound driver, a configure program
is compiled and executed. This program asks you some questions and
then generates the header file local.h that defines the sound
card configuration.
The configuration file defines (or undefines) the following symbols:
Symbol Meaning ====== ======= KERNEL_SOUNDCARD enable/disable sound driver EXCLUDE_PAS ProAudioSpectrum support EXCLUDE_SB SoundBlaster support EXCLUDE_ADLIB AdLib support EXCLUDE_GUS Gravis UltraSound support EXCLUDE_MPU401 MPU-401 MIDI interface support EXCLUDE_UART6850 6850 MIDI UART support EXCLUDE_PSS Professional Sound System support EXCLUDE_GUS16 Gravis UltraSound support EXCLUDE_GUSMAX Gravis UltraSound Max support EXCLUDE_MSS Microsoft Sound System support EXCLUDE_SBPRO SoundBlaster Pro support EXCLUDE_SB16 SoundBlaster 16 support EXCLUDE_AUDIO Digitized voice support EXCLUDE_MIDI MIDI interface support EXCLUDE_YM3812 FM synthesizer (YM3812/OPL-3) support EXCLUDE_SEQUENCER MIDI sequencer support EXCLUDE_PRO_MIDI SoundBlaster Pro MIDI support EXCLUDE_CHIP_MIDI MIDI on CHIP support SBC_BASE 0x220 SoundBlaster I/O base address SBC_IRQ SoundBlaster IRQ number SBC_DMA SoundBlaster DMA channel SB16_DMA SoundBlaster 16 DMA channel SB16_MIDI_BASE base address of SoundBlaster 16 MIDI port PAS_IRQ ProAudioSpectrum IRQ number PAS_DMA ProAudioSpectrum DMA channel GUS_IRQ Gravis UltraSound IRQ number GUS_DMA Gravis UltraSound DMA channel GUS_BASE base address of Gravis UltraSound MPU_IRQ MPU-401 IRQ number MPU_BASE base address of MPU-401 port DSP_BUFFSIZE DMA buffer size
Several other defines are also created, setting such things as the sound driver revision level and the time and date when configure was run.
There are other parameters that are not set by the configure
program. If you need to change these, edit the file
sound_config.h.
To disable the sound driver, run make config and answer "no"
to the "Sound card support?" question.
The sound driver is not just for Linux, it also supports several other Intel-based Unix operating systems. The package is now called "VoxWare". Some of the enhancements being considered are:
These are documented in the Hacker's Guide to VoxWare,
currently available in draft form. The latest version is draft 2, and
can be found on nic.funet.fi in
/pub/OS/linux/ALPHA/sound. Note that this directory is
"hidden" and will not appear in directory listings. If you "cd" to the
directory and use the FTP "dir" command, the files are there.
There is no easy answer to this question, as it depends on:
In general, any 386 machine should be able to play samples or FM synthesized music on an 8 bit soundcard with ease.
Playing MOD files, however, requires considerable CPU resources. Some experimental measurements have shown that playing at 44kHz requires more than 40% of the speed of a 486/50 and a 386/25 can hardly play faster than 22 kHz (these are with an 8 bit card sound such as a SoundBlaster). A card such as the Gravis UltraSound card performs more functions in hardware, and will require less CPU resources.
These statements assume the computer is not performing any other CPU intensive tasks.
Converting sound files or adding effects using a utility such as Sox is also much faster if you have a math coprocessor. The kernel driver itself does not do any floating point calculations, though.
(the following explanation was supplied by
seeker@indirect.com)
Linux only recognizes the 1542 at address 330 (default) or 333, and the PAS only allows the MPU-401 emulation at 330. Even when you disable the MPU-401 under software, something still wants to conflict with the 1542 if it's at its preferred default address. Moving the 1542 to 333 makes everyone happy.
Additionally, both the 1542 and the PAS-16 do 16-bit DMA, so if you sample at 16-bit 44KHz stereo and save the file to a SCSI drive hung on the 1542, you're about to have trouble. The DMAs overlap and there isn't enough time for RAM refresh, so you get the dread ``PARITY ERROR - SYSTEM HALTED'' message, with no clue to what caused it. It's made worse because a few second-party vendors with QIC-117 tape drives recommend setting the bus on/off times such that the 1542 is on even longer than normal. Get the SCSISEL.EXE program from Adaptec's BBS or several places on the internet, and reduce the BUS ON time or increase the BUS OFF time until the problem goes away, then move it one notch or more further. SCSISEL changes the EEPROM settings, so it's more permanent than a patch to the DOS driver line in CONFIG.SYS, and will work if you boot right into Linux (unlike the DOS patch). Next problem solved.
Last problem - the older Symphony chipsets drastically reduced the timing of the I/O cycles to speed up bus accesses. None of various boards I've played with had any problem with the reduced timing except for the PAS-16. Media Vision's BBS has SYMPFIX.EXE that's supposed to cure the problem by twiddling a diagnostic bit in Symphony's bus controller, but it's not a hard guarantee. You may need to:
Young Microsystems will upgrade the boards they import for around $30 (US); other vendors may be similar if you can figure out who made or imported the motherboard (good luck). The problem is in ProAudio's bus interface chip as far as I'm concerned; nobody buys a $120 sound card and sticks it in a 6MHz AT. Most of them wind up in 25-40MHz 386/486 boxes, and should be able to handle at least 12MHz bus rates if the chips are designed right. Exit soapbox (stage left).
The first problem depends on the chipset used on your motherboard, what bus speed and other BIOS settings, and the phase of the moon. The second problem depends on your refresh option setting (hidden or synchronous), the 1542 DMA rate and (possibly) the bus I/O rate. The third can be determined by calling Media Vision and asking which flavor of Symphony chip is incompatible with their slow design. Be warned, though - 3 of 4 techs I talked to were brain damaged. I would be very leery of trusting anything they said about someone else's hardware, since they didn't even know their own very well.
The newer SB Pro has an OPL-3 FM chip, but the older version 1 used the OPL-2. The sound driver assumed the presence of an OPL-3. Version 2.5 of the sound driver corrects this problem.
With the 2.5a sound driver the GUS-MAX is not explicitly supported but it will work partially. The driver does not know about the additions such as the mixer or 16 bit sampling. Booting your system and initializing the card under MS-DOS and then booting Linux (using ctrl-alt-del) should allow it to work.
There is support for the GUS-MAX starting with the 2.9 sound driver.
First, make sure you really have an unsupported sound card. A few cards are compatible with supported cards (e.g. Logitech SoundMan 16 is compatible with ProAudioSpectrum 16). Post your question to the net or the Linux activists SOUND channel.
If your card truly is not supported, here are some options:
The Hacker's Guide to Voxware has some comments on which sound cards may be supported in future.
Due to hardware limitations, this is not possible with most sound cards. The only supported card that can do this is the ProAudioSpectrum16. See the section on "bidirectional mode" in the Hacker's Guide to Voxware for more information.
On '286 and later machines, the IRQ 2 interrupt is cascaded to the second interrupt controller. It is equivalent to IRQ 9.
Creative Labs is not willing to release programming information for the ASP and Emu chips used in these cards. Unless they change their policy, there will be no support for this under Linux.
The Gravis UltraSound card has capabilities similar to the AWE32, and is supported under Linux. Cards based on other DSPs such as the Analog Devices ADSP-21xx may be supported in the future.
This happens after a soft reboot to DOS. Sometimes the error message misleadingly refers to a bad CONFIG.SYS file.
Most of the current sound cards have software programmable IRQ and DMA settings. If you use different settings between Linux and MS-DOS/Windows, this may cause problems. Some sound cards don't accept new parameters without a complete reset (i.e. cycle the power or use the hardware reset button).
The quick solution to this problem it to perform a full reboot using the reset button or power cycle rather than a soft reboot (e.g. Ctrl-Alt-Del).
The correct solution is to ensure that you use the same IRQ and DMA settings with MS-DOS and Linux (or not to use DOS :-).
This is not the kernel HOWTO (any volunteers?). Until one is written, try reading the file /usr/src/linux/README; it is reasonably complete.
If you really don't want to compile a kernel, you may be able to find a precompiled kernel that has the drivers you need as part of a Linux distribution (e.g. the Slackware "q" series of disks).
Users of the recently released port of ID software's game DOOM for Linux may be interested in these notes.
For correct sound output you need version 2.90 or later of the sound driver; it has support for the new the real-time "DOOM mode".
The sound samples are 16-bit. If you have an 8-bit sound card there is
a program called sndcvt available that converts the data from
16 to 8 bits on the fly. You also have to patch the DOOM sound server;
the details are explained in the README file.
If performance of DOOM is poor on your system, disabling sound (by
renaming the file sndserver) may improve it.
At least at time of writing, DOOM for Linux does not have any background music.
Using good quality shielded cables and trying the sound card in different slots may help reduce noise. If the sound card has a volume control, you can try different settings (maximum is probably best).
Using a mixer program you can make sure that undesired inputs (e.g. microphone) are set to zero gain.
Some sound cards are simply not designed with good shielding and grounding and are prone to noise pickup.
Finally, on my system I found that the kernel command line option
no-hlt reduces the noise level. This tells the kernel not to
use the halt instruction when running the idle process loop. You can
try this manually when booting, or set it up using the command
append = "no-hlt" in your LILO configuration file.
If you can play sound but not record, try these steps:
Some sound card clones are not 100% register compatible with the real thing; they sometimes contain extra circuitry such as mixers. You may be able to use these under Linux if you first initialize under MS-DOS, then soft boot Linux (i.e. Ctrl-Alt-Delete).
One user also reported that he had better results if he used LOADLIN rather than LILO to boot Linux after initializing his sound card under MS-DOS (this was with a Diamond sound card).,
They may or may not function reliably. The real solution is to find out from the manufacturer what the differences are and have the support added to the sound driver. This has been done, for example, for the Sound Galaxy NX Pro.
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