Tiny Core Linux

Tiny Core Extensions => TCE Talk => Extension requests => Topic started by: uggla on August 05, 2011, 04:15:47 PM

Title: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: uggla on August 05, 2011, 04:15:47 PM
I have some (minor) issues with my intel sound. Noticed a newer version at http://www.alsa-project.org/
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: curaga on August 06, 2011, 02:48:53 AM
We in general use the alsa modules from the kernel. Do you mean the utils?
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: Jason W on August 06, 2011, 08:58:24 AM
My opinion was at this point to leave the alsa libs/utils alone until TC 4.x, but there should be no harm in an update, I think the last update went pretty seamlessly. 

Since we would be using the same kernel drivers, I am not sure it would really make a difference with hardware issues.



Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: uggla on August 06, 2011, 10:44:20 AM
Ok, I thought it was contained in a separate kernel module. Is the kernel only updated with every major release of tc?
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: Jason W on August 06, 2011, 04:33:36 PM
Yeah, the kernel is normally only upgraded with each major TC release.

There is the alsa-driver source (modules) with each alsa release, and they release a little more often than our kernel updates, perhaps that approach can be considered for the future to allow more frequent alsa driver updates. 
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: andrewb on August 06, 2011, 07:46:17 PM
@Jason

Module updates could be useful.  Have you seen my post at?:

http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=11015.0

SO far as I understand hwdep is a config option at compile time. It may be usefyl for future Alsa extensions to include this so that hda-analyzer & other tools can be used without recompilation being required.
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: Jason W on August 06, 2011, 09:43:27 PM
Ok, that is something that will be considered on next build.
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: andrewb on August 08, 2011, 07:11:41 PM
I compiled the alsa 1.0.24 modules & tried using them on my netbook (eeepc 900ax). The new modules reported the correct chip (ALC269). The current extension in the repository reports the chip as ALC259. Additional PCM & capture devices were recognised.

It looks like an update might be worthwhile to cope with some of the chipsets in current use. The 900ax I have is a year old & even then the technology level in it was not bleeding-edge. The 900ax was the sub Au$200 8.9 inch eeepc available about a year ago.

If an update is done can the modules please be compiled with hwdep support. Even with the updated modules I still have issues with the microphone input. Hdaanalyzer requires the hwdep device files to work. I have hdaanalyzer working, though the gui is a bit flaky (scroll bars not working properly, window contents lost when the window overlaid with another & then brought back to the front - is this more likely just a GTK problem?)
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: curaga on August 09, 2011, 02:12:36 AM
hwdep is included in the coming 4.0 build.
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: Jason W on August 09, 2011, 06:06:50 AM
andrewb-

I will build and upload an alsa-driver package that can be used as an alternative to the in kernel package.  It will need to be installed first before any alsa stuff, whether by placing it higher in onboot.lst or by installing it first with the appbrowser.  That way it will prevent the alsa-modules-'uname -r' package from getting also loaded which will conflict with this one.  I will state that in the info file also.
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: andrewb on August 09, 2011, 09:12:37 AM
Thanks.

I have tried it & get the following:

Quote
tc@box:~$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_hwdep               3004  0
snd_pcm                37628  0
snd_timer              10564  1 snd_pcm
snd                    26200  3 snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore               2640  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          4016  1 snd_pcm
tc@box:~$ sudo modprobe snd_hda_intel
modprobe: can't load module snd_hda_codec (kernel.tclocal/sound/pci/hda/snd-hda-codec.ko.gz): unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter

I had some similar problems when I compiled & used the modules yesterday. It's late here & I can't remember the details.
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: Jason W on August 09, 2011, 11:07:35 AM
The snd_hda_intel module modprobed fine here, but I don't have that hardware.

I am assuming that you don't also have the other alsa-modules extension loaded, as it can cause conflict with this one.
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: curaga on August 09, 2011, 03:47:06 PM
dmesg will tell you which symbol.
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: uggla on August 09, 2011, 04:28:33 PM
Will there be a 64bit version as well?
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: Jason W on August 09, 2011, 04:50:34 PM
Not by me at least, as I don't have the hardware. 
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: andrewb on August 10, 2011, 09:16:04 AM
The snd_hda_intel module modprobed fine here, but I don't have that hardware.

I am assuming that you don't also have the other alsa-modules extension loaded, as it can cause conflict with this one.


Found the problem. The soundcore module is missing. It doesn't appear to be compiled when 1.0.24 is made. I used the version from 1.0.23 in the repository as I saw that the stock alsa extension loaded this module when snd_hda_intel was modprobed. Seems to work so maybe there isn't any difference in soundcore from 1.0.23 to 1.0.24. I can't see soundcore.c so I can't figure out how it is generated. (& haven't dug into the configue & make files to find it yet.

Hdaanalyzer works with these modules ok. Now I have no sound outtput or input due to having changed some settings with hdaanalyzer. At least I can now map out what is happening in the sound system & start sorting it out.

My original problem was a lot of noise on the microphone input which seemed to be due to one of the gain / /amplifier circuits & hdaanalyzer is the only way of digging deep enough to sort it out.
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: Jason W on August 10, 2011, 09:44:02 AM
I'll look in to it soon, and try to find out what happened. 
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: Jason W on August 12, 2011, 05:21:21 PM
I see what has happened.  Soundcore is part of the kernel base sound architecture, not part of the alsa package.  Including it allows sound to work.  I will repackage alsa-driver.
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: Jason W on August 12, 2011, 05:26:27 PM
It is uploaded, try sound again.

Though the startup script does "touch /usr/local/tce.installed/alsa-modules-2.6.33.3-tinycore" and that prevents the loading of the alsa-modules extension when this one is loaded first after booting, it does not prevent failure to load alsa.tcz and others due to the missing alsa-modules extension that is called on by the dep files during boot.  I am not sure of how to solve this for on boot, may consider making the alsa-modules/alsa-driver a mention in the info file so the user can pick one.
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: gutmensch on August 15, 2011, 04:22:14 AM
Ok guys, I can jump in here with some strange issues and I have one of these snd-hda-intel devices ;-)

"/usr/local/etc/init.d/alsasound start" stops working with tc upgraded from 3.7.1 to 3.8.1. The reason is that "lspci -k" returns "Kernel modules" in 3.7.1 but not in 3.8.1 any longer, like
Code: [Select]
Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel
Kernel modules: r8169
I don't know exactly why, lspci comes from pci-utils, unrelated to base but it's maybe related to our busybox update?



Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: curaga on August 15, 2011, 04:27:41 AM
I guess it's the pci id map, generated by GNU depmod. It being a dep of alsa things should work.
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: gutmensch on August 15, 2011, 04:39:13 AM
Good catch, curaga.
Had to do a depmod -a before running alsasound but now its working again. :) Thanks!
Title: Re: ALSA update to 1.0.24
Post by: Jason W on August 26, 2011, 08:14:42 PM
I see the alsa modules now in the 4.x repo, and I will update alsa to 1.0.24 shortly, hopefully this week.