manual configuration of an ISA or ISA-PnP soundcard with ALSA

Support knowledgebase (swgkern_alsamanual)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: Versions since 6.3
ALSA: Version since 0.4.1-

Symptom:

Your ISA or ISA-PnP soundcard is supported by ALSA but could not be configured neither with Yast2 nor with alsaconf.

Solution:

  1. Please open the file /etc/modules.conf as user root using your favourite editor.

  2. Search the entry that was created by ALSA, approx. line 185:
    # alias char-major-14      soundcore
    # alias char-major-116     snd
    # alias sound-slot-0       snd-card-0
    # alias sound-service-0-0  snd-mixer-oss
    # alias sound-service-0-1  snd-seq-oss
    # alias sound-service-0-3  snd-pcm-oss
    # alias sound-service-0-8  snd-seq-oss
    # alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
    
    and remove the hash # at the beginning of each line. Now it should look like this:
    alias char-major-14      soundcore
    alias char-major-116     snd
    alias sound-slot-0       snd-card-0
    alias sound-service-0-0  snd-mixer-oss
    alias sound-service-0-1  snd-seq-oss
    alias sound-service-0-3  snd-pcm-oss
    alias sound-service-0-8  snd-seq-oss
    alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
    
  3. Approx. in line 217 you can find an example on how to give the parameters for the sound chip CS4236. Here you can specify the IRQ manually, also the IO and DMA adresses. Please enter the values that you have determined before.
    # alias snd-card-0         snd-card-cs4236
    # options snd-card-cs4236 snd_index=0 snd_port=0x530 snd_cport=0x538 snd_irq=5 snd_dma1=1 snd_dma2=0
    snd_isapnp=0
    
    To give the `options´ to the system you have to remove the hash # at the beginning of each line.
    alias snd-card-0         snd-card-cs4236
    options snd-card-cs4236 snd_index=0 snd_port=0x530 snd_cport=0x538 snd_irq=5 snd_dma1=1 snd_dma2=0
    snd_isapnp=0
    
  4. Determine options and adresses:

    For a lot of motherboards you can specify the adresses for IRQ, IO and DMA in the Bios, especially in case of onboard sound chips in notebooks. Change the values for the sound chip if necessary und enter the appropriate values for your sound card in the above mentioned line in /etc/modules.conf. Please pay attention, that the adress is not used by another hardware component. Check the settings with

    procinfo
    
    cat /proc/ioports
    
    cat /proc/dma
    
    If you use an ISA-PnP card you can pick the adresses from the output of
    pnpdump -c
    
    A list of all necessary options and the parameters that can be used for a sound chip you can find in
    /usr/share/doc/packages/alsa/INSTALL
    
  5. Option ISA or ISA-PnP:

    In case of an ISA card the option is:

    snd_isapnp=0
    

    See also:
    o ALSA update for SuSE SuSE 6.4 / 7.0 / 7.1 / 7.2

    Keywords: ALSA, SOUND, ISA, ISAPNP, SOUND CONFIGURATION

    SDB-swgkern_alsamanual, Copyright SuSE Linux AG, Nürnberg, Germany - Version: 04. Mai 2001
    SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 15. Mai 2002 by ast (sdb_gen 1.40.0)