[Pkg-alsa-devel] Bug-Report!: Alsa driver "snd-sb-awe" ignores module options (kernel 2.6.26)

[Elimar Riesebieter]

* CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler [090828 03:09 +0200]
> Please forward the other bugs to the appropriate maintainers.

No.

> 
> 
> I employ a historical PC with AMD K6-III+/550MHz, 512MB ram and a
> DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev. B+ mainboard using a "Soundblaster AWE64 Gold"
> and "Gravis Ultrasound Classic" sound card.
> 
> -BUG 1:
> 
> I have downloaded linux-source-2.6.26_2.6.26-17lenny2_all.deb and
> tried to compile the kernel. First the initrd ramdisk crashed with
> the error "Kernel panic - not syncing: bad gzip magic numbers.",
> which I only could fix by disabling ramdisk support in .config .
> (I first tried various other .config options with no success.)

I don't think this kernel is supported from Debian anymore.

> -BUG 2:
> 
> Then the kernel modul snd-sb-awe didn't load. It turned out that
> its DMA settings conflicted with the DMA of the module
> snd-gusclassic. In my previous 2.6.8 kernel all this worked ok.
> After some tests I discovered that snd-sb-awe always seems to
> automatically set "dma8=1 dma16=5" by its isapnp routine and
> ignores any manual setting of this value, which makes it crash
> with the "dma1=5" option of my (non-isapnp) "Gravis Ultrasound
> Classic" sound card.

We don't support such old alsa-drivers.

> I changed the DMA values of snd-gusclassic to "DMA1=6,DMA2=7" to
> make it load, however I worry much that it won't work, because the
> GUS-Classic card is non-isapnp; its parameters have to be set
> manually by replugging jumpers on this historical card, which has
> been configured for working correctly on Windows 98SE that I use as
> my main OS. I may even install a 3rd non-isapnp card in future, thus
> it is crucial to me to permit to set DMA options of snd-sb-awe
> manually.
> 
> The current sb16.c(?) source file looks like when it always
> overwrites all(?) manual module options with values from the
> isapnp system. I went through computer science studies but my
> brain is toast, so I can hardly read C++ code anymore. The sb16.c
> from kernel 2.6.8 looks much different and apparently handled
> options more reasonably.
> 
> Please tell me how I can fix this. (Should I install an old module
> instead?)

No support.

> (My linux is a mixture of several Debian distros. It is mainly
> Sarge (with remains of Potato, Woody and possibly some antique
> Slakware) that I upgraded manually with some current Lenny
> packages (about 250MB?) downloaded from www.debian.org. 

You will never find a Debian maintainer to help you in that chaos.

> Because I have only slow analogue modem and no internet connection
> installed on the linux partition of the machine, I have to suck
> everything through windows with maximum 4.4kb/s (which is really
> awkward). So I have to choose wisely what I can afford to
> download. E.g. my KDE is still from Sarge and somewhat hacked
> together with symlinks to old DLLs to coexist with the Lenny
> parts.)
> 
> -BUG 3:
> 
> When the pc speaker driver is installed, it tries to act as the
> primary sound card and thus makes alsa fail to initialize sound
> cards with very unelegant and misleading error messages during
> boot. It find a huge amount of unknown symbols instead of telling
> what's wrong.
> 
> >>>
> Aug 27 05:36:17 Loonyx kernel: Inspecting /boot/System.map-2.6.26
> Aug 27 05:36:17 Loonyx kernel: Loaded 28771 symbols from
> /boot/System.map-2.6.26.
> Aug 27 05:36:17 Loonyx kernel: Symbols match kernel version 2.6.26.
> Aug 27 05:36:17 Loonyx kernel: No module symbols loaded - kernel
> modules not enabled.
> Aug 27 05:36:17 Loonyx kernel: _pcm: Unknown symbol snd_info_register
> Aug 27 05:36:17 Loonyx kernel: snd_pcm: Unknown symbol
> snd_info_create_module_entry
> Aug 27 05:36:17 Loonyx kernel: snd_pcm: Unknown symbol snd_timer_notify
> Aug 27 05:36:17 Loonyx kernel: snd_pcm: Unknown symbol
> snd_timer_interrupt
> Aug 27 05:36:17 Loonyx kernel: snd_pcm: Unknown symbol
> snd_info_free_entry
> ...
> (and so on)
> <<<

Very bad kernel configuration.

> The dependency handling should really do something clever here to
> explain that a module that has depencencies to others could not be
> succesfully loaded. The speaker driver doesn't seem to work on my
> PC anyway - it says my system timer chip would be too slow or such
> stuff. In DOS age many programs (e.e. "Pinball Fantasy")
> sucessfully played samples through the PC squeaker.

No support.

> 
> -BUG 4:
> 
> Installing a kernel with "make install" messes up my /boot
> directory. Instead of symlinks it writes a 2nd copy of the kernel
> and system.map to /boot, which is dangerous because my /boot is
> only a 15MB small boot partition which tends to run out of memory
> when unneeded rubbish is copied to it. My linux root partition
> itself is behind the 128GB barrier that the mainboard BIOS can
> access, and I definitely refuse to use harddisk DDO drivers, since
> the machine needs to stay capable to safely boot antique DOS games
> from diskettes (including 5.25'' ones).

That is your fault.


Elimar


-- 
  Alles was viel bedacht wird ist bedenklich!;-)
         Friedrich Nietzsche