Linux

[Red]

I stayed up until 2AM last night working with it.  I compiled and installed all the ALSA components from source and set up modprobe.conf.  My sound works now.

One WEIRD quirk though. There is a volume control in my Gnome panel (like the windows system tray icon). It's very convenient, but it uh.. doesn't work right. If you adjust the volume anywhere below max, then it turns itself down, and in about ten seconds the volume is all the way down. You actually SEE the volume slider decend, I just don't get it.  If you set the volume to max, it stays.

BUT, if you open up either the Volume Control panel or the ALSA Audio Mixer, you can adjust the volume and it stays.  Also, it forgets it's volume settings after reboot, so the master volume is turned all the way down and CD is muted.

I don't think this whole issue is distro related, but I'm running Fedora Core 2 which came with the 2.6.5 kernel and ALSA.  My sound card is an ISA Sound Blaster AWE64.

I know ALSA worked with previous kernels, but it's the only sound system that works with 2.6.x right?  I'm pretty sure I was using OSS with FC1 and Mandrake 9.2.

[Cali]

You mentioned before, you use gentoo, right?
You sould set a "alsa" to the USE parameter in the make.conf file.
Elseway, some things will not work correct with gnome and other components.
I had the same problem. Afer I added "alsa" as parameter an recompilled the soundmixer of gnome, everything worked fine.

[Red]

You mentioned before, you use gentoo, right?
You sould set a "alsa" to the USE parameter in the make.conf file.
Elseway, some things will not work correct with gnome and other components.
I had the same problem. Afer I added "alsa" as parameter an recompilled the soundmixer of gnome, everything worked fine.

No, I think that was you.

I use Fedora Core 2.

Where is the make.conf file you speak of, and at what point should I edit it?

[Red]

By make.conf, do you mean the Makefile?

And are you suggesting that I change

ALSAMIXER_FALSE = #
ALSAMIXER_TRUE =

to

ALSAMIXER_FALSE =
ALSAMIXER_TRUE = #

[Cali]

If you are not using gentoo, you should not edit something in this file.
In gentoo, there is a line, where you specifie, the parameter, gcc should pay attention, while compilling modules.
Looks like

Code:

USE="gnome gtk2 -kde -qt alsa dvd -emas"

The make.conf is an very important part of your system. It is located in /etc.

Anyway I am confused about the use of the code, you posted...

ALSAMIXER_FALSE = #
ALSAMIXER_TRUE =

The # is uncommenting lines of code in front of them. But I think, the # is emulating some kind of boolean here....  :?

Try to change it to true an look what happens...  :wink:
If that shows no effect, swap the lines AND reset the # sign (no joke)!
Never forget to backup you make.conf. And do not fear: Any changes you do in the make.conf do not prevent you system from rebooting undless you compile some stuff new.

(maybe we should pm about this.... the thread starts looking like a dialogue between us two only)

[Red]

I have no such make.conf file.  I tried to open /etc/make.conf in vi, but it just brought up a new file.  Also tried a search for it, nothing.

That bit of code I posted was from my alsamixer makefile.

We are talking about the same problem right?  The Gnome volume control not working correctly and volume settings not saved on reboot.  Other than that, my sound DOES work.

[Panda]

ALSA is not only for the 2.6 kernel. I run my card since 2.4.16 with ALSA without problems. Now I use the 2.6.5-gentoo kernel.

Indeed. I have it working on my "server" computer.

Alas, apparently due to some bug in the 2.4 kernel, my main system's soundcard won't run right. Apparently even with the 2.6 series, my card has problems with the jacks getting switched around (talk about a weird driver bug). Sort of puts a damper in dual booting if I cant play my mp3s on one OS without switching my connections for the other.

And I havn't had the time to butcher apart my RH9 install and get everything working with a 2.6 kernel. All these kernel modules and runtime scripts... I just don't have the time. Hell, It'd be easier to build it up from the ground up. Matter of fact that's one of my shelved projects... shehlved only because I want to create my own shell for it and all this other crap.

Yes, I aware I'm crazy. ^_^.

[Chris P]

I have Linux installed on the harddrive that is sat on my shelf. When i want to run it i just switch it out with my windows drive thats in my caddy.

Never found a Disto that was 100% compatible with my set up. Redhat just plain didn't like me and Mandrake gives me really nasty feedback through my 5.1 but is fine with the onboard sound.

[Red]

I reinstalled Fedora when I thought I nuked it messing with my wireless card drivers (non-SMP safe drivers on an SMP machine).  Now I think I know how I could have recovered it pretty easy...

ALSA was way easier to set up this time around, I was doing everything the hard way before.  I just had to add the alsa stuff corresponding to my sound card drivers in /etc/modprobe.conf  Rebooted and all was well.

Kernel 2.6.6 came through in the updates today, seems to be working just fine.

[Atomic_Dogg]

I use DVDXCOPY on my Windows box to back up my DVD's for safe keeping. Does any one know of a Linux app that does kind of the same thing? I got DVDShrink to work under Wine, but the DVD's that is produced could only be read by a computer. My set-top dvd player laughed at me and to me to put in a disc that had a movie on it.

[UltraTanuki]

Pardon my ignorance, but what advantages does using Linux bring?  I mean aside from that alienating look that old ppl give you when you say you dont use Windows...

[Panda]

Pardon my ignorance, but what advantages does using Linux bring?  I mean aside from that alienating look that old ppl give you when you say you dont use Windows...

Choice to choose your shell easily, not have to slap down $100 for a windows OS if making a new computer...

IMHO easier to tweak around with...

A file system that makes SENSE (read: not C:\ D:\ E:\, but /usr/bin and /home/panda/)

I also find it easier to develop on, simply because free compiler support for windows sucks compared to the free compiler support for linux (and by "compiler support" I mean libs and the like)

Also, you get a lot more SECURITY with linux... that's allways nice... not having to worry about some popup tweaking your registry to force a new home page down your throat even with all the recent patches applied...

Linux is better suited mostly for enterprise, where volume licensing of windows could be a huge cost. Being open source, you can add improvements and modifications without too much hastle. This gives enterprise more flexibility to customize their OS to their needs.

That said, geeks like it 'cause it's free. And some of the major geeks 'cause they can mess around with stuff.

Also, linux has a penguin as their mascot. Windows dosn't even have a mascot.

Windows teh lameage  :twisted:

edit: 200th post! the hawt!!!

[UltraTanuki]

Hmmm, I guess that's all ok and stuff... but if I where to buy my grandma a comp I'd still give her one with a Windows OS.  When I'm in the market to buy comp stuff 90% of it runs on Windows, some of it can also run on Mac OS (which is not backwards compatible)... but I almost never see boxes pointing out that certain software is compatible with Linux...

Now I'm not pretending to be an OS compatability expert, if I'm wrong somebody tell me... but still my opinion remains the same for the
average-non-tweaking-user and grandmas and grandpas out there I'd recomend Windows... evil as it may be...

By the way Panda, congratulation on your 200th post!!!  

*fanfare*  All hail Panda!  Lord of posting!  Master of the forum!  ...now, if we could only get some fangirls...

[name773]

actually, you're right: the majority (if not all) of the software you see in stores (on and off line) will not work in linux. instead, the open source community wrote their own applications that replace the ones you would normally buy. you can browse them here, and they're all freely downloadable most even give you the source code it's grand.

[batou]

I tried to work with servers under windows 2000 and ones under Linux.

That truly makes you understand why linux is suitable in a work environment while windows isn't.