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How to use Yamaha opl3sa2 sound card in Precise?
Posted: Sat 04 Jan 2014, 19:56
by rebbi1
Hi, Pupples,
I am trying to resurrect an ancient Toshiba Tecra 8000 laptop. Everything works fine and dandy except that even Alsaconf doesn't recognize the presence of a sound card.
I've searched the web and these forums and have every reason to believe it's a Yamaha opl3sa2. There are even some references to this issue on these forums but no solution that I can find. Running Alsaconf on a much older version of Pupply (4.2.1?) seems to set up the card properly with Alsaconf, but then the test sound fails to play.
This card seems from my googling to be notoriously hard to get going under Linux, but not impossible.
I was wondering if it's possible to do this
http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index. ... e-opl3-sa2
under Precise; that is, to build and install the sound module?
Thanks in advance!
Re: The dreaded Yamaha opl3sa2 sound card
Posted: Sat 04 Jan 2014, 20:10
by ardvark
rebbi1 wrote:I've searched the web and these forums and have every reason to believe it's a Yamaha opl3sa2.
Hi...
Out of curiosity, what does lspci say?
Interesting, I found this statement
here:
Puppy Linux has the utility alsaconf which detects and configures this card correctly.
I wonder if something happened with ALSA or the driver in question between 2008 and now?
Here is a thread that might come close to your question but I don't know enough about the code or programming to be able to answer it.
Regards...
Posted: Sat 04 Jan 2014, 22:14
by mikeb
Running Alsaconf on a much older version of Pupply (4.2.1?) seems to set up the card properly with Alsaconf, but then the test sound fails to play.
that might have been just a case of twiddling with alsamixer.
The problem with later distros may well be no driver support if it seems to not be loading one...or is it ISA which might need some nudging.
Or if new kernels light your candle then a cheap usb sound dongle might be the way
I had one old machine and its ISA sound never did work...even looked like it was ... under linux... I bought a cmi card in the end for 5 squid
mike
Re: The dreaded Yamaha opl3sa2 sound card
Posted: Sun 05 Jan 2014, 02:09
by OscarTalks
The module
snd-opl3sa2 does not appear to be included in Precise 5.7.1
but it is included in Dpup Wheezy and Slacko 5.6
You could try compiling it for Precise.
Load devx and kernel sources and follow the instructions.
Re: The dreaded Yamaha opl3sa2 sound card
Posted: Sun 05 Jan 2014, 02:40
by rebbi1
OscarTalks wrote:
The module
snd-opl3sa2 does not appear to be included in Precise 5.7.1
but it is included in Dpup Wheezy and Slacko 5.6
You could try compiling it for Precise.
Load devx and kernel sources and follow the instructions.
OscarTalks: this is great information and I really appreciate it. I'll check out Dpup Wheezy and Slacko 5.6 for certain. If I can get by without having to compile the driver modules I'd gladly go that route.
Re: The dreaded Yamaha opl3sa2 sound card
Posted: Sun 05 Jan 2014, 02:43
by rebbi1
ardvark wrote:rebbi1 wrote:I've searched the web and these forums and have every reason to believe it's a Yamaha opl3sa2.
Hi...
Out of curiosity, what does lspci say?
Interesting, I found this statement
here:
Puppy Linux has the utility alsaconf which detects and configures this card correctly.
I wonder if something happened with ALSA or the driver in question between 2008 and now?
Here is a thread that might come close to your question but I don't know enough about the code or programming to be able to answer it.
Regards...
Ardvark:
Well, lspci lists all kinds of stuff, including some sort of "Cube" (?? - not on that machine right now) DVD decoder hardware! But no mention of the sound card.
Yes, it seems to me that the kernel dropped support for this old sound card some time ago. I tried Puppy 4.2 and found that
the card is recognized and working in that version. Now the question is to see if I can come up with a more recent puppy version that'll support this machine fully.
Re: The dreaded Yamaha opl3sa2 sound card
Posted: Sun 05 Jan 2014, 03:58
by ardvark
rebbi1 wrote:
Well, lspci lists all kinds of stuff, including some sort of "Cube" (?? - not on that machine right now) DVD decoder hardware! But no mention of the sound card.
Hi...
Hmm. Well, it could be as Mike mentioned, an ISA device. If not that, then it could be that the chipset died or is not working normally or perhaps another brand of chipset.
Let us know how Slacko or Dpup does with this.
Regards...
Re: The dreaded Yamaha opl3sa2 sound card
Posted: Mon 06 Jan 2014, 03:11
by rebbi1
ardvark wrote:rebbi1 wrote:
Well, lspci lists all kinds of stuff, including some sort of "Cube" (?? - not on that machine right now) DVD decoder hardware! But no mention of the sound card.
Hi...
Hmm. Well, it could be as Mike mentioned, an ISA device. If not that, then it could be that the chipset died or is not working normally or perhaps another brand of chipset.
Let us know how Slacko or Dpup does with this.
Regards...
So, here's the report:
Dpup doesn't see the card even after running ALSAconf. I've no idea why, and it's a pity because Dpup Wheezy seems very well done.
Slacko also doesn't see the card. Furthermore, it won't let me configure the Neomagic GFX card in this laptop to any resolution higher than 640 x 480, whereas the native resolution of this card and LCD is 1024 x 768.
For whatever reason, Puppy 4.2.1 has the voodoo to get everything working: sound works (amazing, "woof woof") and video resolution also works. So this is not faulty hardware but some software issue(s) that 4.2.1 somehow circumvents.
I'd have loved to get this machine running on a more recent/polished Puppy, but right now I'm grateful that the older pups are still available online since Puppy 4.2.1 is the ONLY distro of any flavor that I've yet found that'll play nice with this piece of ancient but utterly usable hardware.
Re: The dreaded Yamaha opl3sa2 sound card
Posted: Mon 06 Jan 2014, 05:03
by ardvark
rebbi1 wrote:
I'd have loved to get this machine running on a more recent/polished Puppy, but right now I'm grateful that the older pups are still available online since Puppy 4.2.1 is the ONLY distro of any flavor that I've yet found that'll play nice with this piece of ancient but utterly usable hardware.
Hi...
I don't think 4.2.1 circumvented anything, just that it has the driver you need that the others apparently don't have, which, if that's really truly the case, is extremely unfortunate.
Even though it's an older version, I'm glad you found one that works.
Regards...
Posted: Mon 06 Jan 2014, 16:04
by mikeb
Mixing really old with really new does not always go well in Linux and even windows draws the line at some point.
You might get lucky and build the drivers on a newer kernel but you do NOT need a newer kernel to run newer software. (see 214x...that might be of interest too)
There's quite a bit of 4.12/4.21 support on the forum and beyond...
You could even splice that kernel into a newer puppy if you got the urge but then life gets slower anyway which is another factor.
You are looking at debian lenny, slax 6 , slackware 12 era of distros.... so quite a choice of software plus I have built plenty of more recent aplications to run just fine on puppy 4.12. (4.21 is pretty much the same with nice bits added)
You have a viable solution...it matches the hardware...good idea to simply build on it
mike
Posted: Mon 06 Jan 2014, 16:14
by rebbi1
mikeb wrote:Mixing really old with really new does not always go well in Linux and even windows draws the line at some point.
You might get lucky and build the drivers on a newer kernel but you do NOT need a newer kernel to run newer software. (see 214x...that might be of interest too)
There's quite a bit of 4.12/4.21 support on the forum and beyond...
You could even splice that kernel into a newer puppy if you got the urge but then life gets slower anyway which is another factor.
You are looking at debian lenny, slax 6 , slackware 12 era of distros.... so quite a choice of software plus I have built plenty of more recent aplications to run just fine on puppy 4.12. (4.21 is pretty much the same with nice bits added)
You have a viable solution...it matches the hardware...good idea to simply build on it
mike
Mike,
Thanks for the reply and I agree with all your comments.
So here's an interesting question. Why don't SFS files loaded through boot manager seem to be showing up in my menus, even after a Menu Refresh? I've tried loading Free Office and LibreOffice and neither one seems to be installing properly. Do I need special SFS files for 4.2.1?
Posted: Mon 06 Jan 2014, 16:36
by mikeb
Ok at a guess...
4.21 uses sfs3.... puppy 5 uses sfs 4... due to the workings of the kernel politics the two are not compatible.
There is probably a converter around here ...or look out for sfs 3 packages / built for puppy 4
You can have sfs loaded on the fly too.
Ok just for test and perhaps get you going give this a whirl (sorry my libreoffice is only as a slax module at the mo...
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/110545536/Puppy ... ee_uni.sfs
mike
Posted: Mon 06 Jan 2014, 16:38
by mikeb
Actually here might be more of interest
http://412collection.co.uk/document.php
mike
Posted: Mon 06 Jan 2014, 16:40
by rebbi1
mikeb wrote:Ok at a guess...
4.21 uses sfs3.... puppy 5 uses sfs 4... due to the workings of the kernel politics the two are not compatible.
There is probably a converter around here ...or look out for sfs 3 packages / built for puppy 4
You can have sfs loaded on the fly too.
Ok just for test and perhaps get you going give this a whirl (sorry my libreoffice is only as a slax module at the mo...
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/110545536/Puppy ... ee_uni.sfs
mike
Mike: Okay, didn't realize that 4.2.1 used a different sfs format. I kind of recall later Puppies including a utility to bring SFS3 files up to SFS4 spec, but not the other way around. But your tip gives me something to search for. Thanks!
Posted: Mon 06 Jan 2014, 16:46
by rebbi1
Very groovy, Mike, thanks!
Posted: Mon 06 Jan 2014, 16:48
by mikeb
going from 4 to three is feasible ... unsquashfs4 just needed....
Does not mean it will be compatible though in other ways...suck it and see.... there is puppy 4 stuff on ibiblio and this forum for starters....don't think the package manager has that much to offer.
mike
ps I am on puppy 4.12 typing this message .... gets a fair bit of use
pps I am groooovy.... though you post faster than I can...