On Sun, 2006-12-17 at 17:26 -0600, Dmitry Hits wrote:
Hi, I am trying to activate the sound card in my laptop. However linux
is
> 
> still the dark forest to me. I saw the post before where somebody
asked
> similar question and he was asked several questions about his system.
Her
> e
> are the answer to those questions on my system:
> 

I don't have the same hardware. However, on modern Red Hat or Fedora
systems,
the "system-config-soundcard" program usually does a pretty good job of
automatic soundcard detection and sets up modprobe.conf correctly.  If
you
have trouble with this could you explain what error messages you get?


> 
> First here is my pci stuff:
> 
> [root@resnet-172 hits]# /sbin/lspci
> 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and
945
> GT
> Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
> 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile
945GM/GMS/940
> GML
> Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
> 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML
> Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
> 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High
Definit
> ion
> Audio Controller (rev 01)
> 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express
Po
> rt
> 1 (rev 01)
> 00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express
Po
> rt
> 4 (rev 01)
> 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB
UHCI #
> 1
> (rev 01)
> 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB
UHCI #
> 2
> (rev 01)
> 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB
UHCI #
> 3
> (rev 01)
> 00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB
UHCI #
> 4
> (rev 01)
> 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2
EHCI
> Controller (rev 01)
> 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
> 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface
Bri
> dge
> (rev 01)
> 00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family)
Seria
> l
> ATA Storage Controller IDE (rev 01)
> 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller
(r
> ev 01)
> 03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0
100Base-TX (
> rev 02)
> 03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd: Unknown device 0832
> 03:01.1 Class 0805: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host
Adapter
> 
> (rev 19)
> 03:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd: Unknown device 0843 (rev 01)
> 03:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host
Adap
> ter
> (rev 0a)
> 03:01.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller
(rev 0
> 5)
> 0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Networ
> k
> Connection (rev 02)
> 
> 
> Next here is my modprobe.conf, 
> 
> [root@resnet-172 hits]# cat /etc/modprobe.conf
> alias eth0 b44
> alias scsi_hostadapter ata_piix
> alias snd-card-0 snd-azx
> options snd-card-0 index=0
> install snd-azx /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-azx && /usr/s
> bin/alsactl
> restore >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
> remove snd-azx { /usr/sbin/alsactl store >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; };
> /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-azx
> alias usb-controller ehci-hcd
> alias usb-controller1 uhci-hcd
> alias eth1 ipw3945
> 
> I don't understand what is going on in there. First it says install
snd-a
> zx
> and then in the next line remove snd-azx. Can somebody explain me
those t
> wo
> lines. 
> 
The modprobe.conf file is not a script - the commands do not get
executed in sequence.  Instead, the "install" and "remove" lines are
rules which tell the system what to do when it inserts and removes the
sound driver module in the kernel.  Looking at the "install" line:

install snd-azx /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-azx
&; /usr/sbin/alsactl restore >/dev/null 2>&1 || :

This means that when the "snd-azx" driver is installed, for example by
running /sbin/modprobe snd-azx, the "alsactl" program will automatically
be invoked afterwards (this is done to restore the saved volume levels).

Note that modprobe runs another copy of itself to insert the module. The
"--ignore-install" option tells this not to parse the "install" line
this time; otherwise there would be an infinite recursive loop here.



> Also I don't find modules.conf file. 
> [hits@resnet-172 ~]$ locate modules.conf
> /etc/gnome-vfs-2.0/modules/ssl-modules.conf
> /etc/gnome-vfs-2.0/modules/mapping-modules.conf
> /etc/gnome-vfs-2.0/modules/default-modules.conf.with-menu-editing
> /etc/gnome-vfs-2.0/modules/default-modules.conf
> 
Don't worry about this: "modules.conf" was present on old systems, but
has now been replaced by "modprobe.conf". By the way, there are
additional rules in the files in /etc/modprobe.d.  These have the same
format as the rules in modprobe.conf.


> Does it mean I need a newer version of modutils. Which repository has
it?
>  
> 
> Final question I want some recomendation on how to learn more about
linux
> ,
> so far I am getting bits and pieces from all over, can somebody
suggest s
> ome
> source where one can get a good foundation in linux. 
> 
> cheers,
> 
> Dmitry Hits.