ALSA/Ubuntu rant

Everything and anything, but nothing about the LinuxSampler project.
User avatar
Consul
Moderator
Posts: 189
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:19 pm
Location: Port Huron, Michigan, USA
Contact:

ALSA/Ubuntu rant

Post by Consul » Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:07 pm

I have been using a self-compiled version of ALSA on UbuntuStudio 64 so I can use my Emu 1212m sound card. Today, I updated to the latest kernel, and now my ALSA install has completely disappeared. When I run "modprobe snd-emu10k1-fpga" it returns "FATAL: Module snd_emu10k1_fpga not found." Apparently, every time I update the kernel, I'm going to need to recompile, reinstall, and reconfigure ALSA. This seems more of a pain than it's worth.

I'm hanging in the UbuntuStudio channel now, to see if there's an easier solution, but I'm not holding out hope.

Rant over for now.
Darren Landrum

User avatar
dahnielson
Moderator
Posts: 632
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:25 pm
Location: Linköping / Tranås, Sweden
Contact:

Re: ALSA/Ubuntu rant

Post by dahnielson » Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:36 pm

Hmm...

If you're using a 2.6 kernel then ALSA support will normally be compiled into it (no need for alsa-lib). All the stuff people normally call "drivers" on other platforms are simply kernel modules on GNU/Linux and most of them come with the kernel, hence overwrites you old kernel module (or more precise, the old ones gets replaced). Even with externally packages kernel modules there is often a need to reinstall them after a kernel update (well at least in my case since I configure and compile the kernel myself).
Anders Dahnielson

Ardour2, Qtractor, Linuxsampler, M-AUDIO Delta 1010, Axiom 61, Korg D12, AKAI S2000, E-MU Proteus 2k, Roland R-5, Roland HP 1300e, Zoom RFX-1000, 4GB RAM x86_64 Intel Pentium Dual 1.80GHz Gentoo Linux

User avatar
Consul
Moderator
Posts: 189
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:19 pm
Location: Port Huron, Michigan, USA
Contact:

Re: ALSA/Ubuntu rant

Post by Consul » Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:39 pm

I need to install my own ALSA because UbuntuStudio ships with too early of a version of ALSA to have my needed Emu driver. Once UbuntuStudio finally updates the ALSA version they use, this likely won't be an issue anymore.
Darren Landrum

User avatar
Consul
Moderator
Posts: 189
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:19 pm
Location: Port Huron, Michigan, USA
Contact:

Re: ALSA/Ubuntu rant

Post by Consul » Tue Feb 05, 2008 11:50 pm

It appears I can no longer install the latest ALSA in order to get my card to work. I can compile all the ALSA stuff, but when I go to do the modprobe commands, I get a string of fatal errors (either missing modules or an inability to run the installer). Everything worked perfectly the last time I did all of this with the last kernel. I wish I knew what to do besides wiping the partition and starting over, and this time NOT updating the kernel.
Darren Landrum

User avatar
Consul
Moderator
Posts: 189
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:19 pm
Location: Port Huron, Michigan, USA
Contact:

Re: ALSA/Ubuntu rant

Post by Consul » Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:35 am

Heh, sorry about the whinging, but it just irks me that I used to manage mail, web, and application servers on a regular basis, including managing backups, for an ISP, but I can't figure this ALSA crap out. I just feel better knowing I'm not the only one. For the time being, I've shuffled everything back over to my Windows partition and will use that until the next UbuntuStudio version (currently in beta) gets released.
Darren Landrum

User avatar
cuse
Developer
Posts: 366
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:07 pm
Location: Germany

Re: ALSA/Ubuntu rant

Post by cuse » Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:58 am

What are the exact error messages you get when doing modprobe?

User avatar
Consul
Moderator
Posts: 189
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:19 pm
Location: Port Huron, Michigan, USA
Contact:

Re: ALSA/Ubuntu rant

Post by Consul » Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:09 pm

Okay, this is weird. Suddenly, it works again. I don't know why. Poking, prodding, and swearing did nothing, but a second reboot fixed it. I wish I knew why. Thanks for the help anyway, cuse.
Darren Landrum

Alex
Moderator
Posts: 316
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:08 pm

Re: ALSA/Ubuntu rant

Post by Alex » Sat Feb 09, 2008 11:14 pm

A quick hello Darren, and good to see you're up and running!

Alex.

:)

User avatar
Consul
Moderator
Posts: 189
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:19 pm
Location: Port Huron, Michigan, USA
Contact:

Re: ALSA/Ubuntu rant

Post by Consul » Sat Feb 09, 2008 11:34 pm

Actually, I've given up on Ubuntu Studio and giving Gentoo a go. I've installed and used Gentoo a number of times, so I think I can handle it. In fact, the project I was knee-deep in when I left the ISP to return to college was converting the Slackware servers Gentoo Hardened.

This may yet take an interesting turn. :)
Darren Landrum

User avatar
Consul
Moderator
Posts: 189
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:19 pm
Location: Port Huron, Michigan, USA
Contact:

Re: ALSA/Ubuntu rant

Post by Consul » Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:11 am

Well, my first adventure using the Gentoo LiveCD, supposedly the easiest way to install Gentoo, is complete and utter failure. Bug after bug after bug.

I guess I'll have to do it the long way with the minimal install after all. Or try out that new Suse-based studio distro. Maybe I'll give that one a go. I'm just wanting to make Gentoo work because I'm tired of all of these pre-compiled distros having tons of way-out-of-date software in their repositories (Ardour 2.0.5? Come on!).

Rant over.
Darren Landrum

Post Reply