dapper upgrade no sound

[Indra Polak]

On Wed, 2006-07-19 at 20:55 -0400, Daniel T. Chen wrote: 

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> Indra Polak wrote:
> > I upgraded to dapper and think  I found the reason why my music is not
> > working anymore:
> > 
> > no S50alsa-utils in /etc/rcS.d/ !!
> > 
> > Also not in another /etc/rc[0-6].d/ script.
> 
> There's not supposed to be. The correct timing for mixer
> setting-restoration is when udev receives an ADD event, and thus there's
> /etc/udev/rules.d/85-alsa.rules. Your dist-upgrade to Dapper is 100%
> correct in removing S50alsa-utils.


Let me start by mentioning that I expected an upgrade not to break my
sound configuration.
So if the init of the sound state has been changed in between two
releases, I expect it to work, 
and I do not expect to be spending time wondering why my sound is not
working anymore. 

So maybe you are correct in saying 

"Your dist-upgrade to Dapper is 100% correct in removing S50alsa-utils."

if that was the only goal. But I also expect to keep sound, and that
goal did not succeed.

Maybe, if the dist-upgrade had not removed the file, my sound would
still be working.

What I see here, is that two things have been changed at once, 

namely 

1. The timing for mixer setting-restoration
2. The way this is done (using a .rules file instead of a the old shell
script.)

Probably part 1 was configured excellently but part 2 evidently was not
since my sound disappeared.

Back to business.

My version of /etc/udev/rules.d/85-alsa.rules reads:

KERNEL=="controlC[0-9]*", ACTION=="add", \
        RUN+="/sbin/start-stop-daemon --start --background
--pidfile /var/run/alsa/bogus --startas /etc/init.d/alsa-utils -- start
%n"

I saved a state using

sudo alsactl store 0

then muted my channels, (sound disappeared...)
and then ran 

/sbin/start-stop-daemon --start --background
--pidfile /var/run/alsa/bogus --startas /etc/init.d/alsa-utils -- start

sound returned.

So it should work?

Probably its not called at boot time, or at a time the device is not
ready, i.e. before its driver is loaded?

Aha. I see in /etc/rcS.d:

S10udev
...
S15module-init-tools

this is not correct (for my system).

My sound driver is loaded dynamically (using a line in /etc/modules). 
Since the driver is configured before it is loaded, I get muted
channels.
I added my driver to /etc/modules following advice from 
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205449

Maybe this was not a good idea.

I removed the line and rebooted. Now it is not showing in the available
modules and 
trying to restore Volume control says there is no device to control.

So either I have to recompile my kernel or put the line back
in /etc/modules.
I think I will stay with the latter approach for the time being.

So this is the main reason I have no sound: 

before the upgrade the right driver gets loaded before restoring
settings, after the upgrade the right driver is not loaded at all.
Why not? Can anyone explain to me in plain English why after the upgrade
the driver is not loaded?

Of course, I could put back the original S50alsa-utils in /etc/rcS.d/,
so it would be executed AT THE RIGHT TIME, i.e. AFTER the driver is
loaded, 
but that ofcourse would not be 100% correct.

How are devices to be configured which have dynamically loaded drivers?

(Solution now follows.)

Become root (or use sudo prefix) and added the line to /etc/modules
which now reads


# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

lp
mousedev
psmouse
snd-emu10k1

^^^^^^^^^ (added line with snd-emu10k1)

This makes sure the proper device driver gets loaded for my (added)
sound-card (instead of the on-board disabled one) the infamous 
SBLive! Value card. Nowadays very cheap (I got one for 15 euros) but
rock-solid performance. In its days it was the absolute king of sound.

then I executed 

cd /etc/rcS.d/
ln -s ../init.d/alsa-utils S16alsa-utils

So my card gets configured (the old way hehe) after the
S15module-init-tools.

Lets say I think that is the proper time to restore settings of a device
with a dynamically loaded device driver.

I rebooted, and...sound is ok, boot screen also gives me its usual drum.

Regards,

Indra Polak

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