Very Computer

by **Bradford Hovin** » Sun, 15 Nov 1998 04:00:00

Does anyone know anything about getting the Soundblaster AWE64 Value's
synth/midi working under Linux? I've tried using the driver for the
AWE32 (the documentation of which clearly indicates that it supports the
AWE64) both on 2.0.x and 2.1.x without success. It just says that the
AWE32 was not detected.

I know it's not a hardware problem because it works under Windows 95,
and the basic audio output works just fine. It's just the synth
interface that does not work under anything outside of Windows 95
(including DOS).

--
-Bradford Hovinen

by **Andy Jefferso** » Tue, 17 Nov 1998 04:00:00

> > Does anyone know anything about getting the Soundblaster AWE64 Value's
> > synth/midi working under Linux? I've tried using the driver for the
> > AWE32 (the documentation of which clearly indicates that it supports the
> > AWE64) both on 2.0.x and 2.1.x without success. It just says that the
> > AWE32 was not detected.

> > I know it's not a hardware problem because it works under Windows 95,
> > and the basic audio output works just fine. It's just the synth
> > interface that does not work under anything outside of Windows 95
> > (including DOS).

> > --
> > -Bradford Hovinen

> I realize it goes slightly against the free philosophy of Linux, but
> www.opensound.com has a set of commercial drivers for Linux. The basic
> package is $20 U.S., and for an extra $10 U.S., you can get an add-on
> specifically for the Creative AWE series, including the 64 model, etc. For a
> little more, you can also get the open-mixer support so all apps can write to
> /dev/dsp concurrently, allowing system-alerts while playing games, for
> instance.

Why bother paying when you can do it all for free ?
Get the Soundblaster-AWE miniHOWTO and follow the instructions about
'isapnp', and patching your kernel, and it all works great.

HTH
--
Andy Jefferson

by **Bradford Hovin** » Tue, 17 Nov 1998 04:00:00

> > > Does anyone know anything about getting the Soundblaster AWE64 Value's
> > > synth/midi working under Linux? I've tried using the driver for the
> > > AWE32 (the documentation of which clearly indicates that it supports the
> > > AWE64) both on 2.0.x and 2.1.x without success. It just says that the
> > > AWE32 was not detected.

> > > I know it's not a hardware problem because it works under Windows 95,
> > > and the basic audio output works just fine. It's just the synth
> > > interface that does not work under anything outside of Windows 95
> > > (including DOS).

> > > --
> > > -Bradford Hovinen

> > I realize it goes slightly against the free philosophy of Linux, but
> > www.opensound.com has a set of commercial drivers for Linux. The basic
> > package is $20 U.S., and for an extra $10 U.S., you can get an add-on
> > specifically for the Creative AWE series, including the 64 model, etc. For a
> > little more, you can also get the open-mixer support so all apps can write to
> > /dev/dsp concurrently, allowing system-alerts while playing games, for
> > instance.

> Why bother paying when you can do it all for free ?
> Get the Soundblaster-AWE miniHOWTO and follow the instructions about
> 'isapnp', and patching your kernel, and it all works great.

That's just the thing: I tried using the HOWTO, following all of the
instructions exactly, and it didn't work. It just complained that the
card was not detected (referring apparantly just to the AWE's synth
interface and not to the wave output).

I'm wondering if the fact that it is an AWE64 Value and not an AWE64
Gold might make a difference. Does anyone know whether the AWE64 Value
exports synth functionality into the software drivers?

Quote:> HTH
> --
> Andy Jefferson

--
-Bradford Hovinen

There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make
it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies and the other is to
make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.
- Charles Anthony Richard Hoare

by **Xkalibu** » Wed, 18 Nov 1998 04:00:00

I also followed the instructions in the miniHOWTO (and have a AWE64
Value) but the problem i have is when I install the awe drivers -- I
install with install-rh.sh (running redhat 5.1 and newly compiled
2.0.35) and when I do 'make xconfig' the awe driver is not listed as a
low level driver, although several awe.something files have been copied
to the drivers/sound/lowlevel directory. I can detect the card fine
with sndconfig, but I get modprobe error when it tries to play a sample
sound. Can anyone out there please help me on this? Thanx a bunch, and

Willy

> > > > Does anyone know anything about getting the Soundblaster AWE64 Value's
> > > > synth/midi working under Linux? I've tried using the driver for the
> > > > AWE32 (the documentation of which clearly indicates that it supports the
> > > > AWE64) both on 2.0.x and 2.1.x without success. It just says that the
> > > > AWE32 was not detected.

> > > > I know it's not a hardware problem because it works under Windows 95,
> > > > and the basic audio output works just fine. It's just the synth
> > > > interface that does not work under anything outside of Windows 95
> > > > (including DOS).

> > > > --
> > > > -Bradford Hovinen

> > > I realize it goes slightly against the free philosophy of Linux, but
> > > www.opensound.com has a set of commercial drivers for Linux. The basic
> > > package is $20 U.S., and for an extra $10 U.S., you can get an add-on
> > > specifically for the Creative AWE series, including the 64 model, etc. For a
> > > little more, you can also get the open-mixer support so all apps can write to
> > > /dev/dsp concurrently, allowing system-alerts while playing games, for
> > > instance.

> > Why bother paying when you can do it all for free ?
> > Get the Soundblaster-AWE miniHOWTO and follow the instructions about
> > 'isapnp', and patching your kernel, and it all works great.

> That's just the thing: I tried using the HOWTO, following all of the
> instructions exactly, and it didn't work. It just complained that the
> card was not detected (referring apparantly just to the AWE's synth
> interface and not to the wave output).

> I'm wondering if the fact that it is an AWE64 Value and not an AWE64
> Gold might make a difference. Does anyone know whether the AWE64 Value
> exports synth functionality into the software drivers?

> > HTH
> > --
> > Andy Jefferson

> --
> -Bradford Hovinen

> There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make
> it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies and the other is to
> make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.
> - Charles Anthony Richard Hoare

by **Richard A. Perry, Jr** » Wed, 18 Nov 1998 04:00:00

My AWE64 Gold is just as stubborn

Richard

rap0074.vcf
< 1K Download

by **Andy Jefferso** » Wed, 18 Nov 1998 04:00:00

> I've been trying desperately for a few hours to get my AWE64 to work on my
> RedHat 5.1 system (and a newly recompiled 2.0.35 kernel) following those same
> instructions in the AWE miniHOWTO. I downloaded the awe driver, and
> installed per instructions, but for some reason when i run 'make xconfig' and
> choose sound options, the awe driver is not listed as a low-level driver
> (only the default aci or something like that is still there)... I've checked
> the drivers/sound/lowlevel/ directory and several awe files were copied there
> with the install-rh.sh script, but I'm at a loss as to why it's not listed?
> furthermore, I get modprobe errors when simplying trying sndconfig, so I'm
> hoping this one step with the awe driver is what's* me up. If anyone
> out there has any ideas I appreciate it... and please forward any replies

Right. Well I use RH5, but I don't use RedHat's kernel - I ditched that
and went for the official kernel (ftp://ftp.kernel.org). When I tried
the miniHOWTO method with RH's kernel I couldn't get it to go either.
Doing it with the official kernel, I did have to check the isapnp.conf
to get it exactly right, and also get the kernel config options exaclty
right to get success. All I can suggest is ditch that RH kernel, and
make sure you follow the HOWTO *exactly* since it is quite sensitive to
one missed setting.

HTH
--
Andy Jefferson

by **Max Weninge** » Wed, 18 Nov 1998 04:00:00

Hi,

.....................

Quote:> That's just the thing: I tried using the HOWTO, following all of the
> instructions exactly, and it didn't work. It just complained that the
> card was not detected (referring apparantly just to the AWE's synth
> interface and not to the wave output).

> I'm wondering if the fact that it is an AWE64 Value and not an AWE64
> Gold might make a difference. Does anyone know whether the AWE64 Value
> exports synth functionality into the software drivers?

.....................

Maybe the following is your problem (it was mine :-) )

The problem is that pnpdump is not generating complete information about
the wavetable

isapnp.conf
....
(CONFIGURE CTL0048/58128 (LD 2
# ANSI string -->WaveTable<--

(IO 0 (BASE 0x0620))
----> (IO 1 (BASE 0x0A20))
----> (IO 2 (BASE 0x0E20))

# this lines are missing if running pnpdump
# they must be added by hand
...............

If these lines are missing the driver will prompt AWE32 not found

Hope this helps

Max
--
_______________________________________________________________
\
o/\_ DI Max Weninger

">. |
` .-| TakeFive Software - Jakob-Haringer-Str. 8
. \ A-5020 Salzburg - AUSTRIA
. \ Tel: +43 662 4579150 - Fax: +43 662 4579156
.-|
_________._|____________________________________________________

by **Bradford Hovin** » Wed, 18 Nov 1998 04:00:00

> Hi,

> .....................
> > That's just the thing: I tried using the HOWTO, following all of the
> > instructions exactly, and it didn't work. It just complained that the
> > card was not detected (referring apparantly just to the AWE's synth
> > interface and not to the wave output).

> > I'm wondering if the fact that it is an AWE64 Value and not an AWE64
> > Gold might make a difference. Does anyone know whether the AWE64 Value
> > exports synth functionality into the software drivers?
> .....................

> Maybe the following is your problem (it was mine :-) )

> The problem is that pnpdump is not generating complete information about
> the wavetable

> isapnp.conf
> ....
> (CONFIGURE CTL0048/58128 (LD 2
> # ANSI string -->WaveTable<--

> (IO 0 (BASE 0x0620))
> ----> (IO 1 (BASE 0x0A20))
> ----> (IO 2 (BASE 0x0E20))

> # this lines are missing if running pnpdump
> # they must be added by hand
> ...............

> If these lines are missing the driver will prompt AWE32 not found

Thanks.

It still complained that the AWE32 was not detected, but this time I
could edit the sources and set the default io port and ram size (I
couldn't before). The driver installs properly, and I'm not getting any
visible errors, but no sound is coming out when I play midis or run the
sfxtest program. The synth device appears on the mixer and the volume
is set relatively high, but no sound is coming out.

> Hope this helps

> Max
> --
> _______________________________________________________________
> \
> o/\_ DI Max Weninger

> ">. |
> ` .-| TakeFive Software - Jakob-Haringer-Str. 8
> . \ A-5020 Salzburg - AUSTRIA
> . \ Tel: +43 662 4579150 - Fax: +43 662 4579156
> .-|
> _________._|____________________________________________________

--
-Bradford Hovinen

There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make
it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies and the other is to
make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.
- Charles Anthony Richard Hoare

by **Alex Tayl** » Thu, 19 Nov 1998 04:00:00

> > (CONFIGURE CTL0048/58128 (LD 2
> > # ANSI string -->WaveTable<--

> > (IO 0 (BASE 0x0620))
> > ----> (IO 1 (BASE 0x0A20))
> > ----> (IO 2 (BASE 0x0E20))

> > If these lines are missing the driver will prompt AWE32 not found

> Thanks.

> It still complained that the AWE32 was not detected, but this time I
> could edit the sources and set the default io port and ram size (I
> couldn't before). The driver installs properly, and I'm not getting any
> visible errors, but no sound is coming out when I play midis or run the
> sfxtest program. The synth device appears on the mixer and the volume
> is set relatively high, but no sound is coming out.

Don't forget to load soundfonts into the card's RAM on or after bootup, now.
If you don't, MIDI will appear to play but no sound will come out (because it
has no sound samples to play)...

I've noticed that, while some people have no trouble with the AWE-64, others
just can't get theirs working properly, following the exact same instructions.
(The same thing happens on OS/2.)

I'm wondering if it's because there are at least four different versions of
the "same" card...
- AWE-64 OEM (more or less a Value, but it might be slightly different)
- AWE-64 Value
- AWE-64 ("standard" retail version, unlike the Value has an IDE port)
- AWE-64 Gold (not sure if there are OEM vs. retail versions of this, too...)

Anybody know of any other models?

Last time I read the AWE HOWTO, it didn't really take these different models
into account. Perhaps there's a common element among all these reported
problems that we can pin down?

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Alex Taylor BA - CIS - University of Guelph

-----------------------------------------------------------------

by **Max Weninge** » Sat, 21 Nov 1998 04:00:00

Hi again,

> > Don't forget to load soundfonts into the card's RAM on or after bootup, now.
> > If you don't, MIDI will appear to play but no sound will come out (because it
> > has no sound samples to play)...

> I loaded the samples I downloaded from the ftp site indicated in the README
> file. No sound came out. Is there any particular importance to the directory
> one places the soundfont file in? The README file indicates that it should be
> in /usr, but I loaded it from my home directory. I don't see what difference
> that should make, but one should cover all bases.

I used the soundfont files from my Windooze Installation (or from the
SoundBlaster CD)
synthgm.sbk, synthgs.sbk and a third i dont know the exact name right
now.

Copy it to /usr/local/etc and load e.g. synthgm.sbk with sfxload (after
the sound module is loaded)

Quote:> This may be the problem. Does anyone know if the soundfont format is
> different for different versions of the AWE64? If so, where would it be
> possible to get the samples for the AWE64 Value as opposed to the other ones.
> Just a thought...

I guess the format is the same for AWE32 and AWE64 so why it should be
different for different "models" of AWE64 ?

Sorry no more ideas :-(

Max

--
_______________________________________________________________
\
o/\_ DI Max Weninger

">. |
` .-| TakeFive Software - Jakob-Haringer-Str. 8
. \ A-5020 Salzburg - AUSTRIA
. \ Tel: +43 662 4579150 - Fax: +43 662 4579156
.-|
_________._|____________________________________________________

by **A E Lawrenc** » Sat, 21 Nov 1998 04:00:00

> Does anyone know anything about getting the Soundblaster AWE64 Value's
> synth/midi working under Linux? I've tried using the driver for the
> AWE32 (the documentation of which clearly indicates that it supports the
> AWE64) both on 2.0.x and 2.1.x without success. It just says that the
> AWE32 was not detected.

Yes, I have posted on this several times in the past. Look in the
archives. But all you need to do is collect the free version of the oss
driver from http://www.opensound.com/ossfree/. Make sure that you have
kernel source installed. Then get a copy of awesfx-0.4.2.tgz (from a
sunsite mirror, perhaps). Install both. And compile the kernel. That
works for 2.0.34,2.0.35 and 2.0.36, at least. You may find that the
support is already in 2.0.36. That gets you driver support.

If you are lucky, that may be all you need to do. But if your card is
isa pnp, then you may also need to initialize it using isapnp. That is
another story which I have also posted a couple of months ago.

If all is well, you might get something like this:-

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OSS/Free3.8s9-980302 (Sat Nov 14 14:01:07 GMT 1998 root,
Linux conquest3 2.0.36 #2 Sat Nov 14 13:15:52 GMT 1998 i686 unknown)
Load type: Driver loaded as a module.
Kernel: Linux conquest3 2.0.36 #4 Sat Nov 14 14:01:42 GMT 1998 i686
Config options: 0

Installed drivers:
Type 1: OPL-2/OPL-3 FM
Type 26: MPU-401 (UART)
Type 2: Sound Blaster
Type 29: Sound Blaster PnP
Type 7: SB MPU-401

Card config:
Sound Blaster at 0x240 irq 10 drq 1,7
SB MPU-401 at 0x300 irq 10 drq 0
OPL-2/OPL-3 FM at 0x388 drq 0

Audio devices:
0: Sound Blaster 16 (4.16)

Synth devices:
0: Yamaha OPL-3
1: AWE32-0.4.2d (RAM512k)

Midi devices:
0: Sound Blaster 16

Timers:
0: System clock

Mixers:
0: Sound Blaster
1: AWE32 Equalizer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of course, your io's, irq's and dma's will almost certainly differ.

ael
--
Dr A E Lawrence (from home)

by **A E Lawrenc** » Sat, 21 Nov 1998 04:00:00

> > Does anyone know anything about getting the Soundblaster AWE64 Value's
> > synth/midi working under Linux? I've tried using the driver for the
> > AWE32 (the documentation of which clearly indicates that it supports

Following up again, my stuff was for a "Value" version of the AWE64.
AFAIK, any differences will show up in the pnpdump file.

It looks as if some people have overlooked the AWE *extensions* to the
oss driver. Look for packages like:-
1) The basic driver *extension* ---> awedrv-0.4.2d.tgz
2) awemidi-0.4.2b-1.i386.rpm, awesfx-0.4.2.tgz,
playmidi-X11-2.3-awe32.1.i386.rpm, sfxload-0.4.2-bin.tgz,
sfxutils-0.4.2-bin.tgz, ...

Consult http://bahamut.mm.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~iwai/awedrv/ as well as the
usual mirrors.

Keep trying: it does all work. Well. And check those archives: all this
has been said before...

--
Dr A E Lawrence (from home)

Very Computer

SB AWE64 Value synth

SB AWE64 Value synth

SB AWE64 Value synth

SB AWE64 Value synth

SB AWE64 Value synth

SB AWE64 Value synth

SB AWE64 Value synth

SB AWE64 Value synth

SB AWE64 Value synth

SB AWE64 Value synth

SB AWE64 Value synth

SB AWE64 Value synth

SB AWE64 Value synth