The System Hangs with the ESS Maestro Sound Chip on SuSE 7.3

Support knowledgebase (swgkern_maestro)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: Version 7.3
Kernel: Version 2.4.10
Alsa: Version 0.5.11

Symptom

The system hangs when performing the sound test in YaST2 or alsaconf, or when playing an audio file with any player. This often happens when starting KDE, too. This affects all ESS-Maestro sound chips supported by the Alsa module snd-card-es1968.

1st Solution: ALSA

Start your computer at run level 3 (the ALSA modules should not be loaded yet). You can do this by entering at the boot prompt:

        linux 3

Once on the run level 3, open the file /etc/modules.conf with an editor of your choice (e.g. pico) and disable (with "#") the yast2 or alsaconf sound entry located at the end of this file. If there is no sound entry available, please continue with the step "change to run level 5". An example for this entry follows:

        # YaST2: sound cards support
        #
        # alias char-major-116 snd
        # options snd snd_cards_limit=1 snd_major=116
        # options snd-card-ens1371 snd_id=card1 snd_index=0
        # alias snd-card-0 snd-card-ens1371
        #
        # YaST2: sound system dependent part
        #
        # alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
        # alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
        # alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
        # alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
        # alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
        # alias sound-service-0-11 snd-mixer-oss
        # alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

Save the file /etc/modules.conf and change to run level 5 with

        init 5

Please download the following package from our ftp server:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/tiwai/7.3-i386/alsa-driver-0.5.12-0.i386.rpm

or, in case you use an SMP kernel:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/tiwai/7.3-i386/alsa-driver-0.5.12_smp-0.i386.rpm

Now install this package by entering the following command at the prompt:

        rpm -Uhv <package_name>

Please replace <package_name> with the corresponding package name.

Activate now as root the sound entry you previously disabled in /etc/modules.conf and load the ALSA modules with

        rcalsasound start

You can also use yast2 to configure your sound card (since the system "freezed" last time you tried).

2nd Solution: kernel sound module

Use the kernel sound module maestro.o. First of all, open the file /etc/modules.conf with any editor of your choice and delete or mask the existing sound configuration. If you have already configured with YaST2 or alsaconf, you can find this configuration at the end of /etc/modules.conf. Finally, please delete the sound line configured in file /var/lib/YaST/unique.inf.

        [sound]
        oJUp.LB5FQylNql1 configured

Now please unload the loaded sound modules with

	rcalsasound stop

or with

	rmmod xxx

(xxx = sound module name). By means of

	lsmod

you can verify that all sound modules have been unloaded.

In order to configure the kernel sound modules, please change the following entries in file /etc/modules.conf (from approx. line 43, after the comment) from

	alias char-major-14 off
	alias sound off
	alias midi off

to

	alias char-major-14 maestro
	# alias sound off
	# alias midi off

Start an oss-mixer, e.g. kmix. Now lsmod should produce the following output:

   	Module                  Size  Used by
   	...
	maestro                26112   0  (unused)
	soundcore               3280   2  [maestro]   

If it has not worked, please start the oss-mixer again after having executed the depmod -a command.


Keywords: MAESTRO, ES1978, ES1968, ALSA, SOUND, YAST2, 7.3

SDB-swgkern_maestro, Copyright SuSE Linux AG, Nürnberg, Germany - Version: 06. Nov 2001
SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 25. Feb 2002 by ip (sdb_gen 1.40.0)