Inspiron 3000 Sound with 2.6 Kernel

Sm1

For my Inspiron 3000, I never actually was able to get sound to work with a 2.4 kernel.

I read that ALSA was built into the kernel for 2.6, and was hoping that would give me at least a push in the right direction. Switching to 2.6 broke a bunch of other things aside from sound - but that is another story.

I dont even have the "beep" from the speaker when i try to hit tab to complete a line without enough info.

Dell claims this about my audio:

Audio
Audio type Sound Blaster Pro-compatible voice and music functions
Audio controller Crystal 4237B
Conversion 16 bit (stereo analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog)
Interfaces:
Internal
ISA bus
External
microphone (minijack, mono);
headphones/speaker (minijack);
line-in
Internal speaker amplifier 1.5-W stereo
Controls volume can be controlled through key combinations and software application menus

From my little research previously, I had to install a driver for a crystal 4232, and my 4237 would be recognized. That didnt work for 2.4 and now i dont even see an option for this with 2.6?

Any ideas in the right direction?

Sm1 · Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2004 7:33 pm Post subject:

Okay well here is next question. Anybody know what driver was supposed to be used when it was 2.4 kernel?

Sm1 · Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:01 pm Post subject:

perhaps this.... any success stories from anyone with cs4232, cs4236 or the likes of ALSA drivers?

dotermat · n00b Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Posts: 10 Location: Florida

I have the same problem with my Inspiron 3000. It works perfect in every aspect except for sound. If you have found a way to configure the CS4237b with the 2.6 kernel please reply back.

Thanks

Sm1 · Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2004 5:10 am Post subject:

wow finally someone else with an inspiron 3000.

well i have had no luck with sound as of today... pretty much given up on it for a bit , as i do have school work.

however i do have one other problem - as soon as i went to 2.6, my computer freezes when in console mode after a few commands. If i am in X, there is no trouble. and it has only been since i put the 2.6 kernel on. not sure about it....

dotermat · n00b Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Posts: 10 Location: Florida

I recently got the CS4237B card working with ALSA on the inspiron 3000.
I am using kernel 2.6.1 and using the ALSA cs4236 module
Here is my /etc/modules.d/alsa

asb002 · Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2004 10:26 pm Post subject:

Well I am also an owner of an Inspiron 3000, and I have delayed upgrading to 2.6 for precisely the reason OF sound, since it works just fine in my 2.4 kernel. I just compile the cs4232 module (OSS), and manually specifiy the IO, IRQ, DMA. Be sure to disable PNP in your BIOS so your computer can find it. Although thanks to dotermat, I may upgrade to 2.6

EDIT: I just forgot, I have similar console problems with 2.6 on my laptop, so that and the lack of sound made me abandon 2.6, at least temporarily.

Sm1 · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 2:26 am Post subject:

Okay - i have had enough luck to actually have modules load based upon what you have been saying to do. It even makes a "click" noise when it initializes the modules.

Now i made everything that has to do with ALSA modular - there was maybe one OSS emulation portion that couldnt be.

I emerged alsa-util and set the mixer volumes all the way up. I emerged xboing, alsaplayer, mplayer, xmms - and still no dice with sound.

They all either just stay at the one screen like they are about to play sound, or in mplayers case, freeze.

AnyThing else i could be missing?

Also (unrelated) - what web browser do you use - i have noticed firefox or even mozilla are a bit to heavy on the laptop even with 192mb of RAM. I end up just X forwarding firefox from another box when at home or rdesktoping firefox from a windows box elsewise.

Sm1 · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 2:45 am Post subject:

And what really drives me nuts is that when i change the volume in alsamixer - i can tell it actually changes the volume ( ex the static gets louder) and if i change the volume of the mic, then the feedback from a mic by a speaker increases.

argh!

Sm1 · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 9:52 am Post subject:

egh what a night- okay good news - i can gladly say i am person number 2 on this forum to have sound finally working on my inspiron 3000

for some reason kernel 2.6.1 and 2.6.3 seemed to compile the ALSA support a bit funky. Nothing would show up in dmesg saying what the deal was and what it complained about.

now when i compiled with 2.6.4 i suddenly see that it dont like the IRQ that i had set for it for some odd reason and the MPU401 aint loading. I fixed the IRQ and can give two s***s about the MPU401 -i got sound finally!!!!!!!

asb002 · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 3:00 am Post subject:

Well, I emerged gentoo-dev-sources but forgot to install the ALSA programs, stupid me. So, I will do this sometime tonight, and hopefuly will have sound working in 2.6.3. No console freezes yet! (But still IDE DMA problems)

And btw, I use Mozilla Firebird (compiling Firefox now). It works well enough for me. I use Fluxbox for my WM.