Sound on a Mac Mini

[paddler]

I got a stage one 2005.0 install of Gentoo completed on my Mac Mini and everything is working great including Xfce4. Although this is my first Gentoo install I got everything right on the first shot. Everything except the sound that is.

I do an lspci and no Audio device is found. At this point i'm sunk until it can find the sound on bootup. Is sound supported on the Mini by Gentoo 2005.0? (2.6.10-gentoo-r6) No biggie if it isn't. I'll just boot up in OS X if I want to use it as a jukebox (I'm dual booting). If it is supported I'd like to get it working. Sound works fine in OS X so it's not defective hardware.

I compiled the kernel with sound enabled. (I did not use genkernel and did not have ALSA or OSS in my USE variable) I installed xmms and it goes through a 3 min MP3 in about 6 seconds with no sound output. What am I missing here?

.config...
CONFIG_SOUND=y
CONFIG_DMASOUND_PMAC=m
CONFIG_DMASOUND=m
# Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
#
CONFIG_SND=m
CONFIG_SND_TIMER=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM=m
CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=m
CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y
CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER_OSS=y
# ALSA PowerMac devices
#
CONFIG_SND_POWERMAC=m

[R!tman]

I know 'lspci' did not show any soundcards, but nevertheless, please post the outputs of

[paddler]

Found this on the forums which a huge help... https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-297244.html if I wasn't such a Noob I'd have looked a bit harder before asking.

Here is what worked for me to get my Mini's sound working. It follows pretty closely the steps in the above link..

Turns out the sound card in the Mini is called KeyLargo.
# lspci
0001:10:17.0 Class ff00: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid Mac I/O

I needed to modify a module file called .../sound/ppc/pmac.c

The change takes place near line 961...

if (device_is_compatible(sound, "AOAKeylargo")) {
/* Seems to support the stock AWACS frequencies, but has
a snapper mixer */
chip->model = PMAC_SNAPPER;
// chip->can_byte_swap = 0; /* FIXME: check this */
chip->control_mask = MASK_IEPC | 0x11; /* disable IEE */
}

Commented out the line PMAC_SNAPPER...

if (device_is_compatible(sound, "AOAKeylargo")) {
/* Seems to support the stock AWACS frequencies, but has
a snapper mixer */
//chip->model = PMAC_SNAPPER;
// chip->can_byte_swap = 0; /* FIXME: check this */
chip->control_mask = MASK_IEPC | 0x11; /* disable IEE */
}

Rebuilt the modules and got a MODPOST error, something about vmlinux no syntab? Turns out it didn't like the fact I had stripped my kernel. I erased vmlinux and let it rebuild. Live and learn.

The next module building error was that the symbol "pmac_xpram_read" didn't exist. I needed to enable CONFIG_NVRAM in the kernel config file (must be set to Y not M) and rebuilt the kernel and modules. This made it happy.

edited /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 and added the line... snd-powermac and did a modules-update

Installed modules and new kernel.

I emerged alsa-utils which created an /etc/modules.d/alsa file containing...

# Alsa 0.9.X kernel modules' configuration file.
# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/media-sound/alsa-utils/files/alsa-modules.conf-rc,v 1.4 2004/11/16 01:31:22 eradicator Exp $

# ALSA portion
alias char-major-116 snd
# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore

##
## IMPORTANT:
## You need to customise this section for your specific sound card(s)
## and then run `update-modules' command.
## Read alsa-driver's INSTALL file in /usr/share/doc for more info.
##
## ALSA portion
## alias snd-card-0 snd-interwave
## alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371
## OSS/Free portion
## alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
## alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
##

# OSS/Free portion - card #1
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-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
## OSS/Free portion - card #2
## alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss
## alias sound-service-1-3 snd-pcm-oss
## alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss
alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss
alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss

# Set this to the correct number of cards.
options snd cards_limit=1
-------------------------------------------------
Rebooted, no sound. I noticed that xmms wasn't going at warp speed anymore. Where it once played a 3 min MP3 in 6 seconds at least the speed was correct. Progress...

I used alsamixer to make sure sound wasn't muted. It wasn't.

Checked my sound devices. Doing an ls on /dev/sound shows mixer. There were a couple devices missing according to the fourms post I link to above. Turns out this isn't a problem. In the Xfce4 Settings for sound the device is set to Sound/mixer.

Finally I emerged udev (which was already installed)

Rebooted and the sound was on! And it actually sounds better than on my PC. Only problem, the volume control in xmms didn't work.

I checked the xmms settings ...
- Output Plugin = ALSA 1.2.10 output plugin [libALSA.so]
Under Configure...
-Audio Device = PowerMac AWACS: PowerMac AWACS(hw:0,0)
-Use software volume control is set (changing this did it)
Under Advanced
- Period time (ms) = 100

That was the last piece of the Gentoo on a Mac Mini puzzle. Everything seems to be working as advertised. Its fast and best of all that little box is absolutely silent sitting on my desk (well except for the MP3s of course).

[Cintra]

Well done! Makes me want to get one
almost..
mvh
_________________
"I am not bound to please thee with my answers" W.S.

[Maedhros]