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mark.curtis
n00b
Joined: 03 Sep 2007
Posts: 8
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 Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 8:35 am Post subject: Question on proceedure for adding ALSA sound support |
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Hi, I followed the proceedure for compiling the fernel for alsa sound support and found it to be very useful. Id like to ask some more questions though;
Heres the link I used firstly: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Compile_Kernel_with_ALSA#Kernel_Modules
Im using an old toshiba satellite laptop which has a ALI-5451 soundcaard. I know all the proceedures arent going to be identical, but there was one thing that bugged me. In the section about configuring grub it says to add this for setting up the new kernel;
| Code: |
title Gentoo
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel root=/dev/sda1 |
My grub.conf file looks like this
| Code: |
default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title=Gentoo Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.15-gentoo-r5 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/hda3
initrd /initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.15-gentoo-r5
title=Gentoo Linux New
root (hd0,0)
kernel /kernel root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/hda3
initrd /initramfs-genkernel
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Notice how the initrd section is missing from the example? I couldnt boot the kernel without this section. So I booted back into the old kernel and copied "initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.15-gentoo-r5" to make a "/initramfs-genkernel" altered the grub.conf to have the same settings as the older kernel with the new initrd setting. In the example above the kernel-genkernel-x86... is the old one.
So heres my questions (forgive my ignorance im not a linux expert but im trying  )
1. what exactly it this initrd line for?
2. I see a lot of errors on boot with the new kernel even though everything seems to function correctly i guess my new initrd line isnt correct ive just copied the old one
3. How do i create a correct initrd file?
4. The kernel build took ages (over 2 hours) does it always take this long? (not that i mind its not something you do every day is it?)
5. When the new kernel was built its just made the file "kernel" can i just rename this kernel to something more meaningful if i also change the grub.conf setting too and the /usr/src kernel name too?
6. A general question. Is it just me or does using linux have a tendency to make you more aware about your hardware than using windows?
Id like to learn more about the options for compiling kernels does anyone have a good reference for beginners?
Cheers  |
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mr4v0
n00b
Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 65
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| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:05 am Post subject: |
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Hello,
I'm not an expert, so maybe I'll write something wrong (some1 please correct me). I doubt any1 will write you a Kernel-HOW-TO in this thread. My advice is to find some (as much as you can) info on the net. http://www.tldp.org is a nice start.
Now for ALSA: I'd recommend you to install via emerge | Quote: | | emerge -pv alsa-driver |
to check which version and which flags it's using. You should also add your card to make.conf | Code: | | ALSA_CARDS="your_card" |
you can see all the supported cards from "emerge -pv alsa-driver". When you're ready to install just remove the "-pv" switches, and you have to disable ALSA in the kernel (but have sound enabled). But if you're satisfied with sound and this is too much of a hassle, just ignore.
Initrd is an image for kernel, there are all the drivers you compiled as MODULES and are needed for system boot. You don't have initrd image for your kernel, because it's probably configured in such a way that it has all the modules needed at boot COMPILED into the kernel (and I'd recommend this). You can make an initrd image by running as I recall, it was some time I have done this. Read the kernel info on the net. There are some more "initrd" variants around.
Yes, Linux makes you know your hardware very well.
Hope it helps (a bit).
cheers |
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