[9fans] Sound cards in use

[9fans] Sound cards in use

[matt]

Hello,

Now I've got paying work again I'm going to kit myself out with some
new PC gear. Obviously I want to have as much plan9 compatible
equipment as possible at my disposal. So that brings me to the question of sound
cards.

I know it says SoundBlaster 16 and above in the supported hardware
list but could people tell me which actual cards they have found sucessful.
I tried a SoundBlaster 16 PCI and it didn't work (although I didn't try too hard).

tia

--
Best regards,
 matt                          mailto:matt@proweb.co.uk

Re: [9fans] Sound cards in use

[Dan Cross]

In article <11191964360.20010426173225@proweb.co.uk> you write:
>I know it says SoundBlaster 16 and above in the supported hardware
>list but could people tell me which actual cards they have found sucessful.
>I tried a SoundBlaster 16 PCI and it didn't work (although I didn't try too
>hard).

This is a recuring them, somewhat unfortunately.  The sound chip on
the bitsy works, but I don't think that's quite what you're looking
for.  :-)

I've had luck with an ISA bus SoundsBlaster 16 that I saw at J&R
computer world the other day (same day I bought my bitsy).  A friend
of mine in Brooklyn has had luck with a SoundsBlaster AWE 32,
probably also ISA.

Richard Miller has code for making a SoundBlaster Pro work, and I
believe he has used it to get various sound chips that were SBPro
compatible to work.  Unfortunately, neither of us had any luck with
it on the IBM Thinkpad T21, which uses a Cirrus Logic chip.  Maybe
Richard has had better luck recently.

To my knowledge, most PCI cards don't work, due to differences in
the way ISA and PCI DMA works, and lack of support for setting up
``legacy'' ISA modes.  There might be a way around that, but I'm
not sure.

I too any interested in hearing what other folks are doing for audio;
this seems to be a weak spot at the moment, and it's not clear that
it'd be easy to integrate new cards into the current driver framework
(which seems rather SB specific).

One yearns for a PCM based sound framework....  ;-)

	- Dan C.

Re[2]: [9fans] Sound cards in use

[matt]

Hello Dan,

DC> This is a recuring them, somewhat unfortunately.

I did check the FAQ and the archives (well i grepped the archives for
"sound")

--
Best regards,
 matt                            mailto:matt@proweb.co.uk

Re: Re[2]: [9fans] Sound cards in use

[Dan Cross]

In article <134198161471.20010426191542@proweb.co.uk> you write:
>I did check the FAQ and the archives (well i grepped the archives for
>"sound")

No sweat, Matt.  I'm not fronting on you for asking the question,
just noting that sounds support is something that could use some
work.  :-)

	- Dan C.

Re[4]: [9fans] Sound cards in use

[matt]

Hello Dan,

Thursday, April 26, 2001, 8:25:15 PM, you wrote:

>>I did check the FAQ and the archives (well i grepped the archives for
>>"sound")

DC> No sweat, Matt.  I'm not fronting on you for asking the question,
DC> just noting that sounds support is something that could use some
DC> work.  :-)

np, i was really trying to make the point that
"This is a recuring them, somewhat unfortunately."

and yet there's vitually no documentation anywhere about it, not in
the faq, in pc_hardware.html (except to say SB 16 and above which is
erroneous) and finding vague things in the archives is difficult to say the least.
I even tried the wiki (very informative on other subjects, good call).

searching for plan9 sound get's you every damn web site in the world
that has the FreeBSD port list on it!

I made the mistake last time of buying kit that had the supported
chipsets in (my laptop) but let me down at install time (vga trouble
and possible Compaq design flaw!).

I think I'll buy a bitsy. I *need* at least one fully functional plan9
box in the house.



--
Best regards,
 matt                            mailto:matt@proweb.co.uk

Re: [9fans] Sound cards in use

[Douglas A. Gwyn]

Dan Cross wrote:
> ...  A friend of mine in Brooklyn has had luck with a
> SoundsBlaster AWE 32, probably also ISA.

Yes, AWE32 definitely works and is ISA.