Date: Sun, 7 May 1995 18:40:15 -0400 From: Thomas David Rivers <ponds!rivers@dg-rtp.dg.com> To: u.washington.edu!spaz@dg-rtp.dg.com, ponds!rivers Cc: freebsd-hackers@freefall.cdrom.com Subject: Re: Interesting sound card problems (in FreeBSD 2.0R.) Message-ID: <199505072240.SAA03373@lakes>
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> > > > > I recently purchased an ISP-16 sound card from MediaMagic Inc. > > This card claims SoundBlaster Pro compatibility, and comes with > > some nice Windows bundled software. > > > > Anyway, after struggling to get things configured in my kernel, > > wondering why the sound wasn't working - I think I hit on the issue. > > > > If I run (under DOS) the MediaMagic supplied initialition program > > (ISPINIT.EXE), then boot FreeBSD; things appear to work. The probe > > (usually) finds a SoundBlaster Pro. > > > > If, however, I turn off the machine; turn it back on and boot FreeBSD, > > the probe finds a SoundBlaster 2.1; and nothing works. (cat'ing > > a .au file to /dev/audio simply sits there until I hit cntrl-c.) > > > > So, I'm guessing there's something in the probe which should initialize > > the card before determining exactly what it is... > > > > Does anyone have any ideas? > > > > ummm, it kinda sounds to me like they are not compatible at the > hardware level! They may be running their own alien being hardware in > there and then running a little remapping deal ( TSR? ) under DOS to > trick all the soundblaster software..can u say implemtaion abstraction? Well, it can't be a TSR - you see, I run their initialization program (under DOS) - then reboot the machine, and it works. So, there's some setup to do, which enables the board in a certain fashion. If I do a cold boot - this setup isn't performed, and the board defaults to SoundBlaster 2.1. When I do the DOS initialization, and warm-boot - FreeBSD 2.0R thinks this is a SoundBlaster Pro, and "does the right thing." This board is copyright 1994 - so I think it's a relatively new design. > > I would take the card out and look at it closely. I have a PAS 16 > that claims compatiblity with the SB and the AdLib. The truly amzing > thing about this is that they do this by actually having the *chips* on > the damn card! Serious! Yes, they claim to have some chips there - but I'll have to look closely. > There is a YM312 and a MediaVision 8bit mono SB > chip on there. The glory and hell of this is that *each* one of these > little shavers gets an *interrupt* and a *port*! Yep - that's how they handle the Roland MP-401 stuff; also there is something called a Windows Sound something-or-other that gets yet another interrupt and yet another port. > This is good because u > could conceivably run all three of 'em at once under FreeBSD ( > theoretically speaking.. i am actually not sure how the audio output is > handled ..switched or mixed ). This is not really practical due to the > fact that this means one lousy card sucks up 3 precious interrupts ( 4 > with the scsi ) and 2 or 4 dma channels depending.. > > since we already handed out all the extra interrupts to the > serial card ( i use all 3 ports simultaneously ) i dont expect i will > ever try to implement this ) > > anyway the card should have a mediavision chip on it to do SB. > > IMHO, u should take it back and get something else. even if it > did adlib or sb, it probably only does 8 bit sound. And i will tell u > what, 8 bit sound is like one step above humming to yourself. Think about > it. There are only 256 possible steps to try and make sounds with, matter > of fact, i think the pcspeaker driver does a better job ( sonically > speaking ) then the 8 bit cards ( the 8 bit cards dont hog the bus for > the duration of the sound, however :-) ) > > i dont know if u are still running the 386sx. Yep - it's still sitting in my office - waiting on me to try the latest SNAPSHOT to see if the VM problem is gone. Of course, it doesn't have any sound card, etc... this is for my machine at home (now a 486dx-66.) > i recognize the > call of the mostest for the leastest, but i think the marginal cost > increment in getting a 2nd generation sound card ( sb-16, pas-16 ) will > pay off. They are supported by the drivers, they have cd quality sound > and they just kind of do the job. The 8 bit cards are kinda like trying > to run FreeBSD on a 286; it might be possible, the computer might be > free, but the trauma involved in making it happen will cost enough of > your time to eat up all of your savings...\ > > just my 2cents > > > - Thanks - > > - Dave Rivers - > > > > > > ******************************************************************************* > John Utz spaz@stein.u.washington.edu > idiocy is the impulse function in the convolution of life > >
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