readme.oss

linux-2.6.15.6

	  OSS/Linux version.
  "MediaTrix AudioTrix Pro support",
	- Answer 'y' if you have the AudioTrix Pro.
  "Support for MAD16 and/or Mozart based cards",
	- Answer y if your card has a Mozart (OAK OTI-601) or MAD16
	  (OPTi 82C928, 82C929, 82C924/82C925 or 82C930) audio interface chip. 
	  These chips are
	  currently quite common so it's possible that many no-name cards
	  have one of them. In addition the MAD16 chip is used in some
	  cards made by known manufacturers such as Turtle Beach (Tropez),
	  Reveal (some models) and Diamond (some recent models).
	  Note OPTi 82C924 and 82C925 are MAD16 compatible only in non PnP
	  mode (jumper selectable on many cards).
  "Support for TB Maui"
	- This enables TB Maui specific initialization. Works with TB Maui
	and TB Tropez (may not work with Tropez Plus).


Then the configuration program asks some y/n questions about the higher
level services. It's recommended to answer 'y' to each of these questions.
Answer 'n' only if you know you will not need the option.

  "MIDI interface support",
	- Answering 'n' disables /dev/midi## devices and access to any
	  MIDI ports using /dev/sequencer and /dev/music. This option
	  also affects any MPU401 and/or General MIDI compatible devices.
  "FM synthesizer (YM3812/OPL-3) support",
	- Answer 'y' here.
  "/dev/sequencer support",
	- Answering 'n' disables /dev/sequencer and /dev/music.

Entering the I/O, IRQ and DMA config parameters
-----------------------------------------------

After the above questions the configuration program prompts for the
card specific configuration information. Usually just a set of
I/O address, IRQ and DMA numbers are asked. With some cards the program
asks for some files to be used during initialization of the card. For example
many cards have a DSP chip or microprocessor which must be initialized by
downloading a program (microcode) file to the card.

Instructions for answering these questions are given in the next section.


Card specific information
=========================

This section gives additional instructions about configuring some cards.
Please refer manual of your card for valid I/O, IRQ and DMA numbers. Using
the same settings with DOS/Windows and Linux is recommended. Using
different values could cause some problems when switching between
different operating systems.

Sound Blasters (the original ones by Creative)
---------------------------------------------

NOTE! Check if you have a PnP Sound Blaster (cards sold after summer 1995
      are almost certainly PnP ones). With PnP cards you should use isapnptools
      to activate them (see above).

It's possible to configure these cards to use different I/O, IRQ and
DMA settings. Since the possible/default settings have changed between various
models, you have to consult manual of your card for the proper ones. It's
a good idea to use the same values than with DOS/Windows. With SB and SB Pro
it's the only choice. SB16 has software selectable IRQ and DMA channels but
using different values with DOS and Linux is likely to cause troubles. The
DOS driver is not able to reset the card properly after warm boot from Linux
if Linux has used different IRQ or DMA values.

The original (steam) Sound Blaster (versions 1.x and 2.x) use always
DMA1. There is no way to change it.

The SB16 needs two DMA channels. A 8 bit one (1 or 3) is required for
8 bit operation and a 16 bit one (5, 6 or 7) for the 16 bit mode. In theory
it's possible to use just one (8 bit) DMA channel by answering the 8 bit
one when the configuration program asks for the 16 bit one. This may work
in some systems but is likely to cause terrible noise on some other systems.

It's possible to use two SB16/32/64 at the same time. To do this you should
first configure OSS/Free for one card. Then edit local.h manually and define
SB2_BASE, SB2_IRQ, SB2_DMA and SB2_DMA2 for the second one. You can't get
the OPL3, MIDI and EMU8000 devices of the second card to work. If you are
going to use two PnP Sound Blasters, ensure that they are of different model
and have different PnP IDs. There is no way to get two cards with the same
card ID and serial number to work. The easiest way to check this is trying 
if isapnptools can see both cards or just one.

NOTE!	Don't enable the SM Games option (asked by the configuration program)
	if you are not 101% sure that your card is a Logitech Soundman Games
	(not a SM Wave or SM16).

SB Clones
---------

First of all: There are no SB16 clones. There are SB Pro clones with a
16 bit mode which is not SB16 compatible. The most likely alternative is that
the 16 bit mode means MSS/WSS.

There are just a few fully 100% hardware SB or SB Pro compatible cards.
I know just Thunderboard and SM Games. Other cards require some kind of
hardware initialization before they become SB compatible. Check if your card
was listed in the beginning of this file. In this case you should follow
instructions for your card later in this file.

For other not fully SB clones you may try initialization using DOS in
the following way:

	- Boot DOS so that the card specific driver gets run.
	- Hit ctrl-alt-del (or use loadlin) to boot Linux. Don't
	  switch off power or press the reset button.
	- If you use the same I/O, IRQ and DMA settings in Linux, the
	  card should work.

If your card is both SB and MSS compatible, I recommend using the MSS mode.
Most cards of this kind are not able to work in the SB and the MSS mode 
simultaneously. Using the MSS mode provides 16 bit recording and playback.

ProAudioSpectrum 16 and compatibles
-----------------------------------

PAS16 has a SB emulation chip which can be used together with the native
(16 bit) mode of the card. To enable this emulation you should configure 
the driver to have SB support too (this has been changed since version
3.5-beta9 of this driver).

With current driver versions it's also possible to use PAS16 together with 
another SB compatible card. In this case you should configure SB support
for the other card and to disable the SB emulation of PAS16 (there is a
separate questions about this).

With PAS16 you can use two audio device files at the same time. /dev/dsp (and
/dev/audio) is connected to the 8/16 bit native codec and the /dev/dsp1 (and
/dev/audio1) is connected to the SB emulation (8 bit mono only).

Gravis Ultrasound
-----------------

There are many different revisions of the Ultrasound card (GUS). The
earliest ones (pre 3.7) don't have a hardware mixer. With these cards
the driver uses a software emulation for synth and pcm playbacks. It's
also possible to switch some of the inputs (line in, mic) off by setting
mixer volume of the channel level below 10%. For recording you have
to select the channel as a recording source and to use volume above 10%.

GUS 3.7 has a hardware mixer.

GUS MAX and the 16 bit sampling daughtercard have a CS4231 codec chip which 
also contains a mixer.

Configuring GUS is simple. Just enable the GUS support and GUS MAX or
the 16 bit daughtercard if you have them. Note that enabling the daughter
card disables GUS MAX driver.

NOTE for owners of the 16 bit daughtercard: By default the daughtercard
uses /dev/dsp (and /dev/audio). Command "ln -sf /dev/dsp1 /dev/dsp"
selects the daughter card as the default device.

With just the standard GUS enabled the configuration program prompts
for the I/O, IRQ and DMA numbers for the card. Use the same values than
with DOS.

With the daughter card option enabled you will be prompted for the I/O,
IRQ and DMA numbers for the daughter card. You have to use different I/O
and DMA values than for the standard GUS. The daughter card permits
simultaneous recording and playback. Use /dev/dsp (the daughtercard) for
recording and /dev/dsp1 (GUS GF1) for playback.

GUS MAX uses the same I/O address and IRQ settings than the original GUS
(GUS MAX = GUS + a CS4231 codec). In addition an extra DMA channel may be used.
Using two DMA channels permits simultaneous playback using two devices
(dev/dsp0 and /dev/dsp1). The second DMA channel is required for
full duplex audio.
To enable the second DMA channels, give a valid DMA channel when the config
program asks for the GUS MAX DMA (entering -1 disables the second DMA).
Using 16 bit DMA channels (5,6 or 7) is recommended.

If you have problems in recording with GUS MAX, you could try to use
just one 8 bit DMA channel. Recording will not work with one DMA
channel if it's a 16 bit one.

Microphone input of GUS MAX is connected to mixer in little bit nonstandard
way. There is actually two microphone volume controls. Normal "mic" controls
only recording level. Mixer control "speaker" is used to control volume of
microphone signal connected directly to line/speaker out. So just decrease
volume of "speaker" if you have problems with microphone feedback.

GUS ACE works too but any attempt to record or to use the MIDI port
will fail.

GUS PnP (with RAM) is partially supported but it needs to be initialized using
DOS or isapnptools before starting the driver.

MPU401 and Windows Sound System
-------------------------------

Again. Don't enable these options in case your card is listed
somewhere else in this file.

Configuring these cards is obvious (or it should be). With MSS
you should probably enable the OPL3 synth also since
most MSS compatible cards have it. However check that this is true
before enabling OPL3.

Sound driver supports more than one MPU401 compatible cards at the same time
but the config program asks config info for just the first of them.
Adding the second or third MPU interfaces must be done manually by
editing sound/local.h (after running the config program). Add defines for
MPU2_BASE & MPU2_IRQ (and MPU3_BASE & MPU3_IRQ) to the file.

CAUTION!

The default I/O base of Adaptec AHA-1542 SCSI controller is 0x330 which
is also the default of the MPU401 driver. Don't configure the sound driver to
use 0x330 as the MPU401 base if you have a AHA1542. The kernel will not boot
if you make this mistake.

PSS
---

Even the PSS cards are compatible with SB, MSS and MPU401, you must not
enable these options when configuring the driver. The configuration
program handles these options itself. (You may use the SB, MPU and MSS options
together with PSS if you have another card on the system).

The PSS driver enables MSS and MPU401 modes of the card. SB is not enabled 
since it doesn't work concurrently with MSS. The driver loads also a
DSP algorithm which is used to for the general MIDI emulation. The
algorithm file (.ld) is read by the config program and written to a
file included when the pss.c is compiled. For this reason the config
program asks if you want to download the file. Use the genmidi.ld file
distributed with the DOS/Windows drivers of the card (don't use the mt32.ld).
With some cards the file is called 'synth.ld'. You must have access to
the file when configuring the driver. The easiest way is to mount the DOS
partition containing the file with Linux. 

It's possible to load your own DSP algorithms and run them with the card.
Look at the directory pss_test of snd-util-3.0.tar.gz for more info.

AudioTrix Pro
-------------

You have to enable the OPL3 and SB (not SB Pro or SB16) drivers in addition
to the native AudioTrix driver. Don't enable MSS or MPU drivers.

Configuring ATP is little bit tricky since it uses so many I/O, IRQ and
DMA numbers. Using the same values than with DOS/Win is a good idea. Don't
attempt to use the same IRQ or DMA channels twice.

The SB mode of ATP is implemented so the ATP driver just enables SB
in the proper address. The SB driver handles the rest. You have to configure
both the SB driver and the SB mode of ATP to use the same IRQ, DMA and I/O
settings.

Also the ATP has a microcontroller for the General MIDI emulation (OPL4).
For this reason the driver asks for the name of a file containing the
microcode (TRXPRO.HEX). This file is usually located in the directory
where the DOS drivers were installed. You must have access to this file
when configuring the driver. 

If you have the effects daughtercard, it must be initialized by running
the setfx program of snd-util-3.0.tar.gz package. This step is not required
when using the (future) binary distribution version of the driver.

Ensoniq SoundScape
------------------

NOTE!	The new PnP SoundScape is not supported yet. Soundscape compatible
	cards made by Reveal don't work with Linux. They use older revision
	of the Soundscape chipset which is not fully compatible with
	newer cards made by Ensoniq.

The SoundScape driver handles initialization of MSS and MPU supports
itself so you don't need to enable other drivers than SoundScape
(enable also the /dev/dsp, /dev/sequencer and MIDI supports).

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!                                                                   !!!!
!!!!! NOTE! Before version 3.5-beta6 there WERE two sets of audio 	!!!!
!!!!!       device files (/dev/dsp0 and /dev/dsp1). The first one WAS   !!!!