Intel ALC880 RealTek Driver for Linux
Top of the morning to yous SuSE fans, I have installed SuSE 10.0 (boxed set) on my HP S7400N Pavilion Slimline, triple boot (WinXP, HP PC Recovery, SuSE 10), and have the machine running nicely including accelerated graphics to a Samsung 713v flatpanel. I love this tiny machine 1.6Ghz, 160GB HD, 512M main memory, 3D graphics 128M, DVD+R/RW lightwrite. Very nice, and very small... got it on clearance from BestBuy $399.00. Only one glitch... you knew there had to be one didn't you? ;-) HP used Intel's ALC880 (RealTek) internal high definition audio, and of course it didn't work with SuSE 10 because the ALC880 open drivers don't ship with 10.0. I believe the drivers should be included in a future SuSE distro (if not already in 10.1). I pulled the driver sources from RealTek: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads1-3.aspx?keyword=ALC880 The file is: realtek-linux-audiopack-4.04c.tar.bz2 Previous is: realtek-linux-audiopack-3.5-6.tar.bz2 The drivers for the ALC880 (and family) are provided by the www.alsa-project.org. The installer readme indicates that ncurses needs to be installed for the SuSE distro, and the instructions give two compile/install methods... automatic and manual. My realtek question is whether the SuSE tech guys (or the SuSE fan club user base) has any experience with these drivers or the alsa project, and whether there are any considerations I should be aware of before I play around with this. It looks like the primary diff between the two available versions is the number of ALC8xx cards supported, but I am wondering if SuSE is aware of whether one or the other is more compatible with the 10.0 boxed distro. I am tempted to compile the sources (non root) with the makefile, then manually install based on the instructions as root. Are there issues (security or otherwise) that can arise by doing the automated ./install as root? Thanks for your thoughts guys and gals. M Harris
danilyn harris wrote:
On Friday 04 August 2006 12:26, danilyn harris wrote:
Top of the morning to yous SuSE fans,
Almost forgot...
Is there an install procedure that would allow this drive to work correctly with Yast?
Only if it was supported by ALSA. What does alsaconf give you (as root)? That should give you a good idea if it is already supported. You can also try updating your alsa packages from packman's site. HTH -- Joe Morris Registered Linux user 231871
On Friday 04 August 2006 21:26, Joe Morris (NTM) wrote:
Only if it was supported by ALSA. What does alsaconf give you (as root)? hi Joe, Actually, alsaconf is where I started... identified the card, supposedly configured it, but would not play the sample.
To make a longer story shorter, I pulled the driver sources from RealTek: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads1-3.aspx?keyword=ALC880 The file is: realtek-linux-audiopack-4.04c.tar.bz2 The driver compiled without errors and installed ok. I had to manually update the modprobe.conf.local file. The drivers would not start on bootup until I manually added the snd-card-0 alias to the kernel modules list with the sysconfig editor. Now I have sound. But, I also have questions. How do we get this driver into the SuSE distro? When I start the machine why does the boot console log show that the modules are not supported by Novell, and the taint U flag is set...? Why does Yast not see the new modules and give me the option to configure them through Yast? Why does alsaconf not see the new modules and allow me to configure them there? Thanks -- Kind regards, M Harris <><
On Monday 07 August 2006 17:47, M Harris wrote:
On Friday 04 August 2006 21:26, Joe Morris (NTM) wrote:
Only if it was supported by ALSA. What does alsaconf give you (as root)?
hi Joe, Actually, alsaconf is where I started... identified the card, supposedly configured it, but would not play the sample.
To make a longer story shorter, I pulled the driver sources from RealTek:
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads1-3.aspx?keyword=ALC880
The file is: realtek-linux-audiopack-4.04c.tar.bz2
The driver compiled without errors and installed ok. I had to manually update the modprobe.conf.local file. The drivers would not start on bootup until I manually added the snd-card-0 alias to the kernel modules list with the sysconfig editor. Now I have sound. But, I also have questions.
How do we get this driver into the SuSE distro?
Please read the archives - - - and how Novell is no longer supporting "non-kernel-integrated" modules.
========================================= Novell's Official Position
Most developers of the kernel community consider non-GPL kernel modules ot be infringing on their copyright. Novell does respect this position, and will no longer distribute non-GPL kernel modules as part of future products.
February 9, 2006 =========================================
Most developers of the kernel community consider non-GPL kernel modules ot be infringing on their copyright. Novell does respect this position, and will no longer distribute non-GPL kernel modules as part of future products. Whoa... I hate to be dense, but I don't get it... the modules I installed are open-source, and simply the latest level modules from the alsa project, already being shipped with SuSE by Novell. The GPL flag can be set in the
On Monday 07 August 2006 16:56, Bruce Marshall wrote: sources so that the tainting message isn't displayed... that's not a big deal... but, that's not my question. Who is complaining about copyright infringement? The modules I installed come directly from the alsa project and are distributed freely by RealTek (open sources). What's the problem? The real question is why is not Novell (SuSE) supporting the Intel 900 G chipset (ALC880) ? How do we get that changed? Thanks -- Kind regards, M Harris <><
On Monday 07 August 2006 16:56, Bruce Marshall wrote:
========================================= Novell's Official Position
Most developers of the kernel community consider non-GPL kernel modules ot be infringing on their copyright. Novell does respect this position, and will no longer distribute non-GPL kernel modules as part of future products.
February 9, 2006 ========================================= I pulled this from the ALSA project site:
[ ALSA is released under the GPL (GNU General Public license) and the LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public License). ] <=== me thinks this speaks clearly to the kernel community. :) The ALSA ftp download site is: ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver The driver that ships with SuSE 10.0 can be found there... alsa-driver-1.0.9 The driver that fixed my sound issue on the ThinkPad R30 (ALC880) HD Audio from Intel... is: alsa-driver-1.0.11 (although I pulled it from RealTek, the doc says its the same... looks the same... functions the same... ) ... and the latest driver that I think should be shipped with future editions of SuSE is: alsa-driver-1.0.12rc2.tar.bz2 dated 08/04/2006 [but I guess I could be wrong for some reason] Are the latest alsa drivers shipping with 10.1 and I just haven't discovered that yet? I am perplexed over the silence on this issue. I really must have missed something in your politics... I would think that you (SuSE Novell) would want your product(s) running on every piece of hardware... When WinXP runs out-of-box on a new HP Pavilion... and SuSE won't, how does that speak for SuSE, linux in general, or Novell either for that matter? </soap box off> Thanks anyway. :) -- Kind regards, M Harris <><
M Harris wrote:
Are the latest alsa drivers shipping with 10.1 and I just haven't discovered that yet?
The latest at the time, joe@jmorris:~> rpm -q alsa alsa-1.0.11-32 Maybe your sound card was fixed between 1.0.11 and 1.0.12rc2. HTH -- Joe Morris Registered Linux user 231871
On Tuesday 08 August 2006 23:43, Joe Morris (NTM) wrote:
Maybe your sound card was fixed between 1.0.11 and 1.0.12rc2. HTH Yes, that's what it looks like. 1.0.11 is the driver that was included with the RealTek package, and it works like a champ. Its open sources, compiled cleanly, and has given me no problem. Thanks for your replies.
-- Kind regards, M Harris <><
participants (4)
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Bruce Marshall -
danilyn harris -
Joe Morris (NTM) -
M Harris