[Solved] EEE PC 701 and Sound

chlg · 2010-01-13 06:45:52

Hi,

I've just installed my first ArchLinux distribution on my eee 701.
This distribution offers the exact level of control/confort I wanted.

As instructed, I've installed the dedicated kernel for eee pc (kernel-eee) which is built witch every needed driver directly in the kernel.
(Anyway, this is the unique configuration for which I manged to have wifi working. With "normal" kernel, wifi was not working, neither with madfiwi, nor with ath5k)

The probleme is that with this kernel, I cannot have the sound working.
With the ARCH kernel, it was working well, after, i've added
options snd-hda-intel model=3stack-dig
to modprobe.conf

But, of course, with the "monolithic" EEE kernel, this line is useless, since the snd-hda-intel is not a module, but is built in the kernel.

So, there is my newbie's question : is there a way to pass this option to the built-in hda-intel driver of the kernel-eee ?
Or else, is the a way to have sound working with kernel-eee ?

Last edited by chlg (2010-01-14 04:11:55)

whacath · 2010-01-13 16:17:04

Why use a eee-kernel? Everything should work just fine with the stock one.

rsambuca · 2010-01-13 18:08:00

I am using just the stock kernel on my eeePC 900, which has the same hardware as your machine.

chlg · 2010-01-13 20:56:15

Well why not ? (hum, I guess you could say : "because you want sound" ;-))

My first reason is that I did not manage to have wifi running with the stock kernel. Ath5K and madwifi (ath_pci) refuse to work (exactly as if the link were down : no complaint when I load the module, the interface is (are for madwifi) visible. But impossible to do anything with it). But I must admit that I've not tried very hard, since I supposed that eee-kernel was intended to be used.

Which is my second reason : I suppose that if an eee-kernel is existing, and maintained, it is supposed to work better on eee than generic kernel.

3rd reason : the boot is really faster with eee-kernel (which is absolutely not surprising)

4th reason : why not ? I'm sure that there are many ways to have my sound card working. You could even have asked "Why don't you install the last KUbuntu ; it works well on eee". Well, because I don't want to. I want to have my eee laptop working with archlinux and the eee-kernel :-D
I suppose that this kernel should work correctly with eee (or else, I don't see the point), hence my question. If the answer "eee-kernel cannot handle sound" (which would surprise me), of course, I will have to try another solution, such as recompiling another kernel (I will do this sooner or later anyway). But else, I would like to know how to use it ^^

Last edited by chlg (2010-01-13 20:58:55)

ninian · 2010-01-14 00:48:35

Am running latest standard Arch kernel on both an Eee 701 and 701SD and no problems are encountered with wireless (managed using Wicd) or sound. Why make life difficult for yourself?

Last edited by ninian (2010-01-14 00:49:46)

chlg · 2010-01-14 02:52:00

Please, I'm not trying to debate on the interest of eee-kernel. This might be an interesting question as well, but this is not my question ;-)
I understand that there might be good reason not to use it. But I also guess that there are some (theoretically) good reasons to use it. Even if you manged to have everything working with ARCH kernel, it is certainly slower than what you would get if you managed to have everythink working with a dedicated kernel (no useless autodetection, no initrd, no modprobe, etc...).

But let admit that I'm wrong on this point, and let me then reformulate my question : how the silly users who are insanely using eee-kernel managed to have the sound working ?

I'm sure there are some ways to have wifi working, and everything, with the stock kernel. But I'm also also sure that sound is supposed to work with eee-kernel. So, take this as a curiosity question : how can I have sound working with eee-kernel.

For example (and this is a general question, not related to eee/sound/etc) : is the a way to pass to the kernel the options of the driver that I would pass to the module, if the driver was compiled as a module.
In my case : is the a way to pass model=3stack-dig option to the built-in driver, for example via the global kernel options (root=, vga=, ...) ?

chlg · 2010-01-14 04:08:01

Solved.

I've juste tried, instinctively, (but with no hope) to add the option to the kernel at boot time, replacing the option name (model), by snd-hda-intel.model
I deduce that, generally speaking, option can be passed to built-in drivers using the syntax modulename.optionname = option value
(which is an equivalent to "option modulename optionname=optionvalue" in modprobe.conf for the module version of the same driver)
(I should have tried this first, but it is so rare that such intuitions work )

So, if, like me, you're silly enough to want to use the eee-kernel as a kernel for the eee, and if sound is not working, try adding
snd-hda-intel.model=3stack-dig
to your kernel options (ie at the end of kernel line) in /boot/grup/menu.lst

FYI, in the meantime, I've managed to have wifi working with the stock kernel.
So now I have two different configuration which are both perfectly working : one with the stock ARCH kernel, and the other with eee-kernel.
The boot time for the first one is 16 seconds
The boot time for the second one is 9 seconds.

So let me think that using eee-kernel is not a so silly idea.

Last edited by chlg (2010-01-14 04:10:58)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-01-13 06:45:52

[Solved] EEE PC 701 and Sound

#2 2010-01-13 16:17:04

Re: [Solved] EEE PC 701 and Sound

#3 2010-01-13 18:08:00

Re: [Solved] EEE PC 701 and Sound

#4 2010-01-13 20:56:15

Re: [Solved] EEE PC 701 and Sound

#5 2010-01-14 00:48:35

Re: [Solved] EEE PC 701 and Sound

#6 2010-01-14 02:52:00

Re: [Solved] EEE PC 701 and Sound

#7 2010-01-14 04:08:01

Re: [Solved] EEE PC 701 and Sound

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