what do I need to compile into kernel for sound?

[johntramp]

Hey, I am not sure what I need to compile into my kernel for sound support.
john@gentoo john $ grep -i audio /proc/pci
Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 96).
The only VIA option is VIA 82C686A/B, 8233 South Bridge
which doesn't match my AC97 Audio Codec : Realtek ALC655
-I am using a 2.6.6 kernel.

Thanks

[spizkapa]

Hi,

I don't which module you need to get sound but there are three ways that I can see for you to proceed:

1. wait until someone with the same motherboard and/or sound chip writes back to tell you what module they're using

2. you obviously already have a running kernel, try to see (dmesg) what module, if any, is being loaded

3. go into the alsa section (as oss is becoming deprecated) of the 2.6 series setup and load everything that looks like it could work as a module. Then, when you boot, the right module should autoload (assuming you also have soundcore loaded) so you can remove the others or even leave them as they don't increase the size of the kernel unless loaded

BTW, I fully recommend loading sound drivers as modules as it keeps your kernel smaller. My kernel (2.6.7) is about 1200Kb including USB, infra-red, TV, sound (emu10k1) and all sorts. You are always well-advised to use modules.

I hope this helps, reply to the thread with your progress.

[johntramp]

john@gentoo john $ dmesg
Linux version 2.6.6 (root@cdimage) (gcc version 3.3.3 20040412 (Gentoo Linux 3.3
.3-r6, ssp-3.3.2-2, pie-8.7.6)) #4 SMP Mon Jun 28 05:13:51 NZST 2004
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 0000000000095800 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000095800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001fff0000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000001fff0000 - 000000001fff3000 (ACPI NVS)
BIOS-e820: 000000001fff3000 - 0000000020000000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000ffff0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
511MB LOWMEM available.
found SMP MP-table at 000f5bb0
On node 0 totalpages: 131056
DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1
Normal zone: 126960 pages, LIFO batch:16
HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:1
DMI 2.3 present.
ACPI: RSDP (v000 KT600 ) @ 0x000f76a0
ACPI: RSDT (v001 KT600 AWRDACPI 0x42302e31 AWRD 0x00000000) @ 0x1fff3000
ACPI: FADT (v001 KT600 AWRDACPI 0x42302e31 AWRD 0x00000000) @ 0x1fff3040
ACPI: MADT (v001 KT600 AWRDACPI 0x42302e31 AWRD 0x00000000) @ 0x1fff80c0
ACPI: DSDT (v001 KT600 AWRDACPI 0x00001000 MSFT 0x0100000e) @ 0x00000000
ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000
ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x00] lapic_id[0x00] enabled)
Processor #0 6:10 APIC version 16
ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x00] high edge lint[0x1])
ACPI: IOAPIC (id[0x02] address[0xfec00000] global_irq_base[0x0])
IOAPIC[0]: Assigned apic_id 2
IOAPIC[0]: apic_id 2, version 3, address 0xfec00000, GSI 0-23
ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 0 global_irq 2 dfl dfl)
ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 9 global_irq 9 dfl dfl)
Enabling APIC mode: Flat. Using 1 I/O APICs
Using ACPI (MADT) for SMP configuration information
Built 1 zonelists
Kernel command line: root=/dev/hda4
Initializing CPU#0
PID hash table entries: 2048 (order 11: 16384 bytes)
Detected 1917.639 MHz processor.
Using tsc for high-res timesource
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Memory: 515120k/524224k available (2514k kernel code, 8304k reserved, 935k data,
180k init, 0k highmem)
Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
Calibrating delay loop... 3760.12 BogoMIPS
Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
CPU: After generic identify, caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000
CPU: After vendor identify, caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000
CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: L2 Cache: 512K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: After all inits, caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000020
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
CPU0: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+ stepping 00
per-CPU timeslice cutoff: 1462.80 usecs.
task migration cache decay timeout: 2 msecs.
enabled ExtINT on CPU#0
ESR value before enabling vector: 00000000
ESR value after enabling vector: 00000000
Total of 1 processors activated (3760.12 BogoMIPS).
ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
init IO_APIC IRQs
IO-APIC (apicid-pin) 2-0, 2-16, 2-17, 2-18, 2-19, 2-20, 2-21, 2-22, 2-23 not co
nnected.
..TIMER: vector=0x31 pin1=2 pin2=-1
Using local APIC timer interrupts.
calibrating APIC timer ...
..... CPU clock speed is 1917.0020 MHz.
..... host bus clock speed is 333.0394 MHz.
Brought up 1 CPUs
NET: Registered protocol family 16
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfbc00, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
mtrr: v2.0 (20020519)
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20040326
ACPI: Interpreter enabled
ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing
ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (00:00)
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 3 4 6 7 10 *11 12)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 3 4 6 7 10 *11 12)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 3 4 6 7 *10 11 12)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 3 4 6 7 10 11 12) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 3 4 6 7 10 11 12) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] (IRQs 3 4 6 7 10 11 12) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK0] (IRQs 3 4 6 7 10 11 12) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK1] (IRQs 3 4 6 7 *10 11 12)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKA] (IRQs 20) *11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKB] (IRQs *21), disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKC] (IRQs *22)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKD] (IRQs *23), disabled.
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
SCSI subsystem initialized
00:00:08[A] -> 2-16 -> IRQ 16 level low
00:00:08[B] -> 2-17 -> IRQ 17 level low
00:00:08[C] -> 2-18 -> IRQ 18 level low
00:00:08[D] -> 2-19 -> IRQ 19 level low
00:00:0a[A] -> 2-20 -> IRQ 20 level low
00:00:0a[B] -> 2-21 -> IRQ 21 level low
00:00:0a[C] -> 2-22 -> IRQ 22 level low
00:00:0a[D] -> 2-23 -> IRQ 23 level low
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKB] disabled and referenced, BIOS bug.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKB] enabled at IRQ 21
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKA] BIOS reported IRQ 11, using IRQ 20
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKA] enabled at IRQ 20
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKC] enabled at IRQ 22
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKD] disabled and referenced, BIOS bug.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKD] enabled at IRQ 23
number of MP IRQ sources: 15.
number of IO-APIC #2 registers: 24.
testing the IO APIC.......................
IO APIC #2......
.... register #00: 02000000
....... : physical APIC id: 02
....... : Delivery Type: 0
....... : LTS : 0
.... register #01: 00178003
....... : max redirection entries: 0017
....... : PRQ implemented: 1
....... : IO APIC version: 0003
.... IRQ redirection table:
NR Log Phy Mask Trig IRR Pol Stat Dest Deli Vect:
00 000 00 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 00
01 0FF 0F 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 39
02 0FF 0F 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 31
03 0FF 0F 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 41
04 0FF 0F 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 49
05 0FF 0F 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 51
06 0FF 0F 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 59
07 0FF 0F 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 61
08 0FF 0F 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 69
09 0FF 0F 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 71
0a 0FF 0F 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 79
0b 0FF 0F 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 81
0c 0FF 0F 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 89
0d 0FF 0F 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 91
0e 0FF 0F 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 99
0f 0FF 0F 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 A1
10 001 01 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 A9
11 001 01 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 B1
12 001 01 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 B9
13 001 01 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 C1
14 001 01 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 C9
15 001 01 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 D1
16 001 01 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 D9
17 001 01 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 E1
IRQ to pin mappings:
IRQ0 -> 0:2
IRQ1 -> 0:1
IRQ3 -> 0:3
IRQ4 -> 0:4
IRQ5 -> 0:5
IRQ6 -> 0:6
IRQ7 -> 0:7
IRQ8 -> 0:8
IRQ9 -> 0:9
IRQ10 -> 0:10
IRQ11 -> 0:11
IRQ12 -> 0:12
IRQ13 -> 0:13
IRQ14 -> 0:14
IRQ15 -> 0:15
IRQ16 -> 0:16
IRQ17 -> 0:17
IRQ18 -> 0:18
IRQ19 -> 0:19
IRQ20 -> 0:20
IRQ21 -> 0:21
IRQ22 -> 0:22
IRQ23 -> 0:23
.................................... done.
PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
Machine check exception polling timer started.
devfs: 2004-01-31 Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
NTFS driver 2.1.8 [Flags: R/W].
udf: registering filesystem
ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF]
ACPI: Sleep Button (CM) [SLPB]
ACPI: Fan [FAN] (on)
ACPI: Processor [CPU0] (supports C1 C2)
ACPI: Thermal Zone [THRM] (50 C)
Linux agpgart interface v0.100 (c) Dave Jones
Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 8 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP(,...)]
parport0: irq 7 detected
Using anticipatory io scheduler
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
3c59x: Donald Becker and others. www.scyld.com/network/vortex.html
0000:00:0d.0: 3Com PCI 3c905C Tornado at 0x9000. Vers LK1.1.19
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
VIA8237SATA: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:0f.0
VIA8237SATA: chipset revision 128
VIA8237SATA: 100% native mode on irq 20
ide2: BM-DMA at 0xa400-0xa407, BIOS settings: hde:pio, hdf:pio
ide3: BM-DMA at 0xa408-0xa40f, BIOS settings: hdg:pio, hdh:pio
hde: WDC WD1600JD-22FYB0, ATA DISK drive
ide2 at 0x9400-0x9407,0x9802 on irq 20
hda: Maxtor 6Y060L0, ATA DISK drive
hdb: SAMSUNG SP1604N, ATA DISK drive
hdc: HITACHI DVD-ROM GD-2500, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hde: max request size: 1024KiB
hde: 312581808 sectors (160041 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=19457/255/63
/dev/ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0: p1
hda: max request size: 128KiB
hda: 120103200 sectors (61492 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=65535/16/63
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 p3 p4
hda: task_no_data_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: task_no_data_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
hda: Write Cache FAILED Flushing!
hdb: max request size: 1024KiB
hdb: 312581808 sectors (160041 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=19457/255/63
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: p1 p2
hdc: ATAPI 24X DVD-ROM drive, 512kB Cache
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
libata version 1.02 loaded.
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
input: ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse on isa0060/serio1
serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.4rc2 (Tue Mar 30 08:19:30 2
004 UTC).
ALSA device list:
No soundcards found.
oprofile: using NMI interrupt.
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 32768)
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (4095 buckets, 32760 max) - 300 bytes per conntrack
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_recent v0.3.1: Stephen Frost <sfrost@snowman.net>. http://snowman.net/proje
cts/ipt_recent/
arp_tables: (C) 2002 David S. Miller
NET: Registered protocol family 1
NET: Registered protocol family 17
ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S4 S5)
found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal
reiserfs: using ordered data mode
Reiserfs journal params: device hda4, size 8192, journal first block 18, max tra
ns len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30
reiserfs: checking transaction log (hda4) for (hda4)
Using r5 hash to sort names
VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
Mounted devfs on /dev
Freeing unused kernel memory: 180k freed
Adding 982792k swap on /dev/hda3. Priority:-1 extents:1
found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal
reiserfs: using ordered data mode
Reiserfs journal params: device hde1, size 8192, journal first block 18, max tra
ns len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30
reiserfs: checking transaction log (hde1) for (hde1)
Using r5 hash to sort names
found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal
reiserfs: using ordered data mode
Reiserfs journal params: device hdb2, size 8192, journal first block 18, max tra
ns len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30
reiserfs: checking transaction log (hdb2) for (hdb2)
Using r5 hash to sort names
Losing too many ticks!
TSC cannot be used as a timesource.
Possible reasons for this are:
You're running with Speedstep,
You don't have DMA enabled for your hard disk (see hdparm),
Incorrect TSC synchronization on an SMP system (see dmesg).
Falling back to a sane timesource now.
nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
0: nvidia: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 NVIDIA Kernel Module 1.0-5336 Wed Jan 14 1
8:29:26 PST 2004
0: NVRM: AGPGART: unable to retrieve symbol table
atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: This is an XFree86 bug. It shouldn't access hardware directly.
atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: This is an XFree86 bug. It shouldn't access hardware directly.
0: NVRM: AGPGART: unable to retrieve symbol table
atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: This is an XFree86 bug. It shouldn't access hardware directly.
atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: This is an XFree86 bug. It shouldn't access hardware directly.
0: NVRM: AGPGART: unable to retrieve symbol table
atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: This is an XFree86 bug. It shouldn't access hardware directly.
atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: This is an XFree86 bug. It shouldn't access hardware directly.

quite messy isn't it.. :(

I am recompiling the kernel now with the sound as a module then I will see what I can do. there is something in there about the sound if i remember from boot .

[spizkapa]

By the way, what mobo do you have? I did a quick google search for XK600S and found nothing!

From your current dmesg output I can see that you have a pretty modern system with kernel 2.6.6 (I imagine stock kernel?), gcc version 3.3.3 and you're running gentoo. Unless your mobo is some sort of brand new ninja-board, I see no reason why there shouldn't be drivers for the sound chip.

Alsa does seem to load but it finds no sound cards that it knows about. Keep at it!

Also, can you please send the full output of lspci (i.e. lspci -v) so maybe we can see a little better what the sound chip is? You may want to just send the important parts or attach the file though. Another thing you may want to send is what the hardware spec for this chip is according to the mobo manual which I presume you have lying about somewhere.

You'll get there, it might take a while but you will. Good luck!

[bathory]

alsa is included in 2.6.x kernels. All you have to do is to add in /etc/modprobe.conf the right module for your ac97 codec.

[rbrimhall]

Originally posted by spizkapa
You are always well-advised to use modules.


This is somewhat misleading... I only use modules for alsa since I rebuild them from source... but I build what I need for my hardware into the kernel and leave out the rest... I think this is more of a matter of choice.

[Uranus]

Couldn't you just compile in support for every sound card there is, then check which one is used (through dmesg) and then recompile the kernel with only the one you need?
Not sure 'cuz I don't exactly know how this works (whether dmesg just shows what's in the kernel or what's actually actively working), if someone has a guide to this stuff I'd love to hear :).
Maybe there's even a way like lm_sensors work, that you just build all the modules and can then run sound_detect or something, which picks the right modules - only guessing though, it might be possible :D
Sam

[bwkaz]

The Alsa module for Via 8233a onboard sound is named snd-via82xx.

[johntramp]

sorry spizkapa thats a typo, it is a KX600s Pro (http://http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/motherboards/albatron/kx600s-pro/)

lspci

0000:00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
Subsystem: Unknown device 17f2:1404
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 22
I/O ports at c000
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2


Does this help?

[johntramp]

Originally posted by bathory
alsa is included in 2.6.x kernels. All you have to do is to add in /etc/modprobe.conf the right module for your ac97 codec.

from /etc/modprobe.conf there is this
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
is that what should be there?

should I post my whole modprobe.conf?

[bwkaz]

I've never been any good at figuring out what aliases to use for Alsa.

Just try to /sbin/modprobe snd-via82xx (as root). If you don't get any errors, it's the right module to use. If it's the right module to use, then I would try to load it from one of my bootscripts (rather than messing with aliases), because I know it's not going to change in my system -- and if it does, then I'll know what I have to edit. ;) Of course, you may not agree with this, in which case that alias looks right. But if it isn't working... hmm...

[johntramp]

seems after /sbin/modprobe snd-via82xx my sound is running fine :) so what next? how do I have that work on startup? - I did recompile my kernel with the via82 as a module instead of a . I should have checked if it was working fine before /sbin/modprobe snd-via82xx shouldnt I ;)

Ill reboot and see how it goes.

thanks

[Uranus]

In /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6, put the line:
snd-via82xx
That's all! ;)
Now reboot and look at the init output to see if it's loaded (or just listen if the sound works :D)
Sam

[spizkapa]

Of course, the /etc/modules.autoload way will only work with some distros, I don't know if it's the gentoo way. If you were running debian you'd edit the /etc/modules file.

(BTW, I did ask at a Linux expo a few years ago whether there was too much fragmentation in the linux community e.g. with all flavours booting differently but was rewarded with a resounding NO, you make your own conclusions. I for one welcome standard base)

You're only a small step away from having sound fully working as a module and it's your reward for being patient and not afraid to fiddle. Doesn't it feel nice? All I can say is well done... now for the rest of the world ;-)

[johntramp]

it does feal great spizkapa to know that I have sound as a module :S

anyway, all seems well apart for one lil error on boot*Loading snd-via82xx
Loading snd-seq
FATAL module snd-seq not found.
What is this module and how do I remove it from being loaded? -just assuming it isn't needed as all seems well with the sound as is.
thanks

[Uranus]

Sounds like a problem with Device Drivers -> Sound -> ALSA -> Sequencer support
Do you have that as a module?
If you don't, make it - if you don't have it at all, make it as well :)
Of course, the /etc/modules.autoload way will only work with some distros, I don't know if it's the gentoo way. If you were running debian you'd edit the /etc/modules file.
It is the gentoo way :) I've used Gentoo most of the time
Sam

[spizkapa]

OK, nearly there.

snd-seq is the alsa module (I believe so, not absolutely certain) for the sequencer... some applications use the sequencer, some don't.

I think all snd-*** modules are alsa modules. For example, on my system:

$$ lsmod

Module Size Used by
nvidia 2074728 12
snd_emu10k1 74244 1
snd_rawmidi 26496 1 snd_emu10k1
snd_pcm_oss 61700 0
snd_mixer_oss 20480 2 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 104192 2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 27264 1 snd_pcm
snd_seq_device 9092 2 snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi
snd_ac97_codec 62468 1 snd_emu10k1
snd_page_alloc 12292 2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_util_mem 5376 1 snd_emu10k1
snd_hwdep 10624 1 snd_emu10k1
snd 63236 10 snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss, snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_seq_device,snd_ac97_codec,sn d_util_mem,snd_hwdep
soundcore 10464 2 snd

So, I imagine that gentoo was previously loading the module snd-seq but your new kernel either has it built-in (you'll know if that's the case as you compiled it, look at .config in kernel dir) or just doesn't have it at all. You need to remove the autoloading from wherever gentoo does it (/etc/modules.autoload) or remove (comment-out) the alias in /etc/modprobe.conf or /etc/modules.conf

and it's done.

Good luck!

[spizkapa]

In fact, here's how you can find out what the module you're talking about is doing, or any module for that matter;

$$ modinfo snd-seq
filename: /lib/modules/2.6.6/kernel/sound/core/seq/snd-seq.ko
author: Frank van de Pol <fvdpol@coil.demon.nl>, Jaroslav Kysela <perex@suse.cz>
description: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture sequencer.
license: GPL
parm: seq_client_load:The numbers of global (system) clients to load through kmod.
parm: seq_default_timer_class:The default timer class.
parm: seq_default_timer_sclass:The default timer slave class.
parm: seq_default_timer_card:The default timer card number.
parm: seq_default_timer_device:The default timer device number.
parm: seq_default_timer_subdevice:The default timer subdevice number.
parm: seq_default_timer_resolution:The default timer resolution in Hz.
vermagic: 2.6.6 preempt K7 gcc-2.95
depends: snd,snd-seq-device,snd-timer

It's the last line that's most important. On my system, the snd-seq module depends on snd (i.e. alsa sound support) ,snd-seq-device (alsa sequencer) ,snd-timer (alsa timer device).

Remember modinfo, it can be very handy for checking module problems.

[Uranus]

Originally posted by spizkapa
So, I imagine that gentoo was previously loading the module snd-seq but your new kernel either has it built-in (you'll know if that's the case as you compiled it, look at .config in kernel dir) or just doesn't have it at all. You need to remove the autoloading from wherever gentoo does it (/etc/modules.autoload) or remove (comment-out) the alias in /etc/modprobe.conf or /etc/modules.conf
Actually I'm not sure that the module is loaded by modules.autoload, maybe it is depended on by the sound card module, and therefore it has to be loaded for alsa to work... Not totally sure though... My soundcard doesn't depend on it...
I'd recommend running make menuconfig and checking instead of browsing through .config - the option is in the path I posted earlier. And instead of removing it, I'd compile it as a module - you'll probably need it anyway, and that way you don't have to tweak the modules config.
Good luck - can't probably help you anymore since I'm gonna be away for 7 or 8 weeks from tomorrow on
Sam

[johntramp]

so what does this module do? why do I need it if sound is running fine it seems at the moment? (not arguing, just curious :p )

[Uranus]

It's working fine? I'd missed that :(
No problem then.
What it does (from the help):
Say 'Y' or 'M' to enable MIDI sequencer and router support. This feature allows routing and enqueing MIDI events. Events can be processed at given time.
If it's in you /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 file, just wreck it out, like spizkapa said.
If it's not there, I don't know.
Sam

[johntramp]

after a recompile with Device Drivers -> Sound -> ALSA -> Sequencer support as a module instead of a the error has gone away :) thans

btw. do you know any site that would explain what the options in menuconfig all mean and what i need / don't need. because at the moment all I basically can do myself is pci sound and filesystems... and all the rest I leave alone :S

[spizkapa]

Well, first of all there is the help for each option which is sometimes very informative... other times extremely cryptic.

The most useful part is when the kernel developers say something like "if you don't know about {insert new bad-*** ninja feature here} you probably don't need this"

As for more about these options away from the actual kernel source... No, I don't know of such a site off-hand. I suspect this is because these options change often and every user needs a different set of them for their needs so it would be hard to explain all of them to all of us at the same level.

I do admit it would be nice to have a little morer guidance than the help files though...

[johntramp]

so basically i have to devote the next few years of my life to recompiling my own kernel and trial and error + a little help until i know what i am doing?

suits me :)