OSS/Free version 3.8 release notes ---------------------------------- Most up to date information about this driver is available from http://www.opensound.com/ossfree. Please read the SOUND-HOWTO (available from sunsite.unc.edu and other Linux FTP sites). It gives instructions about using sound with Linux. It's bit out of date but still very useful. Information about bug fixes and such things is available from the web page (see above). Please check http://www.opensound.com/pguide for more info about programming with OSS API. ==================================================== - THIS VERSION ____REQUIRES____ Linux 2.1.57 OR LATER. ==================================================== Packages "snd-util-3.8.tar.gz" and "snd-data-0.1.tar.Z" contain useful utilities to be used with this driver. See http://www.opensound.com/ossfree/getting.html for download instructions. If you are looking for the installation instructions, please look at Readme.linux. Supported soundcards -------------------- See Readme.cards. Please check http://www.opensound.com/ossfree if you don't find your soundcard there. Contributors ------------ This driver contains code by several contributors. In addition several other persons have given useful suggestions. The following is a list of major contributors. (I could have forgotten some names.) Craig Metz 1/2 of the PAS16 Mixer and PCM support Rob Hooft Volume computation algorithm for the FM synth. Mika Liljeberg uLaw encoding and decoding routines Jeff Tranter Linux SOUND HOWTO document Greg Lee Volume computation algorithm for the GUS and lot's of valuable suggestions. Andy Warner ISC port Jim Lowe, Amancio Hasty Jr FreeBSD/NetBSD port Anders Baekgaard Bug hunting and valuable suggestions. Joerg Schubert SB16 DSP support (initial version). Andrew Robinson Improvements to the GUS driver Megens SA MIDI recording for SB and SB Pro (initial version). Mikael Nordqvist Linear volume support for GUS and nonblocking /dev/sequencer. Ian Hartas SVR4.2 port Markus Aroharju and Risto Kankkunen Major contributions to the mixer support of GUS v3.7. Hunyue Yau Mixer support for SG NX Pro. Marc Hoffman PSS support (initial version). Rainer Vranken Initialization for Jazz16 (initial version). Peter Trattler Initial version of loadable module support for Linux. JRA Gibson 16 bit mode for Jazz16 (initial version) Davor Jadrijevic MAD16 support (initial version) Gregor Hoffleit Mozart support (initial version) Riccardo Facchetti Audio Excel DSP 16 (aedsp16) support James Hightower Spotting a tiny but important bug in CS423x support. Denis Sablic OPTi 82C924 spesific enhancements (non PnP mode) Tim MacKenzie Full duplex support for OPTi 82C930. Please look at lowlevel/README for more contributors. There are probably many other names missing. If you have sent me some patches and your name is not in the above list, please inform me. Sending your contributions or patches ------------------------------------- First of all it's highly recommended to contact me before sending anything or before even starting to do any work. Tell me what you suggest to be changed or what you have planned to do. Also ensure you are using the very latest (development) version of OSS/Free since the change may already be implemented there. In general it's major waste of time to try to improve several months old version. Information about the latest version can be found from http://www.opensound.com/ossfree. In general there is no point in sending me patches relative to production kernels. Sponsors etc. ------------- The following companies have greatly helped development of this driver in form of a free copy of their product: Novell, Inc. UnixWare personal edition + SDK The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. A SCO OpenServer + SDK Ensoniq Corp, a SoundScape card and extensive amount of assistance MediaTrix Peripherals Inc, a AudioTrix Pro card + SDK Acer, Inc. a pair of AcerMagic S23 cards. In addition the following companies have provided me sufficient amount of technical information at least some of their products (free or $$$): Advanced Gravis Computer Technology Ltd. Media Vision Inc. Analog Devices Inc. Logitech Inc. Aztech Labs Inc. Crystal Semiconductor Corporation, Integrated Circuit Systems Inc. OAK Technology OPTi Turtle Beach miro Ad Lib Inc. ($$) Music Quest Inc. ($$) Creative Labs ($$$) If you have some problems ========================= Read the sound HOWTO (sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/...?). Also look at the home page (http://www.opensound.com/ossfree). It may contain info about some recent bug fixes. It's likely that you have some problems when trying to use the sound driver first time. Soundcards don't have standard configuration so there are no good default configuration to use. Please try to use same I/O, DMA and IRQ values for the soundcard than with DOS. If you get an error message when trying to use the driver, please look at /var/adm/messages for more verbose error message. In general the easiest way to diagnose problems is to do "cat /dev/sndstat". If you get an error message, there are some problems with the driver setup: - "No such file or directory" tells that the device files for the sound driver are missing. Use the script at the end of linux/drivers/sound/Readme.linux to create them. - "No such device" tells that the sound driver is not in the kernel. You have to reconfigure and recompile the kernel to have the sound driver. Compiling the driver doesn't help alone. You have to boot with the newly compiled one before the driver becomes active. The Linux-HOWTO should help in this step. The following errors are likely with /dev/dsp and /dev/audio. - "No such device or address". This error message should not happen with /dev/sndstat but it's possible with the other sound devices. This error indicates that there are no suitable hardware for the device file or the sound driver has been compiled without support for this particular device. For example /dev/audio and /dev/dsp will not work if "digitized voice support" was not enabled during "make config". - "Device or resource busy". Probably the IRQ (or DMA) channel required by the soundcard is in use by some other device/driver. - "I/O error". Almost certainly (99%) it's an IRQ or DMA conflict. Look at the kernel messages in /var/adm/notice for more info. - "Invalid argument". The application is calling ioctl() with impossible parameters. Check that the application is for sound driver version 2.X or later. In general the printout of of /dev/sndstat should tell what is the problem. It's possible that there are bugs in the sound driver but 99% of the problems reported to me are caused by somehow incorrect setup during "make config". Best regards, Hannu Hannu Savolainen hannu@opensound.com (Please check http://www.opensound.com/ossfree before mailing me). Snail mail: Hannu Savolainen Hiekkalaiturintie 3 A 8 00980 Helsinki Finland