Additional Information

Updated: 5. Jun 2005
On since: 13. Dec 2002

1. Soundcard (using ALSA and Gentoo)
2. Firewire
3. Modem
4. TV-OUT
5. Command Outputs

Soundcard

This is about getting the amilo soundcard (Multimedia audio controller: ALi Corporation M5451) working with Gentoo Linux and a series 2.6 kernel using ALSA (which is the default sound subsystem in the 2.6 series).

Firstly, Sound card Support needs to be enabled in the kernel (config-2.6.11-gentoo-r9 kernel config), without ALSA or OSS support. It's better to use the portage alsa-driver instead of the drivers provided in the kernel, as it's probably more up to date. You can find the sound stuff under Device Drivers --> Sound.

Ok, so now you've booted your amilo baby using your new kernel. Before installing ALSA, edit your /etc/make.conf file by applying a new option to it:

ALSA_CARDS="ali5451"

alsa should also be found in your USE variable (and perhaps oss for OSS compatibility, too). Then emerge (it's always a good idea to pretend first using the -p switch!) the alsa stuff:

# emerge alsa-lib alsa-driver alsa-oss alsa-utils

When you're done, run etc-update:

# etc-update

Then edit /etc/modules.d/alsa and change the line

alias snd-card-0 snd-cmipci

to read

alias snd-card-0 snd-ali5451

The full alsa config is also available.

Then update your modules, add alsasound to boot and start it:

# modules-update
# rc-update add alsasound boot
# /etc/init.d/alsasound start

Now that you have alsasound running, use alsamixer to unmute the sound channels. When you're ready, test if everything works using your favourite player. If you do not have one yet, you could try alsaplayer:

# emerge alsaplayer

and

# alsaplayer somefile.mp3

Added: 5. Jun 2005

Firewire

Like told before, I connected my external firewire harddisk (Maxtor, 40 GB) to my laptop to see how it does with Linux. I have used it as a extra storage space for some video stuff under Windoze environment. Anyway, as I suspected, no problems occurred. Just hooked it up and mounted it.

But if some problems should occure, be sure to have the needed modules loaded. For firewire do

modprobe ohci1394

The module ieee1394 should be loaded already. Also the sbp2 module should be already loaded, but if it's not, just do

modprobe sbp2

.. respectively. Then you can find out some info about the devices by executing the following commands. The first one gives an overview of the detected scsi devices, the second one lists detected firewire devices:

[jn@karelia jn]$ cat /proc/scsi/scsi
Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: Maxtor   Model: 1394 storage     Rev: 60
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 02
[jn@karelia jn]$

[jn@karelia jn]$ cat /proc/bus/ieee1394/devices
Node[00:1023]  GUID[0010b900000000c4]:
  Vendor ID: `Maxtor' [0x0010b9]
  Capabilities: 0x0083c0
  Bus Options:
    IRMC(0) CMC(0) ISC(0) BMC(0) PMC(0) GEN(0)
    LSPD(2) MAX_REC(64) CYC_CLK_ACC(255)
  Unit Directory 0:
    Vendor/Model ID: Maxtor [0010b9] / 1394 Disk Drive [000000]
    Software Specifier ID: 00609e
    Software Version: 010483
    Driver: SBP2 Driver
    Length (in quads): 8
Node[01:1023]  GUID[00023f28270018d9]:
  Vendor ID: `Linux OHCI-1394' [0x004063]
  Capabilities: 0x0083c0
  Bus Options:
    IRMC(1) CMC(1) ISC(1) BMC(0) PMC(0) GEN(0)
    LSPD(2) MAX_REC(2048) CYC_CLK_ACC(0)
  Host Node Status:
    Host Driver     : ohci1394
    Nodes connected : 2
    Nodes active    : 2
    SelfIDs received: 2
    Irm ID          : [01:1023]
    BusMgr ID       : [01:1023]
    In Bus Reset    : no
    Root            : yes
    Cycle Master    : yes
    IRM             : yes
    Bus Manager     : yes
[jn@karelia jn]$

Then just mount it:

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/hd

and that's it. Then you can do

cat /etc/mtab

for extra information on mounted devices. Please note that it is very wise to unmount the drive before pulling any cables out.

Modem

The modem is an ALi M5457 software modem. Conexant informs Linux users to "access Linux modem application information for Conexant modem devices" by going to www.linuxant.com.

From there ("HSF (softmodem) driver --> Description") all the supported modems can be found. The command lspci gives us:

00:03.0 Modem: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] M5457 AC-Link Modem Interface Controller

and lspci -n:

00:03.0 Class 0703: 10b9:5457

Notice the last string. It is said that this particular PCI id represents the ALI+ MC97 controller, to which various AC-Link modems can be connected. However, only those based on Conexant chips are supported by the driver available from LinuxAnt. So the question is: is our modem based on that chip? I tried a program (on Windoze) that looks for a modem that uses a Conexant chipset and returns some helpful information for identifying which modem one is using. Didn't get too lucky:

========================================
 SYSTEM INFORMATION       
========================================
Date         : 5/29/2003
ListMdm Ver  : 1.6
Windows OS   : Microsoft Windows XP 
Build Number : 2600 

========================================
 RESULT OF MODEM QUERY    
========================================
NUMBER OF MODEMS FOUND = 1

MODEM #1:
  PCI CONFIGURATION INFORMATION READ:
     VENDOR ID              : 10B9
     DEVICE ID              : 5457
     SUBVENDOR ID           : 1734
     SUBDEVICE ID           : 100A
     REVISION ID            : 00

  DEDUCED INFORMATION:
     VENDOR NAME            : UNKNOWN
     DEVICE NAME            : UNKNOWN
     SUBVENDOR NAME         : UNKNOWN
     MODEM TYPE             : UNKNOWN
     WINXP INBUILD SUPPORT  : NO

Presumably we're not dealing with a Conexant chip here! (WinXP says that the modem is a Agere Systems AC'97 modem.) Next I downloaded the current version of the pci.ids file, and ran Marv Stodolsky's modem detection script. The script primarily utilizes the lspci tool. The script says:

"Three types of information are acquired from your System: 1) General system information necessary for your guidance; 2) The PCI_ID of the modem card or its controller; for the increasingly prevalent "soft modems", the primary PCI_ID only identifies the controller but not the modem subSystem. 3) For soft modems co-serving with a digital audio card, a codec SIL_id is acquired, to direct towards supporting software.".

Ok, on with it:

  --------------  System information ------------------------
 mandrake Mandrake Linux release 9.1 (Bamboo) for i586
 on system: Linux karelia 2.4.21-0.13mdk #1 Fri Mar 14 15:08:06 EST 2003...
 LSPCI=
 GCC=3.2.2
 UPDATE=2003 May 22

 An AC'97 modem codec was not detected

--------- lspci scan ----------------
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device cab0 (rev 13)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc U1/A3 AGP Bridge [IGP 320M] (rev 01)
00:02.0 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03)
00:03.0 Modem: ALi Corporation Intel 537 [M5457 AC-Link Modem]
00:04.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c4)
00:06.0 Bridge: ALi Corporation M7101 PMU
(... and so on.. -JN)
-------------------------------------
Reading more detail for the Device at:
PCI bus
-------
00:03.0 Class 0703: 10b9:5457
          Subsystem 1734:100a
00:03.0 Modem: ALi Corporation Intel 537 [M5457 AC-Link Modem] (prog-if 00 [Generic])
        Subsystem: Unknown device 1734:100a
        Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 11
        Memory at f0401000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        I/O ports at 8400 [size=256]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

-------------------------------------------------------
 10b9:5457  PCI_ID of the PCI bus with vendor: 10b9
 1734:100a  PCI_ID of Subsystem with vendor:   1734
-------------------------------------------------------
 are key Sought Descriptions of your modem firmware.
 Have them ready when visiting URLs with service software!!

    10b9:5457                   ALI 5457                +  p c
AMR_modem=yes

 Checking vendor=10b9 through chipset providers and modem assemblers
 Vendors 10b9 is Acer Labs, producing ASUS motherboards 
 and Ali components. Among their AMR modems, the 10b9:5459  modem chipset is 
 supported by SmartLink drivers accessed through  
 http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/resources.html 
 But the 10b9:5450 and 10b9:5451 modem chipsets are not supported by SmartLink 
 resources.

 Checking Subsystem vendor=1734 through chipset providers and modem assemblers

GCCversion=3.2.2

The following information blocks just query some ppp support items.
====================================================================
   grep ppp /etc/modules.conf
--------------------------------
(...)

The script does also a second output file, which says something like this:

 Any of the Controllers in the left most column could support
 a variety of subSystem soft modems.
 Hence the current ambiguity in possible support by drivers under Linux
 ==================================================================
VendorID:DeviceID == PCI_ID     Controller type
   bus PCI_ID  subSystemID      AC97  MC97             try drivers from
   ----------  -----------      ----------------       ----------------
   Intel:
    8086:2416                         82801AA (ICH)     + p c
    8086:2426                         82801AB (ICH0)    +
    8086:2446                         82801BA (ICH2)    + p c
    8086:2486                         ICH3              + p c
    8086:24c6                   INTEL ICH4
    8086:1040                   S1724
    8086:7196                         ????              +

    1543:3052  1543:3000        SI3052
    1039:7013                   SIS 630                 +  p
    1039:7018                   SIS 960                 +
    1055:9178                   Standard Microsystems   +
    1106:3068                           VIA             +  p c
    1022:7446                   AMD                     +
    10b9:5450                   ALI 5450
    10b9:5451                   ALI 5451
    10b9:5453                   ALI                        p c
    10b9:5457                   ALI 5457                +  p c
    e159:0001                   TigerJet 320
    e159:0001  0359:0003        TJ320 v3.1
    e159:0001  8086:0003        TJ320 v2.0

  PCI cards with SmartLink Chipsets
    10b9:5459                   ALI 5459 SmartPCI561    ++
    10ec:8197 - SmartLAN56 (RealTek ether/modem combo   ++
    1131:3400 - SmartPCI56 (Philips UCB1500)            ++
    163c:5459, 10a5:5459 - kinds of SmartPCI561         ++
    4005:0308 - ALS300plus (Avance sound/modem combo    ++
  --------------------------------------------------------

  p   http://pctelcompdb.sourceforge.net/
  c   Conexant - http://www.linuxant.com
  +   SmartLink HAMR5600 compatible AMR/CNR/MDC soft modems
  ++  SmartLink PCI slot modems
      The driver starting from 2.7.8 works with some non-SmartLink
      codecs despite writing warnings to logs and dmesg. For drivers
         ftp://ftp.smlink.com/linux/unsupported/  or alternatively
          http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/resources.html
(...)

Good luck!

TV-OUT

TV-OUT can be used either using composite or S-Video (Separate Video) as an output. To get started, download, compile and install atitvout 0.4, which is a command line tool for executing some configuration commands for the ATi TV-OUT connector. Next, hook up all the cables and reboot. Then you can use command

atitvout -f detect

to see a list of attached displays (the flag -f forces "Rage Mobility/Rage LT" mode, which worked for me). Your TV should be on the list:

[root@ilium jn]# /usr/local/sbin/atitvout -f detect
Forcing Rage Mobility/Rage 3D Pro LT mode
LCD is attached.
TV is attached via S-Video.
[root@ilium jn]$

Then you can do

atitvout -f t

to switch using your television as your display. Use letter "l" in place of "t" to switch back to LCD (l = LCD; c = CRT; t = TV).

NOTE: TV-OUT stuff won't be detected at all unless you have all the cables hooked up during bootup. This true also when using composite output.

13. Oct 2003

Command Outputs

[Mandrake 9.0]
lspcidrake:

[jn@marilyn jn]$ lspcidrake
unknown         : unknown (1002/cab0/ffff/ffff)
unknown         : unknown (1002/700f/ffff/ffff)
usb-ohci        : Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi]|M5237 (USB)
usb-ohci        : Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi]|M5237 (USB)
unknown         : Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi]|M5457 AC-Link Modem Interface Controller
unknown         : Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi]|M5229 IDE
unknown         : Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi]|M7101 PMU
unknown         : Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi]|M1533 PCI to ISA Bridge [Aladdin IV]
trident         : Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi]|M5451 PCI South Bridge Audio
8139too         : Realtek|RTL-8139
ohci1394        : VIA Technologies|OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
unknown         : unknown (1524/1420/ffff/ffff)
unknown         : unknown (1524/1420/ffff/ffff)
unknown         : unknown (1002/4336/ffff/ffff)
unknown         : Virtual|Hub []
unknown         : Virtual|Hub []
Mouse:USB|Wheel : Microsoft Corp.|IntelliMouse Optical [Human Interface Devices|Boot Interface Subclass|Mouse]
[jn@marilyn jn]$

[SuSe 8.1] -- (sent by Stephan Hradek, e-mail: stephan dot hradek@gmx dot net)
lspci:

# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device cab0 (rev 13)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 700f (rev 01)
00:02.0 USB Controller: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03)
00:03.0 Modem: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] M5457 AC-Link Modem Interface Controller
00:04.0 IDE interface: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] M5229 IDE (rev c4)
00:06.0 Bridge: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] M7101 PMU
00:07.0 ISA bridge: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] M1533 PCI to ISA Bridge [Aladdin IV]
00:08.0 Multimedia audio controller: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] M5451 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device (rev 02)
00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
00:0a.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 46)
00:0b.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc: Unknown device 1420 (rev 01)
00:0b.1 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc: Unknown device 1420 (rev 01)
00:0f.0 USB Controller: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03)
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4336

lspci -n:

# lspci -n
00:00.0 Class 0600: 1002:cab0 (rev 13)
00:01.0 Class 0604: 1002:700f (rev 01)
00:02.0 Class 0c03: 10b9:5237 (rev 03)
00:03.0 Class 0703: 10b9:5457
00:04.0 Class 0101: 10b9:5229 (rev c4)
00:06.0 Class 0680: 10b9:7101
00:07.0 Class 0601: 10b9:1533
00:08.0 Class 0401: 10b9:5451 (rev 02)
00:09.0 Class 0200: 10ec:8139 (rev 10)
00:0a.0 Class 0c00: 1106:3044 (rev 46)
00:0b.0 Class 0607: 1524:1420 (rev 01)
00:0b.1 Class 0607: 1524:1420 (rev 01)
00:0f.0 Class 0c03: 10b9:5237 (rev 03)
01:05.0 Class 0300: 1002:4336

lspci -v:

# lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device cab0 (rev 13)
        Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 64
        Memory at ec000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
        Memory at e8800000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
        I/O ports at a010 [disabled] [size=4]
        Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 2.0

00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 700f (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 99
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=68
        I/O behind bridge: 0000b000-0000bfff
        Memory behind bridge: e8500000-e85fffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: f0000000-f7ffffff

00:02.0 USB Controller: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
        Subsystem: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] USB 1.1 Controller
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
        Memory at e8400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2

00:03.0 Modem: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] M5457 AC-Link Modem Interface Controller (prog-if 00 [Generic])
        Subsystem: Unknown device 1734:100a
        Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 11
        Memory at e8401000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        I/O ports at 8400 [size=256]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

00:04.0 IDE interface: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] M5229 IDE (rev c4) (prog-if fa)
        Subsystem: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] M5229 IDE
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64
        I/O ports at a000 [size=16]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2

00:06.0 Bridge: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] M7101 PMU
        Subsystem: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] ALI M7101 Power Management Controller
        Flags: medium devsel

00:07.0 ISA bridge: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] M1533 PCI to ISA Bridge [Aladdin IV]
        Subsystem: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] ALI M1533 Aladdin IV ISA Bridge
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
        Capabilities: [a0] Power Management version 1
		
00:08.0 Multimedia audio controller: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] M5451 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Unknown device 1734:100a
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
        I/O ports at 8800 [size=256]
        Memory at e8402000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
        Subsystem: Unknown device 1734:100a
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
        I/O ports at 8c00 [size=256]
        Memory at e8406800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

00:0a.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 46) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
        Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller
        Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 5
        Memory at e8406000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
        I/O ports at 8080 [size=128]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

00:0b.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc: Unknown device 1420 (rev 01) 
        Subsystem: Unknown device 1734:100a
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 11
        Memory at 1c000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=176
        Memory window 0: 1c400000-1c7ff000 (prefetchable)
        Memory window 1: 1c800000-1cbff000
        I/O window 0: 00004000-000040ff
        I/O window 1: 00004400-000044ff
        16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

00:0b.1 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc: Unknown device 1420 (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Unknown device 1734:100a
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 11
        Memory at 1c001000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=176
        Memory window 0: 1cc00000-1cfff000 (prefetchable)
        Memory window 1: 1d000000-1d3ff000
        I/O window 0: 00004800-000048ff
        I/O window 1: 00004c00-00004cff
        16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

00:0f.0 USB Controller: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
        Subsystem: Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] USB 1.1 Controller
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
        Memory at e8405000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4336 (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: Unknown device 1734:100a
        Flags: bus master, stepping, fast Back2Back, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 66, IRQ 5
        Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        I/O ports at b000 [size=256]
        Memory at e8500000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Expansion ROM at  [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [58] AGP version 2.0
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

Back