Linux on Sony Vaio - Intel i820 onboard soundcard

17 Jan 2003 14:39 linux sony-vaio

Note: Caoilte wrote this. I’ve not had a chance to check it yet.

For maximum compatability you will need to compile your kernel with the following options:

CONFIG_SOUND=m (Sound ---> Sound card support)
CONFIG_SOUND_OSS=m (Sound ---> OSS sound modules)

You do not need to set a low-level soundcard driver. We will configure that separately using the more sophisticated ALSA framework.

To setup ALSA on your laptop you will need to install some extra debian packages:

# apt-get install alsa-source alsa-base alsa-utils alsa-xmms dpkg-dev

Follow the default debconf prompts except for the selection of cards to be built under alsa-source. Select intel8x0 from the list.

There should now be an alsa-drivers.tar.gz file in your /usr/src directory. Change to that directory and check before un-tarring it like this:

# mkdir modules
# tar -zxf alsa-drivers-tar.gz modules

For make-kpkg to find these modules you need to set the following environment variable:

# export MODULE_LOC="/usr/src/modules/"

Also append the line to your .bashrc so that it is set automatically in future (NB this assumes you use the default bash prompt). You are now ready to recompile your kernel. Follow the instructions for make-kpkg again, or if you have compiled with the above kernel options already change to the /usr/src/linux directory and run:

# make-kpkg modules_image

You should now have another .deb package in the parent directory called something like alsa-modules-2.4.20_rc6+3+p0+whatever_i386.deb. Install this:

# dpkg -i alsa-modules-2.4.20_rc6+3+p0+whatever_i386.deb

Your ALSA modules are installed. Run modconf as root to check (not sure - might need a reboot). Remember they are muted by default though, and that normal users cannot use them until they are added to the audio group in /etc/group. If you want to use the OSS compatability layer (for programs like realplayer) edit /etc/alsa/alsa-base.conf, startosslayer=true

Credits: Caoilte O’Connor wrote this page of the instructions. Thanks for that, Caoilte.