[NOT SOLVED] New Installation / older laptop.....

[hata_ph]

Just put below command inside your /ect/modprobe.d/backlist

blacklist xxxx

[caitlyn]

That should be /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist  The command should read:

Code:

blacklist ath5k

[ElEdwards]

Well, I'm not getting something

I did the blacklist, downloaded the file, extracted it, read the docs, did a make, make install and modprobe ath_pci but when I look at iwconfig again, I still don't see ath0.

Any ideas what I'm leaving out?  There were no error messages at all and I did it all logged in as root.

El

[newt]

I've never used, or manually installed mad-wifi, so this is based on the install guide.  Perhaps you've already done these steps.

Create an ath0 device using (as root): wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode sta
If wlanconfig doesn't work try executing (as root): wlanconfig ath0 destroy
And then again (as root): wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode sta

Then check 'iwconfig'

HTH!

[ElEdwards]

Well, I tried something and got it to work!   I don't really understand why, though.

A while ago, I tried DreamLinux and had the wireless issue.  I had kept the printed solution, so I tried it on Vector and it worked:

Code:

sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid xxxxx
sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode managed

....and it suddenly started working.

I still don't see ath0 in iwconfig    but it works!

El

[nightflier]

Doesn't look like there is any guarantee that the Atheros chip will get the "athx" designation. On my laptop I have had it show up either as ath0 or wlan0, you just gotta try it out.

[hata_ph]

Is there an option to change that inside VASM?

[ElEdwards]

I don't know...but it's working, even after several reboots, so I'm not going to disturb it

So..... I have wireless and I got my Touchpad to settle down....that's two of my original three issues....

Now my sound problem:  I can hear noise and can tell it's the familiar KDE sounds....but they are very muddy, distorted and have a bad echo.  Again, my laptop is a Compaq Presario 2170us with 512M, 40Gig HDD

The command line version of alsamixer indicates:

Code:

Card: ALI 5451
Chip: Conexant Cx20468 rev 1,Conexant Cx20468 rev 1

Running cat /proc/asound/modules produces

Code:

0 snd_ali5451

Running /etc/modprobe.d/sound produces

Code:

alias snd-card-0 snd-ali5451
alias sound-slot-0 snd-ali5451

...and here's lsmod

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
radeon                126880  2
drm                    71576  3 radeon
freq_table              4640  0
snd_seq_dummy           3588  0
snd_seq_oss            29824  0
snd_seq_midi_event      7040  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                47856  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          7180  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            37920  0
snd_mixer_oss          14720  1 snd_pcm_oss
fuse                   42780  0
wlan_scan_sta          12800  1
ath_rate_sample        13056  1
rtc_cmos                9760  0
rtc_core               14620  1 rtc_cmos
parport_pc             36548  0
rtc_lib                 3328  1 rtc_core
snd_ali5451            19340  0
ath_pci                90912  0
wlan                  192368  4 wlan_scan_sta,ath_rate_sample,ath_pci
parport                31852  1 parport_pc
snd_ac97_codec         96548  1 snd_ali5451
i2c_ali1535             6916  0
ac97_bus                2432  1 snd_ac97_codec
ath_hal               190544  3 ath_rate_sample,ath_pci
serio_raw               6020  0
i2c_ali15x3             7428  0
snd_pcm                67204  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_ali5451,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              20104  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
i2c_core               19860  2 i2c_ali1535,i2c_ali15x3
snd                    44708  9 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_ali5451,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
pata_acpi               5504  0
natsemi                26976  0
soundcore               6880  1 snd
alim1535_wdt            5400  0
snd_page_alloc          8456  1 snd_pcm
shpchp                 29972  0
pci_hotplug            27044  1 shpchp
ati_agp                 7436  1
agpgart                28232  2 drm,ati_agp
video                  17296  0
output                  3584  1 video
joydev                 10048  0
evdev                   9728  6

Any ideas? Thanks

El

[newt]

When you run 'alsaconf' (as root) what sound device choices do you get?  I'm thinking that this is a pretty basic AC97 sound device and that it should be well supported - assuming the correct driver is being used.

[ElEdwards]

Running alsaconf as root shows me the attached image.

[ElEdwards]

I've been doing some more snooping.  Here is the result of lsmod | grep snd:

Code:

snd_sb16               12648  0
snd_opl3_lib           10112  1 snd_sb16
snd_sb16_dsp            9856  1 snd_sb16
snd_sb16_csp           18560  1 snd_sb16
snd_sb_common          15488  3 snd_sb16,snd_sb16_dsp,snd_sb16_csp
snd_hwdep               7556  2 snd_opl3_lib,snd_sb16_csp
snd_mpu401_uart         7424  1 snd_sb16
snd_rawmidi            19744  1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_dummy           3588  0
snd_seq_oss            29824  0
snd_seq_midi_event      7040  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                47856  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          7180  5 snd_opl3_lib,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            37920  0
snd_mixer_oss          14720  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_ali5451            19340  2
snd_ac97_codec         96548  1 snd_ali5451
ac97_bus                2432  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                67204  6 snd_sb16,snd_sb16_dsp,snd_pcm_oss,snd_ali5451,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              20104  3 snd_opl3_lib,snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd                    44708  20 snd_sb16,snd_opl3_lib,snd_sb16_dsp,snd_sb16_csp,snd_sb_common,snd_hwdep,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_ali5451,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore               6880  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          8456  1 snd_pcm

Should I have such a mix of OSS, ALSA, SB1, etc?  Seems weird to me 

El

[newt]

Just read a post about a person with the same audio chipset that was having different difficulties, but managed to solve them by muting the "external amplifier".

It's easy enough that it's probably worth a shot...
in terminal: type 'alsamixer'
scroll to the right using right arrow until you select the channel called 'external amplifier', and then press the 'm' key to mute that channel.

Aside from the above steps, do headphones sound the same or are they better/worse?

HTH!

[cm1967]

I want to thank everyone for this post.  I've been using Ubuntu, Fedora, and PCLinuxOS on my Thinkpad 41 but have an older Thinkpad X30 I need a less resource intensive distro for.  By reading through this post, it looks like most of my questions have been answered.  Especially, the one about wireless connectivity.

Thanks.

[ElEdwards]

Muting "External Amplifier" in Alsamixer was one of the first things I did ....so that's not it.

[ElEdwards]

I GOT MY SOUND WORKING!!! ...but the solution is very strange.......

I searched these boards for instances of "alsa" and found a post regarding the setup of Amarok.... I opened it and and in Preferences, I set the output engine to Alsa and *BINGO* ...... my system sounds now sound great!

...... but why would this make any difference??  Until this, I had never even opened Amarok. 

El