Running Linux, 5th Edition - Matthias Kalle Dalheimer [163]
Kernel: Linux curly 2.2.16 #4 Sat Aug 26 19:04:06 PDT 2000 i686
Config options: 0
Installed drivers:
Card config:
Audio devices:
0: Sound Blaster 16 (4.13) (DUPLEX)
Synth devices:
0: Yamaha OPL3
MIDI devices:
0: Sound Blaster 16
Timers:
0: System clock
Mixers:
0: Sound Blaster
If these look right, you can now test your sound card. A simple check to do first is to run a mixer program and verify that the mixer device is detected and that you can change the levels without seeing any errors. Set all the levels to something reasonable. You'll have to see what mixer programs are available on your system. Some common ones are aumix, xmix, and KMix.
Now try using a sound file player to play a sound file (e.g., a WAV file) and verify that you can hear it play. If you are running a desktop environment, such as KDE or GNOME, you should have a suitable media player; otherwise, look for a command-line tool such as play.
If playback works, you can then check recording. Connect a microphone to the sound card's mic input and run a recording program, such as rec or vrec. See whether you can record input to a WAV file and play it back. Check the mixer settings to ensure that you have selected the right input device and set the appropriate gain levels.
You can also test whether MIDI files play correctly. Some MIDI player programs require sound cards with an FM synthesizer, others do not. Some common MIDI players are Playmidi, KMid, and KMidi. Testing of devices on the MIDI bus is beyond the scope of this book.
A good site for general information on MIDI and MIDI devices is http://midistudio.com. The official MIDI specifications are available from the MIDI Manufacturers Association. Their web site can be found at http://www.midi.org.
Video Drivers
When configuring the Linux kernel, you can enable a number of video -related options and drivers . Under the Multimedia Drivers section, you can configure VideoForLinux, which has support for video capture and overlay devices and radio tuner cards. Under the Graphics Support category, you can enable frame buffer support for various video cards so that applications can access the video hardware via the kernel's standardized frame buffer interface. For more information on building the kernel, see Chapter 18.
Your X server also needs support for your video hardware. The X windowing system software provided by your distribution vendor should have included all of the open source drivers . There may also be closed-source drivers available for your video card from the manufacturer. If these are not included in your distribution, you will have to obtain and install them separately. For more information on the X Window System, see Chapter 16.
Alternate Input Devices
When configuring the kernel, under the Input Device Support section you can enable support for various specialized mouse drivers, joysticks, and touchscreens.
For scanners and digital cameras, the kernel just needs to support the interface type that the devices use (serial, SCSI, USB, etc.). Communicating with the actual device will be done by applications or libraries such as SANE or libgphoto2.
Embedded and Other Multimedia Devices
Portable multimedia devices for playing music are very popular. The smaller devices use flash memory, whereas the larger ones use hard drives for increased storage capacity. Typically they can play music in MP3, WAV, or Windows WMA formats. Dedicated DVD players for watching movies are also available.
Files are transferred to these devices from a PC. Most current products do not officially support Linux as a host PC. Devices that use the standard USB mass storage protocol should work fine with Linux. Many devices tend to use proprietary protocols. A few of these now have Linux utilities that have been created, sometimes by reverse engineering. It may also be possible to run the Windows applications provided by the vendor under Wine. It is hoped that in the future more hardware vendors will officially support Linux.
Desktop Environments
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