1da177e4c3
Initial git repository build. I'm not bothering with the full history, even though we have it. We can create a separate "historical" git archive of that later if we want to, and in the meantime it's about 3.2GB when imported into git - space that would just make the early git days unnecessarily complicated, when we don't have a lot of good infrastructure for it. Let it rip!
280 lines
11 KiB
Text
280 lines
11 KiB
Text
=======================================================
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Documentation for the NeoMagic 256AV/256ZX sound driver
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=======================================================
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You're looking at version 1.1 of the driver. (Woohoo!) It has been
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successfully tested against the following laptop models:
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Sony Z505S/Z505SX/Z505DX/Z505RX
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Sony F150, F160, F180, F250, F270, F280, PCG-F26
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Dell Latitude CPi, CPt (various submodels)
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There are a few caveats, which is why you should read the entirety of
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this document first.
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This driver was developed without any support or assistance from
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NeoMagic. There is no warranty, expressed, implied, or otherwise. It
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is free software in the public domain; feel free to use it, sell it,
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give it to your best friends, even claim that you wrote it (but why?!)
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but don't go whining to me, NeoMagic, Sony, Dell, or anyone else
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when it blows up your computer.
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Version 1.1 contains a change to try and detect non-AC97 versions of
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the hardware, and not install itself appropriately. It should also
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reinitialize the hardware on an APM resume event, assuming that APM
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was configured into your kernel.
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============
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Installation
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============
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Enable the sound drivers, the OSS sound drivers, and then the NM256
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driver. The NM256 driver *must* be configured as a module (it won't
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give you any other choice).
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Next, do the usual "make modules" and "make modules_install".
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Finally, insmod the soundcore, sound and nm256 modules.
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When the nm256 driver module is loaded, you should see a couple of
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confirmation messages in the kernel logfile indicating that it found
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the device (the device does *not* use any I/O ports or DMA channels).
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Now try playing a wav file, futz with the CD-ROM if you have one, etc.
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The NM256 is entirely a PCI-based device, and all the necessary
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information is automatically obtained from the card. It can only be
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configured as a module in a vain attempt to prevent people from
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hurting themselves. It works correctly if it shares an IRQ with
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another device (it normally shares IRQ 9 with the builtin eepro100
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ethernet on the Sony Z505 laptops).
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It does not run the card in any sort of compatibility mode. It will
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not work on laptops that have the SB16-compatible, AD1848-compatible
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or CS4232-compatible codec/mixer; you will want to use the appropriate
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compatible OSS driver with these chipsets. I cannot provide any
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assistance with machines using the SB16, AD1848 or CS4232 compatible
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versions. (The driver now attempts to detect the mixer version, and
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will refuse to load if it believes the hardware is not
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AC97-compatible.)
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The sound support is very basic, but it does include simultaneous
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playback and record capability. The mixer support is also quite
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simple, although this is in keeping with the rather limited
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functionality of the chipset.
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There is no hardware synthesizer available, as the Losedows OPL-3 and
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MIDI support is done via hardware emulation.
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Only three recording devices are available on the Sony: the
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microphone, the CD-ROM input, and the volume device (which corresponds
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to the stereo output). (Other devices may be available on other
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models of laptops.) The Z505 series does not have a builtin CD-ROM,
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so of course the CD-ROM input doesn't work. It does work on laptops
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with a builtin CD-ROM drive.
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The mixer device does not appear to have any tone controls, at least
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on the Z505 series. The mixer module checks for tone controls in the
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AC97 mixer, and will enable them if they are available.
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==============
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Known problems
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==============
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* There are known problems with PCMCIA cards and the eepro100 ethernet
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driver on the Z505S/Z505SX/Z505DX. Keep reading.
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* There are also potential problems with using a virtual X display, and
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also problems loading the module after the X server has been started.
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Keep reading.
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* The volume control isn't anywhere near linear. Sorry. This will be
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fixed eventually, when I get sufficiently annoyed with it. (I doubt
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it will ever be fixed now, since I've never gotten sufficiently
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annoyed with it and nobody else seems to care.)
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* There are reports that the CD-ROM volume is very low. Since I do not
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have a CD-ROM equipped laptop, I cannot test this (it's kinda hard to
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do remotely).
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* Only 8 fixed-rate speeds are supported. This is mainly a chipset
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limitation. It may be possible to support other speeds in the future.
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* There is no support for the telephone mixer/codec. There is support
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for a phonein/phoneout device in the mixer driver; whether or not
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it does anything is anyone's guess. (Reports on this would be
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appreciated. You'll have to figure out how to get the phone to
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go off-hook before it'll work, tho.)
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* This driver was not written with any cooperation or support from
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NeoMagic. If you have any questions about this, see their website
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for their official stance on supporting open source drivers.
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============
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Video memory
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============
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The NeoMagic sound engine uses a portion of the display memory to hold
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the sound buffer. (Crazy, eh?) The NeoMagic video BIOS sets up a
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special pointer at the top of video RAM to indicate where the top of
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the audio buffer should be placed.
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At the present time XFree86 is apparently not aware of this. It will
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thus write over either the pointer or the sound buffer with abandon.
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(Accelerated-X seems to do a better job here.)
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This implies a few things:
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* Sometimes the NM256 driver has to guess at where the buffer
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should be placed, especially if the module is loaded after the
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X server is started. It's usually correct, but it will consistently
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fail on the Sony F250.
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* Virtual screens greater than 1024x768x16 under XFree86 are
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problematic on laptops with only 2.5MB of screen RAM. This
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includes all of the 256AV-equipped laptops. (Virtual displays
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may or may not work on the 256ZX, which has at least 4MB of
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video RAM.)
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If you start having problems with random noise being output either
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constantly (this is the usual symptom on the F250), or when windows
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are moved around (this is the usual symptom when using a virtual
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screen), the best fix is to
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* Don't use a virtual frame buffer.
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* Make sure you load the NM256 module before the X server is
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started.
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On the F250, it is possible to force the driver to load properly even
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after the XFree86 server is started by doing:
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insmod nm256 buffertop=0x25a800
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This forces the audio buffers to the correct offset in screen RAM.
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One user has reported a similar problem on the Sony F270, although
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others apparently aren't seeing any problems. His suggested command
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is
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insmod nm256 buffertop=0x272800
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=================
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Official WWW site
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=================
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The official site for the NM256 driver is:
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http://www.uglx.org/sony.html
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You should always be able to get the latest version of the driver there,
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and the driver will be supported for the foreseeable future.
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==============
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Z505RX and IDE
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==============
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There appears to be a problem with the IDE chipset on the Z505RX; one
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of the symptoms is that sound playback periodically hangs (when the
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disk is accessed). The user reporting the problem also reported that
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enabling all of the IDE chipset workarounds in the kernel solved the
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problem, tho obviously only one of them should be needed--if someone
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can give me more details I would appreciate it.
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==============================
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Z505S/Z505SX on-board Ethernet
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==============================
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If you're using the on-board Ethernet Pro/100 ethernet support on the Z505
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series, I strongly encourage you to download the latest eepro100 driver from
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Donald Becker's site:
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ftp://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/linux/drivers/test/eepro100.c
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There was a reported problem on the Z505SX that if the ethernet
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interface is disabled and reenabled while the sound driver is loaded,
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the machine would lock up. I have included a workaround that is
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working satisfactorily. However, you may occasionally see a message
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about "Releasing interrupts, over 1000 bad interrupts" which indicates
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that the workaround is doing its job.
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==================================
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PCMCIA and the Z505S/Z505SX/Z505DX
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==================================
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There is also a known problem with the Sony Z505S and Z505SX hanging
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if a PCMCIA card is inserted while the ethernet driver is loaded, or
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in some cases if the laptop is suspended. This is caused by tons of
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spurious IRQ 9s, probably generated from the PCMCIA or ACPI bridges.
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There is currently no fix for the problem that works in every case.
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The only known workarounds are to disable the ethernet interface
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before inserting or removing a PCMCIA card, or with some cards
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disabling the PCMCIA card before ejecting it will also help the
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problem with the laptop hanging when the card is ejected.
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One user has reported that setting the tcic's cs_irq to some value
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other than 9 (like 11) fixed the problem. This doesn't work on my
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Z505S, however--changing the value causes the cardmgr to stop seeing
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card insertions and removals, cards don't seem to work correctly, and
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I still get hangs if a card is inserted when the kernel is booted.
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Using the latest ethernet driver and pcmcia package allows me to
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insert an Adaptec 1480A SlimScsi card without the laptop hanging,
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although I still have to shut down the card before ejecting or
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powering down the laptop. However, similar experiments with a DE-660
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ethernet card still result in hangs when the card is inserted. I am
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beginning to think that the interrupts are CardBus-related, since the
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Adaptec card is a CardBus card, and the DE-660 is not; however, I
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don't have any other CardBus cards to test with.
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======
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Thanks
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======
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First, I want to thank everyone (except NeoMagic of course) for their
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generous support and encouragement. I'd like to list everyone's name
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here that replied during the development phase, but the list is
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amazingly long.
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I will be rather unfair and single out a few people, however:
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Justin Maurer, for being the first random net.person to try it,
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and for letting me login to his Z505SX to get it working there
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Edi Weitz for trying out several different versions, and giving
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me a lot of useful feedback
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Greg Rumple for letting me login remotely to get the driver
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functional on the 256ZX, for his assistance on tracking
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down all sorts of random stuff, and for trying out Accel-X
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Zach Brown, for the initial AC97 mixer interface design
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Jeff Garzik, for various helpful suggestions on the AC97
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interface
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"Mr. Bumpy" for feedback on the Z505RX
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Bill Nottingham, for generous assistance in getting the mixer ID
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code working
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=================
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Previous versions
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=================
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Versions prior to 0.3 (aka `noname') had problems with weird artifacts
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in the output and failed to set the recording rate properly. These
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problems have long since been fixed.
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Versions prior to 0.5 had problems with clicks in the output when
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anything other than 16-bit stereo sound was being played, and also had
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periodic clicks when recording.
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Version 0.7 first incorporated support for the NM256ZX chipset, which
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is found on some Dell Latitude laptops (the CPt, and apparently
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some CPi models as well). It also included the generic AC97
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mixer module.
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Version 0.75 renamed all the functions and files with slightly more
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generic names.
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Note that previous versions of this document claimed that recording was
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8-bit only; it actually has been working for 16-bits all along.
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