VIA VT8233 sound with Red Hat Linux

The via82cxxx_audio driver that comes with the Red Hat Linux 9.0 (2.4.20-8 kernel) works with the VIA VT8233 on-board audio controller.

Here are the relevant contents of /etc/sysconfig/hwconf (this file is populated by kudzu; do not add the contents manually):

class: AUDIO
bus: PCI
detached: 0
driver: via82cxxx_audio
desc: "VIA Technologies|VT8233 AC97 Audio Controller"
vendorId: 1106
deviceId: 3059
subVendorId: 1458
subDeviceId: a002
pciType: 1

If the via82cxxx_audio driver and dependencies are not loaded (check with lsmod), add the following /etc/modules.conf entry:
alias sound-slot-0 via82cxxx_audio

You may also load them manually with modprobe:
/sbin/modprobe via82cxxx_audio

Note: with XMMS, I have to use the OSS Driver output plugin instead of the aRts Driver.

Red Hat Linux 8.0 instructions

In order to get my Gigabyte GA-7VAXP on-board audio working with Red Hat Linux 8.0, I had to use the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) drivers. Red Hat's out-of-the-box driver did not work with my on-board audio.

Red Hat Linux's kudzu detects my on-board audio as "VIA Technologies|VT8233 AC97 Audio Controller."

Please visit the page
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/doc-php/template.php3?company=VIA&card=&chip=via8233a&module=via82xx for more information on installing the VT8233 ALSA drivers. The only changes in the instructions below are to use checkinstall (instead of make install) to create RPM packages and to make sure that the packages are not overwritten by freshrpms' alsa packages (for apt-rpm users that source freshrpms).

1. Download alsa-driver, alsa-lib, and alsa-utils.
wget ftp://ftp.silug.org/pub/alsa/driver/alsa-driver-0.9.2.tar.bz2
wget ftp://ftp.silug.org/pub/alsa/lib/alsa-lib-0.9.2.tar.bz2
wget ftp://ftp.silug.org/pub/alsa/utils/alsa-utils-0.9.2.tar.bz2

2. Install alsa-driver.
tar xvjf alsa-driver-0.9.2.tar.bz2
cd alsa-driver-0.9.2
./configure --with-cards=via82xx --with-sequencer=yes && make
/bin/su -c "/usr/local/sbin/checkinstall -R -y"
/bin/su -c "./snddevices"
cd ..

3. Install alsa-lib.
tar xvjf alsa-lib-0.9.2.tar.bz2
cd alsa-lib-0.9.2
./configure && make
/bin/su -c "/usr/local/sbin/checkinstall -R -y"
cd ..

4. Install alsa-utils.
tar xvjf alsa-utils-0.9.2.tar.bz2
cd alsa-utils-0.9.2
./configure && make
/bin/su -c "/usr/local/sbin/checkinstall -R -y"

5. Insert the modules and their dependencies into the running kernel.
/bin/su -c "/sbin/modprobe snd-via82xx;/sbin/modprobe snd-pcm-oss;/sbin/modprobe snd-mixer-oss;/sbin/modprobe snd-seq-oss"

6. Run alsamixer and configure the volume levels. By default, all volumes will be muted after installing ALSA.

7. Add the following lines to /etc/modules.conf:

# ALSA portion alias char-major-116 snd alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx # module options should go here # OSS/Free portion alias char-major-14 soundcore alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0 # card #1 alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

8. apt-rpm users (that source freshrpms.net) should ignore freshrpm's alsa packages as they may conflict with the packages installed above.

vi /etc/apt/apt.conf

Add the following to the Ignore line in the RPM section:
Ignore { alsa-utils; alsa-lib; alsa-driver; };

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VIA VT8233 sound with Red Hat Linux

Red Hat Linux 8.0 instructions

Last modified: 06/30/2003