Hi! I have just installed RedHat 7.1 on a 2.5 years old Dell machine (Dell Dimension XPS R400) equipped with a Winmodem and an Altec USB sound system). Kernel 2.2.x did not recognize either my internal winmodem or my soundcard. I was hoping that 2.4.x would. When I boot the machine, The winmodem (at least the name) is seen and recognized. However, when I want to configure it, the automatic RedHat procedure do not find or see my winmodem. My sound system is not recognized either. I decided to try kernelcfg and then I discovered that it was not installed and it was not in any of the 3 CDs. Then comes the very simple question: Where is the kernelcfg rpm? And beside, will my winmodem and my sound card + USB loudspeakers work? Thanks in advance for any answer. Daniel
Quite a few questions in one single bugzilla entry, but better than splitting them up :) Anyway, here the answers: Kernelcfg has been removed from the distribution for lack of use and has partially been replaced by kudzu (the automatic hardware detection app) (we are also always very tight on space on the CDs, so even though this was a very small app in still consumed unecessary hd space). You can still use the 7.0 kernelcfg program or i can send you the newest and greates version (although it hardly changed, so no real need here). As to your various hardware parts: Winmodems have always been a problem under Linux due to the proprietary drivers of the vendors (which we don't ship with RedHat, we are, after all, a Open Source company and stick to it as far as possible). The sound card might work, quite a few are supported, but without specific details i can't really answer this question ;). USB loudspeakers might still be a little problematic, depending on how well the speaker identifies itself. There is basically usb speaker support in Linux and our 2.4 kernel and hotplug should be able to find and configure it. Hope this answers most (if not all) of your questions.
Hi! OK, I see. About kernelcfg, maybe it should be left on the powertools CD. As a matter of fact, there is still an icon for it under KDE2 and this is slightly confusing. It was there under 7.0 and disappeared under 7.1 and I was wondering why. I would be interested to know where the last version is. It might help me anyway.... (even if I love kudzu for its simplicity (it works by itself...)) My winmodem is a : US Robotic. 56K Voice Win from 1998 connected (according to windows98) on Com2. I know winmodems are shit but I did not choose... :( The louspeakers are: Altec Lansing Multimedia USB Speakers ACS 495. The sound card is: TBS Montego. It seems that it does a basic Sound Blaster Emulation, it is a PCI card, as far as I understand what Windows 98 says... I would be very glad to get these devices working under Linux... The machine has been bought in Augusti 98... :(
OK, just checked a couple of HOWTO's and other pages, here the basic info: USR Winmodem: There doesn't seem to exist a Linux driver for it at all, at least not from what i could find. Also, the USR Winmodem came in 20-30 different releases and revisions... There are not drivers available from 3com (which bought USR some time ago), so you might be OOL here. The ACS 495 USB speakers are on the list of not working speakers on the www.linux-usb.org page, although some other models of Altec are supposed to work. You might want to get in contact with the guy developing the drivers, just hop to the linux-usb site and ask him. Last but not least he TBS Montego card seems to have suffered the same problem as Turtle Beach didn't want to release specs. OSS seesm to have a Beta driver, but you have to buy them (no free software here). Officially (according to the Hardware HOWTO) it is not supported, so probably no ALSA (free) driver here either. Sorry for all that rather dissapointing information, but tell the companies involved to do something about it, don't blame it on Linux... Read ya, Phil
OK. Bad luck for me.... Thanks for having checked. Daniel