Solaris 8 x86 and Creative Sound Blaster 16 (CT2230) \ VOGONS

Solaris 8 x86 and Creative Sound Blaster 16 (CT2230)

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First post, by unix_junkie

Posted on 2021-04-14, 11:42

unix_junkie Offline

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Hi everyone.

I'm trying to set up a non-PnP ISA CT2230 board under Solaris 8. All the jumpers are in their default positions (IRQ 5, IO address 0x220, 8-bit DMA channel 1, 16-bit DMA channel 5):

The attachment sb16_ct2230.jpg is no longer available

The sound card proved 100% operational and capable of playing 16-bit PCM samples under a modern Linux as well as Windows 2000 (I had to previously dedicate IRQ5 to Legacy ISA in BIOS, which is Award 6.00PG).

Technically, Solaris 8 supports Sound Blaster 16 and clones using the sbpro driver:

The Device Configuration Assistant (DCA), which is effectively the DOS kernel running in real-mode, mis-detected my board as "ADS Sound Blaster" (Analog Devices ADS7180), most probably because the card is non-PnP, and ADS7180 is just the 1st matching line in /boot/solaris/devicedb/master:

1ADS7180 sbpro oth all sbpro.bef "ADS Sound Blaster"

prtconf -p:

1        Node 0x194b08
2            compatible: 'ADS7180'
3            dma-channels:  00000001.00000005
4            interrupts:  00000005
5            model:  'ADS Sound Blaster'
6            name:  'sbpro'
7            reg:  00000001.00000220.00000014.00000001.00000388.00000004.00000001.00000330.00000002
8            unit-address:  '1,220'

prtconf -D:

1        sbpro, instance #0 (driver name: sbpro)
2            Driver properties:
3                name <chosen-interrupt> length <8>
4                    value <0x050000006e660000>.
5            Register Specifications:
6                Bus Type=0x1, Address=0x220, Size=0x14
7                Bus Type=0x1, Address=0x388, Size=0x4
8                Bus Type=0x1, Address=0x330, Size=0x2
9            Interrupt Specifications:
10                Interrupt Priority=0x5 (ipl 5), vector=0x5 (5)

Now, the problem.

Despite /dev/audio and /dev/audioctl devices got created just fine and, judging from the prtconf -D output, the sbpro driver got attached to the device, I'm only able to send an 8-bit PCM data to the card. This means that, for example, XMMS must be told to programmatically "downsample" the data (from 16-bit to 8-bit PCM) before sending it to the hardware, slightly increasing CPU usage and greatly reducing sound quality (rendering the card useless for MP3 playback), while other applications simply produce no sound (they simply block while trying to play anything).

I tried to install the OSS package ([1], [2]), but out of the 3 versions tested (3.9.8b, 3.99.4e, and 4.2-2004), only version 3.99.4e proved to be working (tested with the on-board C-Media CMI8738), and that very OSS version literally crashes my system when trying to set up the SB16 ISA card in question (it warmed my heart when, during the next boot time, Solaris told me it was saving the kernel crash dump under /var/crash).

Besides, OSS and Sun Audio are two separate hardware interfaces and, since CDE and OpenWindows applications only work with Sun Audio, I'd rather stick with this HW interface -- this is the reason I haven't ordered an OSS license yet.

Solaris' mixerctl produces the following output:

mixerctl -i -v

1Device /dev/audioctl:
2  Name    = SUNW,sb16
3  Version = 4.13
4  Config  = SB16
5
6/dev/audioctl doesn't support the audio mixer function
7Sample Rate
8  Play          8000
9  Record        8000
10Channels
11  Play          1
12  Record        1
13Precision
14  Play          8
15  Record        8
16Encoding
17  Play          1 (u-law)
18  Record        1 (u-law)
19Gain
20  Play          191
21  Record        191
22Balance
23  Play          32
24  Record        32
25Port
26  Play          0x00000002 (HDPHONE)
27  Record        0x00000004 (CD)
28Avail Ports
29  Play          0x00000002 (HDPHONE)
30  Record        0x00000007 (MIC|LINE|CD)
31Mod Ports
32  Play          0x00000002 (HDPHONE)
33  Record        0x00000007 (MIC|LINE|CD)
34Samples
35  Play          0
36  Record        0
37Active
38  Play          0
39  Record        0
40Pause
41  Play          0
42  Record        0
43Error
44  Play          0
45  Record        0
46EOF Count
47  Play          0
48Waiting
49  Play          0
50  Record        0
51Open
52  Play          0
53  Record        0
54HW Features             0x00000018
55  PLAY
56  RECORD
57SW Features             0x00000000
58SW Features Enabled     0x00000000

I also tried to diagnose my hardware using the javax.sound API, and it looks like the card (from the Solaris perspective) does support 16-bit sound:

Details

1/dev/audio (SB16), version 4.13
2        Name: /dev/audio (SB16)
3        Description: Direct Audio Device: Solaris Mixer
4        Vendor: SUNW,sb16
5        Version: 4.13
6        Source lines:
7                interface SourceDataLine supporting 8 audio formats, and buffers of at least 32 bytes
8                        PCM_SIGNED 44100.0 Hz, 16 bit, stereo, 4 bytes/frame, little-endian (default)
9                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 8 bit, mono, 1 bytes/frame, 
10                        PCM_UNSIGNED unknown sample rate, 8 bit, mono, 1 bytes/frame, 
11                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 16 bit, mono, 2 bytes/frame, little-endian
12                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 16 bit, mono, 2 bytes/frame, big-endian
13                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 8 bit, stereo, 2 bytes/frame, 
14                        PCM_UNSIGNED unknown sample rate, 8 bit, stereo, 2 bytes/frame, 
15                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 16 bit, stereo, 4 bytes/frame, little-endian
16                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 16 bit, stereo, 4 bytes/frame, big-endian
17                interface Clip supporting 8 audio formats, and buffers of at least 32 bytes
18                        PCM_SIGNED 44100.0 Hz, 16 bit, stereo, 4 bytes/frame, little-endian (default)
19                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 8 bit, mono, 1 bytes/frame, 
20                        PCM_UNSIGNED unknown sample rate, 8 bit, mono, 1 bytes/frame, 
21                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 16 bit, mono, 2 bytes/frame, little-endian
22                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 16 bit, mono, 2 bytes/frame, big-endian
23                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 8 bit, stereo, 2 bytes/frame, 
24                        PCM_UNSIGNED unknown sample rate, 8 bit, stereo, 2 bytes/frame, 
25                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 16 bit, stereo, 4 bytes/frame, little-endian
26                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 16 bit, stereo, 4 bytes/frame, big-endian
27        Target lines:
28                interface TargetDataLine supporting 8 audio formats, and buffers of at least 32 bytes
29                        PCM_SIGNED 44100.0 Hz, 16 bit, stereo, 4 bytes/frame, little-endian (default)
30                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 8 bit, mono, 1 bytes/frame, 
31                        PCM_UNSIGNED unknown sample rate, 8 bit, mono, 1 bytes/frame, 
32                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 16 bit, mono, 2 bytes/frame, little-endian
33                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 16 bit, mono, 2 bytes/frame, big-endian
34                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 8 bit, stereo, 2 bytes/frame, 
35                        PCM_UNSIGNED unknown sample rate, 8 bit, stereo, 2 bytes/frame, 
36                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 16 bit, stereo, 4 bytes/frame, little-endian
37                        PCM_SIGNED unknown sample rate, 16 bit, stereo, 4 bytes/frame, big-endian
38Port /dev/audio (SB16), version 4.13
39        Name: Port /dev/audio (SB16)
40        Description: Solaris Ports
41        Vendor: SUNW,sb16
42        Version: 4.13
43        Source lines:
44                MICROPHONE source port
45                LINE_IN source port
46                COMPACT_DISC source port
47        Target lines:
48                HEADPHONE target port

What else can I do in order to make my SB16 card work properly?

Update

I ended up buying an AWE64 (CT4380) card, it got successfully detected by Solaris and turned out capable of playing 16-bit sounds.

So I can consider my Solaris/x86 build complete.

Last edited by unix_junkie on 2021-04-25, 15:48. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 6, by Tiido

Posted on 2021-04-14, 12:20

Tiido Offline

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This SB16 and all other non-PnP ones have their IRQ and DMA set by software, and your driver must specifically be able to do it.

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Reply 2 of 6, by weedeewee

Posted on 2021-04-14, 12:22

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unix_junkie wrote on 2021-04-14, 11:42:

I'm trying to set up a non-PnP ISA CT2230 board under Solaris 8. All the jumpers are in their default positions (IRQ 5, IO address 0x220, 8-bit DMA channel 1, 16-bit DMA channel 5):

Ok, so the only thing you can actually set for the sound part side of that card is the base IO, which tends not to be a problem.
https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/sound-cards-mult … R-16-MCD-A.html

reg: 00000001.00000220.00000014.00000001.00000388.00000004.00000001.00000330.00000002
unit-address: '1,220'

This line doesn't inspire confidence about the exact IRQ and DMA being used by the driver.
I read this as it using
one of the IDE IRQ's (14 or 15) and possibly dma 1 for the base IO at 220,
IRQ 4 for the FM synth at IO 388 and
IRQ 2 for the MPU part which is located at IO 330

I got hardly any experience with solaris so can't direct you where to solve it.

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Reply 3 of 6, by megatron-uk

Posted on 2021-04-14, 14:37

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I'm curious about your intended use (and platform) of Solaris 8 x86.

I've used Solaris (and previously SunOS) quite a bit, mainly on Sparc hardware, although a little bit of the later x86_64 kit from around the time Sun invested heavily in Opteron based systems (which were actually really nice machines). But it was never particularly great in terms of multimedia (I did some programming with the Open Sound System back in my University days - I wrote a multi-threaded voice-over-IP application way before Skype or H263 protocols were ever a thing, but this was on on Linux and Unixware as well as the DMedia API on IRIX, iirc] ); just wondering what it is you're doing with it?

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Reply 4 of 6, by unix_junkie

Posted on 2021-04-16, 20:11

unix_junkie Offline

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Joined: 2020-06-29, 08:45
Location: Moscow, Russia

Tiido wrote on 2021-04-14, 12:20:

This SB16 and all other non-PnP ones have their IRQ and DMA set by software, and your driver must specifically be able to do it.

Thank you for your response.

In fact, this SB16 has its IRQ initially assigned by BIOS, and I'm about to try and change the value from 5 to 2, 7 or 10, all of which are supported values, according to Sun Microsystems.

I can also change the audio I/O address to 0x240, 0x260, 0x280 using jumpers.

If I'm not lucky with this board -- I have a PnP AWE64 (CT4380) which arrived just today. This latter card should work just fine.

Reply 5 of 6, by unix_junkie

Posted on 2021-04-16, 20:14

unix_junkie Offline

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weedeewee wrote on 2021-04-14, 12:22:

Ok, so the only thing you can actually set for the sound part side of that card is the base IO, which tends not to be a problem.
https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/sound-cards-mult … R-16-MCD-A.html

Thanks, that's what I'm about to do!

weedeewee wrote on 2021-04-14, 12:22:
This line doesn't inspire confidence about the exact IRQ and DMA being used by the driver. I read this as it using one of the I […]
Show full quote

This line doesn't inspire confidence about the exact IRQ and DMA being used by the driver.
I read this as it using
one of the IDE IRQ's (14 or 15) and possibly dma 1 for the base IO at 220,
IRQ 4 for the FM synth at IO 388 and
IRQ 2 for the MPU part which is located at IO 330

I've never thought of deciphering the (raw) output of prtconf -p, but prtconf -D (assuming the right driver is attached) already provides the same information unscrambled =)

Reply 6 of 6, by unix_junkie

Posted on 2021-04-16, 20:32

unix_junkie Offline

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Posts: 19
Joined: 2020-06-29, 08:45
Location: Moscow, Russia

megatron-uk wrote on 2021-04-14, 14:37:

I'm curious about your intended use (and platform) of Solaris 8 x86.

I've used Solaris (and previously SunOS) quite a bit, mainly on Sparc hardware, although a little bit of the later x86_64 kit from around the time Sun invested heavily in Opteron based systems (which were actually really nice machines). But it was never particularly great in terms of multimedia (I did some programming with the Open Sound System back in my University days - I wrote a multi-threaded voice-over-IP application way before Skype or H263 protocols were ever a thing, but this was on on Linux and Unixware as well as the DMedia API on IRIX, iirc] ); just wondering what it is you're doing with it?

This is actually a first-love-like thing =)

I've used Solaris 8 on SPARC hardware quite a bit -- in my University days, too.
The only difference I was doing Java programming, not C or C++.

And I fell in love with CDE, and Motif, and OpenWindows. Yes I know they're ugly, but still...
Apart from that, I have quite a bunch of Sun software to play with, incl. SunNet Manager to do some SNMP monitoring, and various versions of Forte Developer (some of them also include X-Designer).
Next, the Matrox G450 card plugged into my x86 hardware is capable of 1600x1200x32bpp resolution, and none of my SPARC machines can do the same, not even those with hi-end UPA graphics of the time. So this PC machine can serve as a decent terminal, while the noisy SPARC machines can be moved to the basement while being still accessible over the network.
Last but not least, hardware rottens when not in use, and I just have enough hardware to build another retro PC running Solaris/86, so why not?

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