Sound System on cnmB00k?

[g3wyw]

Hi,
Great forum this, I've learnt a lot about Linux from it and especially for the Little Linux Laptop I have.

I would like some help on understanding the audio system on these boxes?

I've got a cnmBook from Maplins, and I want to use the sound system to create tones for learning morse code. There is a program called CW on the debian archive that is ideal. It has a library called unixcw that I have downloaded and unpacked successfully with the program as well.

When I run the program all I hear are clicks that are at the beginning and end of each dot or dash. They vary according to which character I send so I am sure the program is running OK. CW -h gives me a command summary.

The program has command options to select the sound card, console speaker as output device. The soundcard default is /dev/audio which is listed in the /dev directory of the LLL. I assume that this is a generic audio device and therefore should work. There is also a /dev/mixer command line option as well.
When i set the option -s /dev/audio the program responds "No such device"?
 
Any pointers to how to drive the audio system on the LLL appreciated. A tone generator program would be ideal but I couldnt find anything on the Debian mipsel depository. I have the GCC compiler running OK.

Many thanks in advance.

Paul

[wicknix]

What OS? As the sound system is slightly different in the default OS vs 3MX vs Debian.

Cheers

[g3wyw]

Hi wicknik,   

Thanks  for the reply.

Its the standard OS. I have used your 3MX and love it, but as this box has mostly been used for showing pics to family members, I preferred the standard OS.

Any pointers  to how to drive the audio system appreciated.

Paul

[wicknix]

If i remember correctly the defaultOS uses the esound daemon to handle sound (esd) which i believe used /dev/dsp. I didn't play with the defaultOS for more than 3 days before i started working on the first version of 3MX, so my memory of the defaultOS is faint. Not sure that's going to help you any.

The other problem is the defaultOS lacks a bunch of audio file libraries and audio players. If you're any good at light 'hacking' i'd suggest extract this debian etch mipsel package and its depends: sox (general purpose sound file player and libraries). I had to install that in order for xchat and pidgin to be able to play sounds. That might be all thats missing for your program to be able to play sounds properly.

Cheers.

[g3wyw]

Hi Wicknik,

Thanks for the reply. I'll google those pointers and look at SOX.

I've also found the HOWTO for sound and am reading that to see if that gives me some ideas as to how sound works under Linux.

Rgds Paul