Update 1 Beta question

[Scott Mertens]

On Fri, 2005-04-15 at 06:55 -0700, Mark Knecht wrote:
> On 4/15/05, Scott Mertens <smertens at mho.com> wrote:
> > I have been told by Redhat support that the drivers for my sound card
> > are not in my current release.  Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 4
> > (Nahant)
> > 
> > I was also told they were included in Update 1 Beta which would be
> > supported for one month if applied.  Hopefully by that time the official
> > release would be out. In looking at the website it looks like a complete
> > reinstall of Linux?  I might be wrong on this, but when I added myself
> > to the beta list it took me to a page to download ISO's.
> > 
> > My question is to apply this update, do I need to burn ISO's and do a
> > complete re-install of RHES?  Or is there another way?
> > 
> > When I installed I did not care about sound as this is a server in a
> > workgroup.  However I am being asked if I can put an answering maching
> > on this Linux box, Yes the old Real-to-Real tape finally broke after 20
> > years!  and of course first I have to get sound working to play back
> > messages.
> > 
> > To that end if anyone is aware of any RH software that will answer phone
> > and take messages, let me know.
> > 
> > Thanks
> 
> Scott,
>    It will be interesting to hear some of the more experienced Linux
> guys responses on this.
> 
>    Since the 2.6 kernels Alsa has been included in the kernel. I
> (speaking as an audio guy, not a RH guy or a sys admin / IT guy) would
> suggest you consider building your own kernel. This way you don't
> really change the guts of your system, you just put a new kernel and
> new modules along side the existing one. You can choose which one to
> run at boot time. If the new one works, then great. If not then you go
> back to what you are running right now and consider their update.

>    Granted, building a kernel is a bit daunting for a newbie, but it's
> one of those rights of passage that pretty much anyone working with
> Linux eventually goes through. If you have fairly straight forward
> hardware (x86, Intel or AMD,) no major issues with video performance
> and you're comfortable digging into understanding this a bit then it's
> a really great experience and fun when they boot and  you know more
> than you did before. If you're a hands off sort of guy then it's
> likely not for you.

It's a little frustrating because as a newbie, I sort of have to be led
by the hand when doing these types of things.  Just the other day I was
trying to find a file, and I found the man pages on "find" very
frustrating and hard to understand. I purchased a book on Linux, but it
had only a paragraph on find, and no examples.  Took me over an hour to
work out how to find a hidden file.  ie:  find ./ -name filename.  Good
thing is I won't forget it anytime soon.

I would venture to say that hands on is the way most people learn. It
would be too difficult to sit back and take notes and watch someone
else.
> 
>    In my experience this would be what I'd do in your case as it's
> exactly what I've done in my case. I do not use Redhat or Fedora
> kernels on any of my machines. My kernels come either from outside
> sources or built myself from code downloaded at http://www.kernel.org
> .
> 
>    So that you're not totally worried (it's good to be worried a
> little bit!) ;-) I'll report that I've been doing this for about 4-5
> years now and have NEVER hurt a machine by building my own kernel.
> there are only a couple of places that you need to be careful to not
> overwrite existing data. Other than that it's very simple now that we
> all use grub. (you do use grub, correct?)

How can I tell which boot loader I use?

> 
>    Anyway, that's my input. New kernel code will most certainly have
> your sound card software.
> 
>    There is a more complicated way you could approach this where you
> take the Redhat kernel source tree and patch it with your necessary
> Alsa stuff but for a newbie I would not suggest that path. I don't do
> it either.
> 
>    Good luck whatever you decide, and as I say, I'll be interested in
> other folks answers to this question.
> 
> Cheers,
> Mark
> 
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