| Linux Compatibility Check
The only way I know to check this, is to compile the different sound
drivers into the kernel and check whether they are detected or not. The
best way to do so, is to compile them as modules because it's easier to
load different parameters such as interrupts and IO ports this way. For the
2.2.x kernels, read
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/sound/Introduction
by Wade Hampton. This document may help you get started with
sound. Also, you might try one of the commercial sound drivers mentionend
below. To check whether sound works or not you may try e.g.
xmms and one of the sounds provided in
/usr/share/sounds.
ALSA
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
. The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture aims to: be a
fully-modularized sound driver which supports kerneld/kmod, ensure
compatibility with most binary OSS/Lite applications, create an
ALSA Library (C,C++) which covers the
ALSA Kernel API for applications, and create
ALSA Manager, an interactive configuration
program for the driver. With Kernel 2.6 these modules will
be part of the Linux Kernel.
UNIX Sound System Lite / OSS
provides commercial sound card drivers for most popular sound
cards under Linux. These drivers support digital audio, MIDI,
Synthesizers and mixers found on sound cards. These sound drivers
comply with the Open Sound System API specification. OSS provides
a user-friendly GUI which makes the installation of sound drivers
and configuration of sound cards very simple. OSS supports over
200 brand name sound cards. OSS drivers provide automatic sound
card detection, Plug-n-Play support, support for PCI audio
soundcards and support.
As a last resort you may try the speaker module
pcsnd, which tries to emulate a soundcard.
VXPocket
looks like a finally medium2high-end soundcard solution for
onboardwise badly equipped laptops. Note: I didn't check
whether this is a PCMCIA card or not.
PCMCIA sound cards are probably not
supported.
Also USB may be an alternative.
Most USB audio devices are supported by recent kernels.
An example is Labtec Axis 712 Stereo Headset (headphones
and microphone) which works in full-duplex mode.
For more info about this and other Linux-compatible USB
audio devices see the
USB Survey
and my
Mobile USB Linux Hardware Survey
.
|
