Re: [Freedos-user] DOS Audio

[Adam Nielsen via Freedos-user]

> It currently has a Sound Blaster Audigy 4 PCI card. Unfortunately
> after a couple hours scouring the web, It seems that card only has
> Windows drivers. Has anyone been able to get one of them working
> under FreeDOS as a Sound Blaster compatible card?

The Sound Blaster Live (the one before the Audigy 1 series) was the
first Creative Labs card that was not hardware compatible with the
Sound Blaster series.  It did work through DOS but technically it
wasn't via drivers, it was via an emulator - a lot of things were
handled entirely in software, such as FM synthesis as the OPL-3 chip
was no longer present.  Consequently it was not compatible with a number
of older games.

> If not, do you know of any good Sound Baster compatible PCI cards?

Anything from Creative with a Vibra chip on it should work (noting that
there are both PCI and ISA versions), as well as anything with an
SB-Link connector (providing your motherboard also has one of these).
The Yamaha cards @Zbigniew mentioned are also good choices but they
fetch high prices these days.  I believe many Esoniq cards are
compatible but I have never looked into it.

The problem with PCI Sound Blaster compatibility is that the Sound
Blaster uses DMA channels but these are not available over the PCI bus,
with newer higher performance alternatives to DMA in use instead.  So
even PCI cards have to somehow emulate the lost DMA channel.  Some
cards use an SB-Link connector for this, but it requires a matching one
on your motherboard.  Some chipsets provide DDMA support instead of
SB-Link but again they will only work with a card that uses DDMA.

You'd have to check whether your motherboard has an SB-Link connector
or whether it supports DDMA before deciding which card to buy,
otherwise you won't be able to play digital audio and it will only
function as an early Ad Lib card with FM synthesis available only.

There's an article here that gives a good summary:

  http://www.retroisle.com/DOSDays/topics/pci_sound_cards_in_dos.php

Cheers,
Adam.


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Re: [Freedos-user] DOS Audio

[Michał Dec]

Hi,

Sorry, but you're outta luck unless you write your own driver. Cards 
from Audigy 2 and above never received this kind of care and support.


Your best bet would be to actually not use a PCI card at all and instead 
use an ISA card. DOS games are designed specifically around ISA cards, 
as consumer grade PCI sound cards were not a thing until 1998.


Still, even if you use a PCI card with a driver that emulates an ISA 
device (this is not how Yamaha YMF724 works), you are still running the 
risk of breaking a lot of games. When I had my Vibra 128, I needed to 
have a memory manager loaded to start the driver. And when there was a 
memory manager, some games refused to start because they had memory issues.


If you get a Yamaha YMF724 like me, you're a little safer. It's a good 
compromise between compatibility and quality - you get a SoundBlaster 
Pro 1.0 and most games will work - all without the need for a memory 
manager. On the downside, your motherboard either needs to support 
Distributed DMA (in southbridge) or it needs to have a SBLink header 
which provides the missing pins that ISA has and PCI doesn't. Another 
downside is that you are at the mercy of the BIOS' whims if you can't 
manage DMA channel assignments. There are a few games like MDK and Micro 
Machines 2 that do not take it very well if your sound card is on DMA 0.


Best regards,

Michał

W dniu 07.03.2021 o 00:10, Jerome Shidel pisze:

Hi,


On Mar 6, 2021, at 6:03 PM, Joao Silva  wrote:


Hello.

Search the net and found a site regarding audigy card link 
 and hope that works for 
you.


I also have one in case and have the CD never used with  freedos.


Thanks. However, I was there earlier today. They are talking about an 
Audigy (1st Gen). They say that those drivers aren’t believed to work 
with an Audigy 2. Mine is an Audigy 4. I didn’t see anywhere that they 
got Audigy 2+ working. But, maybe there is another thread somewhere or 
some has done it with different (or later) drivers.


Thanks though.

:-)

Jerome


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Re: [Freedos-user] DOS Audio

[Jerome Shidel]

Hi,

> On Mar 6, 2021, at 6:03 PM, Joao Silva  wrote:
> 
> 
> Hello.
> 
> Search the net and found a site regarding audigy card link and hope that 
> works for you.
> 
> I also have one in case and have the CD never used with  freedos.

Thanks. However, I was there earlier today. They are talking about an Audigy 
(1st Gen). They say that those drivers aren’t believed to work with an Audigy 
2. Mine is an Audigy 4. I didn’t see anywhere that they got Audigy 2+ working. 
But, maybe there is another thread somewhere or some has done it with different 
(or later) drivers.

Thanks though.

:-)

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Re: [Freedos-user] DOS Audio

[Joao Silva]

Hello.

Search the net and found a site regarding audigy card link
 and hope that works for you.

I also have one in case and have the CD never used with  freedos.

On Sat, Mar 6, 2021 at 10:02 PM Jerome Shidel  wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> My Pentuim Pro machine is working great with FreeDOS. I even got
> networking up and running.
>
> Just one small issue… Sound.
>
> It currently has a Sound Blaster Audigy 4 PCI card. Unfortunately after a
> couple hours scouring the web, It seems that card only has Windows drivers.
> Has anyone been able to get one of them working under FreeDOS as a Sound
> Blaster compatible card?
>
> If not, do you know of any good Sound Baster compatible PCI cards?
>
> Thanks
>
> :-)
>
> Jerome
>
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Re: [Freedos-user] DOS Audio

[ZB]

On Sat, Mar 06, 2021 at 05:01:15PM -0500, Jerome Shidel wrote:

> If not, do you know of any good Sound Baster compatible PCI cards? 

The ones that use Yamaha YMF724/744 chips

 https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=48133

-- 
regards,
Zbigniew


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[Freedos-user] DOS Audio

[Jerome Shidel]

Hi everyone,

My Pentuim Pro machine is working great with FreeDOS. I even got networking up 
and running.

Just one small issue… Sound.

It currently has a Sound Blaster Audigy 4 PCI card. Unfortunately after a 
couple hours scouring the web, It seems that card only has Windows drivers. Has 
anyone been able to get one of them working under FreeDOS as a Sound Blaster 
compatible card?

If not, do you know of any good Sound Baster compatible PCI cards? 

Thanks

:-)

Jerome

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Re: [Freedos-user] FreeDos on Intel Atom and a TV

[Jerome Shidel]

> On Mar 6, 2021, at 9:41 AM, Pingüino Exe  wrote:
> 
> Hi
> Well, for starters, I don't even know if this is the right place to ask but 
> here goes nothing.
> 
> I got this tower that works with Intel Atom. To get the image and sound I 
> connected it to my tv, a samsung smart TV, vía VGA to HDMI. It works 
> wonderfully with Windows 10 (without taking into account how slow it is). But 
> when I tried to install FreeDos the image stopped transmitting. At first I 
> thought it was because I tried to boot it with an usb, but it happened just 
> the same when I tried with the standard CD-ROM version and the Legacy one, so 
> I don't know what to do.
> I checked some mailing list and it should work just fine
> I don't know if, maybe, I did something wrong when burning the cd or I need a 
> proper screen or, I just, don't know.
> 
> Thanks.

My first thought… Is it UEFI only? Or, maybe not in “legacy” BIOS compatibility 
mode.

I have an old ACER netbook with in Intel Atom. FreeDOS works great on it.

However, I also have an Intel Compute Stick. It has an Atom CPU. But, it is 
UEFI only. This made me very sad. Won’t boot (or even run) FreeDOS with out a 
“legacy” BIOS. 

Jerome



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Re: [Freedos-user] FreeDos on Intel Atom and a TV

[Michał Dec]

Hi,

FreeDOS should work over whatever video interface your GPU initializes. 
What might not work is that your storage controllers are working in AHCI 
mode instead of IDE. DOS in general predates AHCI by a long shot and 
FreeDOS currently does not support booting from or even supporting 
storage controllers operating in AHCI.


Best regards,

Michał Dec

W dniu 06.03.2021 o 15:41, Pingüino Exe pisze:

Hi
Well, for starters, I don't even know if this is the right place to 
ask but here goes nothing.


I got this tower that works with Intel Atom. To get the image and 
sound I connected it to my tv, a samsung smart TV, vía VGA to HDMI. It 
works wonderfully with Windows 10 (without taking into account how 
slow it is). But when I tried to install FreeDos the image stopped 
transmitting. At first I thought it was because I tried to boot it 
with an usb, but it happened just the same when I tried with the 
standard CD-ROM version and the Legacy one, so I don't know what to do.

I checked some mailing list and it should work just fine
I don't know if, maybe, I did something wrong when burning the cd or I 
need a proper screen or, I just, don't know.


Thanks.


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[Freedos-user] FreeDos on Intel Atom and a TV

[Pingüino Exe]

Hi
Well, for starters, I don't even know if this is the right place to ask but
here goes nothing.

I got this tower that works with Intel Atom. To get the image and sound I
connected it to my tv, a samsung smart TV, vía VGA to HDMI. It works
wonderfully with Windows 10 (without taking into account how slow it is).
But when I tried to install FreeDos the image stopped transmitting. At
first I thought it was because I tried to boot it with an usb, but it
happened just the same when I tried with the standard CD-ROM version and
the Legacy one, so I don't know what to do.
I checked some mailing list and it should work just fine
I don't know if, maybe, I did something wrong when burning the cd or I need
a proper screen or, I just, don't know.

Thanks.
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