I'm not sure exactly what you're hunting for, but I've got lots of old
sound cards (as well as other hardware, modems, video cards, and so
on) and would be more than willing to send you one for the cost of
shipping.
They're all sitting in my work shop, and I don't have enough computers
to put them in anyway.
Also, I've not tried looking at the source, but I see no reason why
the ac97 drivers from linux couldn't be ported back to dos as a
general sound driver, just add sb-compatible calls to it, and you
should be all set.
I'm no assembly expert, I have minimal experience with drivers, but I
have been coding for over 20 years, and generally, porting things is
largely a process of compile, see what's broke, find out how to fix
it, then repeat as necessary.
Of course, the devil is in the details.
How do you fix usb polling support on an os that has no usb support?
But, barring any unsurmountable hardware issues, software porting is
not all that difficult, just very very time consuming, it takes a lot
of research, until you get enough knowledge/feel for how things work
that you can plow through it, and even then, sometimes after putting
lots and lots of work into something you throw up your hands and toss
it all out, because it just can't be made to work in the current
constraints you're working under. But, given enough time, and
knowledge, I don't think porting the ac97 driver from linux would be
impossible.
On Feb 4, 2009, at 12:38 PM, Santiago Almenara wrote:
Thanks for all your answers.
From all your mail, I understood this:
There is not such thing as "VESA audio"
SoundBlasters, especially SB16, are the common "de facto" for DOS
system (I used to have an ISA one, so I won't be able to use it
anymore, besides I think my parents threw away my 1995 computer
after I moved).
Right now, there is not emulation software for it. (VDMsound is for
windows).
So I have three possibilities:
Use VMware or Dosbox.
Buy an old SoundBlaster 16 PCI card.
Start a project to make my card work under FreeDOS/MS-DOS.
1. I don't want to use emulation software. I want real 16-bit DOS.
That's why I started the thread in the first place.. Actually, it is
working very well with my old software. The only problem is that I
can't make sound work.
2. I've found in eBay some used SB16 PCI cards. I think I will find
the DOS drivers almost everwhere, except for the Creative driver
page. I am not trying to make it work under WinXP or Vista. They'll
be un-configured there. Do you think they will work with my 3-year-
old P4 system? Are old PCI slots compatible with the new ones?
3. I was thinking that a new project would be very interesting.
However, I have neither enough technnical skills nor enough money to
fund a new project. I know some programming, though. I could (a)
Adapt my sound card to FreeDOS. (b) Create an ALSA DOS-wrapper to
make to convert SB calls to sound cards calls.
Approach (b) has this PROS:
Wrapper performance issues won't be a problem because today PC's
should handle DOS programs very well.
ALSA's broader compatibility with sound cards. And they are always
adding new cards too!
ALSA (how software communicate with a sound card) and DOSbox (how
games & programs communicate with a SB card) are free so you can
start a new project using source code of both of them.
I don't have much time or enough technnical knowledge right now. But
I am sure all the information I need is out there on the net!
Regards,
Santiago
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