[PlanetCCRMA] network support in the low lat. kernel

[Fernando Pablo Lopez-Lezcano]

> I had some troubles though:  After using the low lat kernel, it seems I 
> couldn't get online anymore.  I could browse samba shares on the LAN, 
> but couldn't find any servers with ping or anyhting ("unknown host 
> name").  Even when I rebooted with my original kernel  I had the 
> problem.  I had to reinstall everything...

It would seem that there was a configuration problem in the network
setup. You mention the LAN and I assume that means a network interface,
do you use the same connection to access the internet? Or a different
one?

If it is the same connection the fact that you are able to access samba
shares through it means the driver is loaded and the interface properly
configured. So it would seem you were having problems with name
resolution. To confirm that you could try pinging to a numerical address
instead of the computer's name. If you can ping then the problem is name
resolution (ie: translation of names to ip addresses). Are you getting
your ip address through dhcp? From where? Check the contents of
/etc/resolv.conf, it should contain the name of the name server you
should be using. 

> Second problem (not so important - I imagine its because of my suxy 
> hardware) is that the sound using programs (audacity in particular) will 
> occasionally while playing back sound make a loud "scribbly" noise and 
> hang for a while.  Why is this? 

It would seem you are describing an underrun but I can't be sure. The
system is not able to deliver samples to the soundcard in time and there
is a gap in the sound, most of the time accompained with clicks at the
beginning and end of the gap. Check that you have low latency turned on
(see instructions in the Planet CCRMA pages on optimizing for low
latency) and that the disk is optimized (at least using dma). When you
say "hangs for a while", how long is that? A fraction of a second?

> Also when recording in audacity, with 
> simultaneous playback of previously recorded tracks, everything thats 
> recorded has a really looooow tone (timing ok thoug).

Low tone means transposed down and lasting longer than the original (as
if you were turning down the speed of a tape recorder?)

> My setup:  fujitsu-siemens lifebook s-4510, cpu: pentium II 450 MHz, 128 
> sdram, soundcard: intel 810 ac97 (I know - its embarrasing), RedHat 9

Sounds ok to me. 
-- Fernando