ESS Maestro 3i SB Compatibility Mode under Linux

  1. First, install dosemu. You're on your own for this.

  2. Make a essaudio.dexe file (do this as root):

    1. start by making a zip file containing the Dell supplied ESS files, and move it to /var/lib/dosemu/dexe. The Dell supplied ESS files (essaudio.com, essaudio.ini) should be on the Dell support CD.
              zip essaudio.zip essaudio.com essaudio.ini
              cp essaudio.zip /var/lib/dosemu/dexe
       
    2. download the following configuration files:

    3. copy the configuration files to /var/lib/dosemu/dexe
              cp ess_dosemu.conf /var/lib/dosemu/dexe
              cp ess_config.sys /var/lib/dosemu/dexe
              cp ess_autoexec.bat /var/lib/dosemu/dexe 
       
    4. as root, make a dosemu executable file. The outputfile is written out to /var/lib/dosemu/essaudio.dexe
              cd /var/lib/dosemu/dexe
              ./mkdexe essaudio.zip \
                      -d ess_dosemu.conf \
                      -c ess_config.sys  \                      
                      -a ess_autoexec.bat
       
    5. you can now remove ess_dosemu.conf, ess_config.sys, ess_autoexec.bat, and essaudio.zip from /var/lib/dosemu/dexe

    6. make the following changes in /etc/dosemu.conf
              $_pci = (on)
              $_ports = "range 0xd800,0xd8ff range 0x220,0x22f range 0x388,0x38b range 0xcf8,0xcff"
              $_sound = (on)
       
    7. now you can put the ESS Maestro 3i into SB compatiblity mode with the following line
              dosexec essaudio
        
  3. setup sound for a Sound Blaster card. The instructions that follow are for redhat 6.2

    1. make sure you have the following either compiled into the kernel or available as modules (they should be available with the default kernel).
              100% Sound Blaster Compatibles
              Support for Yamaha OPL3
       
    2. run the sound configure program (note, these values are the most common, but your values may differ).
              /usr/sbin/sndconfig --noprobe                                 
      
      	pick "Sound Blaster Pro"
              I/O Port        0x220
              IRQ             5
              DMA 1           1
       
  4. audio should now be setup. Now to use audio after a reboot or waking up from a suspend, either type

           dosexec essaudio.dexe
     
    and to get sound to start up automatically at bootup and after resuming from a suspend, modify the following files:

    1. /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit:

      old:

      # Load sound modules
      #
      # I think this now qualifies as over-engineered.
      RETURN=0
      alias=`egrep -s "^alias[[:space:]]+sound[[:space:]]+" .....
      
      new: (3 additional lines)
      # Load sound modules
      #
      # I think this now qualifies as over-engineered.
      #NOT YET, let's add dosemu:
      echo "Activating sound card" 
      dosexec essaudio >/dev/null 2>/dev/null
      RETURN=0
      alias=`egrep -s "^alias[[:space:]]+sound[[:space:]]+" .....
      
         
    2. /etc/sysconfig/apm-scripts/apmscript:
      ....
          resume)
      #run my own init routine !
                        sh /etc/rc.d/rc.serial
      
       
    3. /etc/rc.d/rc.serial
      ....
      #activate sound card
      /usr/bin/dosexec essaudio < /dev/console > /dev/null 2>&1
      ....
       

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last modified 2000.7.27