End User Info

(N.B.: FAQ coming soon.)

What is Uniaud?

Uniaud is a generic audio device driver which derives some of its functionality from the Linux ​ALSA Project. Uniaud supports a broad range of PCI audio cards and chipsets including but not limited to ​AC'97 and High Definition (​HDA) ​audio codecs. It also supports at least one ISA sound card. In fact, Uniaud supports most audio chipsets on the market.

Card Selection

If you don't already have an audio card, or you are shopping for a system board with onboard audio, you should review our Supported Hardware Matrix.

Generally, current (new, off-the-shelf, 4th quarter, 2008) audio cards come in two basic flavors: ​HDA and ​AC'97. HDA (High Definition Audio) is a newer spec defined by Intel in 2004 which specifically brings the ability of more sound channels at higher quality than previously available. Naturally, this new functionality requires newer hardware and software support. The Uniaud Project is making great strides to support this newer specification, but there is still much work to be done.

Non-HDA hardware in recent years has made use of the AC'97 codec developed by ​Intel Architecture Labs in 1997. Uniaud has fairly good support for AC'97 devices.

Pre-AC'97 cards are also generally supported, including at least one ISA card. If you have an older system with 16-bit ISA slots, or a newer one which does indeed have one, Uniaud may just work for you.

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy SE cards seem to present their own set of problems for Uniaud and under Linux, for ​ALSA (on which much of Uniaud is based). If you would like to help with the debugging effort on this hardware, then please feel free. Just be warned that you may be in for a bumpy ride before getting pleasant tones to your ears. (Note that the original Audigy cards are fairly well supported.)

So, for brand new cards, and in order of ease of use, one would likely choose:

1. AC'97 based devices
2. HDA based devices or Sound Blaster Audigy SE (the latter is probably less likely to result in a system hang, but more likely to currently result in no sound)

Driver Selection

Once you decide on hardware, you essentially have two tracks to take for Uniaud (there may indeed be a vendor-supplied driver for your hardware, but right now, we are addressing the use of Uniaud):

1. A non-HDA build of Uniaud, currently at the 1.1.4 RC6 level, and available ​here, or
2. The above overlaid with the latest (experimental) HDA-enabled uniaud32.sys, currently at the 1.9.6 level (see Versioning Info for more details), which is available ​here.

Basic Installation: Common

Uniaud installs using the built-in multimedia installer in OS/2 or eComStation. Therefor, once you have downloaded the file(s) mentioned above, simply unzip the 1.1.4 package to a safe place and run install.cmd from that directory. This will launch the multimedia installer and guide you through the process.

If you are not installing support for an HDA card, then simply reboot at the end of the installation; you are likely done (restarting the desktop will not suffice, as the driver needs to be loaded from CONFIG.SYS). If you are installing HDA support, then one file must be overlaid (see the next section for details). DO NOT REBOOT FOLLOWING THE INITIAL INSTALLATION.

Installing HDA Support

To provide HDA support, you should download the (experimental) HDA-enabled uniaud32.sys as mentioned above. Unzip the distribution to a safe location, peruse the readme, and copy uniaud32.sys on top of the one previously installed in your \MMOS2 directory. Once this is done, as an added precaution, you may want to disable system sounds (these have been known to cause hangs as the desktop comes up, presumably due to the overlapping of them as one event follows quickly after the other). Shut down and reboot (the driver must be loaded from CONFIG.SYS, so merely restarting the desktop will not produce the desired effect).

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting steps, including hints, tips, and tricks, will be coming soon, and will be located on a [Troubleshooting dedicated page]. Meanwhile, you might want to check out our debugging hints.

Testing

What and how to test will be outlined on an upcoming page.

Bug Reporting

Besides the ​Uniaud Users Mailing List and its associated ​Uniaud Users Newsgroup, you may find the need to simply open a bug. Follow the procedures outlined in Submitting Tickets on the main Uniaud Trac Wiki page.

Please note: Submitting a bug is not the equivalent of opening a support ticket with Serenity Systems, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, or any other commercial software vendor. The Uniaud Project is essentially a volunteer effort, and we all have other things to do to pay our monthly bills. However, every effort will be made to give your issue the utmost consideration, and certainly, issues which affect the largest group(s) of users will likely receive a higher priority than a minor issue impacting one or two people (who might be better served by simply replacing their hardware with something better supported).