virtualbox.org

XP guest audio using Linux host used to work when installed using full version of XP.

Recently I created slipstreamed XP SP3 using nLite and installed as guest OS, and now I find that the audio doesn't work since ac97 driver is not detected/included in the slipstreamed cdrom.

I also see in log file that Audio pulse has a permission problem.

I still have full XP running in the same virtualbox, and it has audio working using pulseaudio + ac97 device in the same host, so this proves my linux host is working fine.

I tried accessing original XP cdrom to install ac97 driver but XP doesn't see any. I also downloaded a few ac97 drivers but that didn't work.

Is there any way to extract ac97 driver installation from original XP cdrom? Will that work in SP3?

Use a full install instead of this crippleware.

You will find several threads where other things are failing like network etc.

This is not a VirtualBox Problem, its a cripplewareinstallproblem.

stefan.becker wrote:Use a full install instead of this crippleware.

You will find several threads where other things are failing like network etc.

This is not a VirtualBox Problem, its a cripplewareinstallproblem.

He only slipstreamed SP3 to the install files, no crippleware after that. What do you have against nLite?

Kyuso, you might have removed a few things that are needed. If you haven't touched the other features of nLite, besides slipstreaming, then I have no idea what the problem is. I have created several SP3 images and modified them plenty of times for my VMs and they always install the driver. It's possible that there is no audio device in the VM because of the PA error. Have you tried to use ALSA instead of Pulse? I use ALSA and it works just fine. It does have a bad audio quality and cracks all the time, but that is because I use the same VM on two systems, one with ALSA only, and one that has PA.

Now you haven't specified which distro you use, but for Ubuntu, the PulseAudio config it ships by default it not a very good one. Please check the forum for a better config.

Thank you for the info. You are right that nLite didn't include one crucial driver, intel ac97.

And there was no way to install it from original cdrom.

Luckily, I still had the full XP version and was able to track down what files are needed for intel ac97. I found that c:\windows\inf\wdmaudio.inf was a good starting point, and also the driver details button in the properties of the audio controller in hardware device manager showed all the necessary files. I copied all the files from full XP and use them in nLite version. It did ask for one file that was already there, so I just selected it anyway and it continued on.

I also found that the network driver was included in the VirtualBox GuestAdditions cd image, so I installed it from there.

I'm very satisfied now since everything is working as before, and now I have 500MB os image for XP rather than 2GB.

Thank you all again.

You can always just download the ac97 driver pack from realtek since they own it ..

http://www.realtek.com/downloads/downlo ... Down=false

The realtek drivers seems to cause BSOD in portcls.sys, atleast they do for me

I also tried Via Vinyl AC97 drivers, but that results in severe noise and no good sound!

I tried sigmatel ac97 drivers, they _almost_ work. Sound is sort-of delayed and choppy.

I finally found a solution:

http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=32945

The files are here if you don't want to register over there:

http://sandos.se/~sandos/driver.zip

Brilliant Sandos! That worked awesomely!

"Use a full install instead of this crippleware."
@stefan.becker:
I don't think that should be dismissed so crudely. A lot of people who run virtualisation software want a lightweight system as a guest so it's not hogging all the disk space / resources. It sucks that a lot of people doing this "crippleware" strip AC97 from the system though since it's only one of the most popular audio standards around :/

I have the same problem but I am using XP64 and need ALCWDM64.SYS which is not in this pack.
Any help will be appreciated.

Lockheed wrote:I have the same problem but I am using XP64 and need ALCWDM64.SYS which is not in this pack.
Any help will be appreciated.

The driver is the 32 bit version, in case you didn't figure it out. As is stated dozens of times above, the driver is shipped with XP unless you removed the audio drivers yourself. Else, go to the realtek site (www.realtek.com.tw) and grab the 64 bit version of the AC'97 driver, if they even have it. Else a Windows Update might reveal them.

Sasquatch wrote:The driver is the 32 bit version, in case you didn't figure it out. As is stated dozens of times above, the driver is shipped with XP unless you removed the audio drivers yourself. Else, go to the realtek site (http://www.realtek.com.tw) and grab the 64 bit version of the AC'97 driver, if they even have it. Else a Windows Update might reveal them.

Duh? I wouldn't post here if the driver would work with 64.
1. Of course I removed the driver from windows cd. Otherwise, I would not post here.
2. Realtek driver causes BSOD during installation so that's a no-go.
3. Windows Update does not detect it.

Lockheed wrote:

Sasquatch wrote:The driver is the 32 bit version, in case you didn't figure it out. As is stated dozens of times above, the driver is shipped with XP unless you removed the audio drivers yourself. Else, go to the realtek site (http://www.realtek.com.tw) and grab the 64 bit version of the AC'97 driver, if they even have it. Else a Windows Update might reveal them.

Duh? I wouldn't post here if the driver would work with 64.
1. Of course I removed the driver from windows cd. Otherwise, I would not post here.
2. Realtek driver causes BSOD during installation so that's a no-go.
3. Windows Update does not detect it.

In that case, we can't and won't help you any further. You removed it yourself, so don't come crying here if it doesn't work as it's designed to. Any feature you remove is at your own risk. The unmodified XP x64 has the driver that works, install that.

I have not shed any tear as of yet.
Since someone provided stand-alone driver for xp32 in this thread, I was simply asking whether there is one for xp64.

And I said that there is, but you report that they case BSODs. That is the same I've heard with the 32 bit drivers in some cases. Instead of being so stubborn, and waste both our time, install a non-modified version of XP x64 in a VM.