Problem with sound in Linux.

I have just installed Slackware 9.1 and I am trying to get sound to work but I have no clue on what driver to load with modprobe. Is there any scripts or utilities that I can use to find put what kind of sound card I have? I know that seems dumb but it is embedded sound and I was wondering if it worked just like a regular PCI card. I also am fairly sure it is a creative card because of the chip I found when I opened my case up. I know this is probably a fairly simple problem to fix but I am a Linux newbie and i need some help ;).

If its embedded (onboard) sound, any drivers that are required for it will be on your mother board CD if you have one, if not check the manufacturers web site and see if you can downloads them.

With it not working in Linux though , it could be that the drivers are not compatible?
Again you may have to check with the manufacturer

Or, it may be disabled in your BIOS.

Go into your BIOS, usually by pressing delete or F2, it will tell you what to press when it starts up.

Have a look through your BIOS and try to find a setting to "Enable on board sound" or some thing with words to that effect!

It works simalar to a pci card execpt dont think it has an IRQ and it is obviously built in to your motherboard!

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If its embedded (onboard) sound, any drivers that are required for it will be on your mother board CD if you have one, if not check the manufacturers web site and see if you can downloads them.

With it not working in Linux though , it could be that the drivers are not compatible?

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Windows drivers != Linux drivers.

I would never EVER expect official drivers to ever work on both Windows and Linux, merely because we are talking about two completely different binary types. The Linux kernel supports a huge mass of drivers, including most creative sound cards, and with billions of opensource drivers created by code hackers for kernel modules. So you see, unless the maker actually supplies official linux drivers (rare are the times when linux doesn't have the drivers I already need (drivers == modules)) then you need to either enable support for it in the kernel (if it isn't already supported, default slack 9.1 kernel supports a ton right off the bat) or compile it as a module from code someone else created.

Complicated, but was primarly speaking to Nok on that :)


hobb:

1. What sound card? Be absolutley sure

After that, I can tell you how to enable the module, what module to enable, and how to set proper permissions on getting it to work.

It is enabled that was the first thing I checked ;). I also have the motherboard set for a non plug and play OS. That is right, right? Hmmm...do you think if I looked the model of my computer up on the Internet it might have the specs for what kind of sound card is embedded on the motherboard? After that is there anyway to find out which driver is need by Linux to make it work?Thanks for the help!

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I also have the motherboard set for a non plug and play OS.

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Linux is plug and play, make sure your motherboard is set for it ;)

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Hmmm...do you think if I looked the model of my computer up on the Internet it might have the specs for what kind of sound card is embedded on the motherboard?

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Don't see why it shouldn't be on the internet. The name isn't listed in the BIOS?

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After that is there anyway to find out which driver is need by Linux to make it work?Thanks for the help

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Dropline gnome uses ALSA as it's primary audio modules (drivers), and thus we would need to load the appropriate driver they coded for your sound card. You see, ALSA is a project in which they are going through massive amounts of soundcards and writing opensource modules for Linux users to use. It covers damn near hundreds of sound cards, and thus why the project is so popular. Once we find out what sound card it is, I will show you how to determain what sound module to load for it, and how to have it autoload on bootup.

Ahhh...I got it the sound card is a Soundblaster AudioPCI 64V chipset. Wow, you can find darn near anything on the net. :) I know you use modprobe to load it and I am pretty sure from the reading I have been doing it goes into the rc.local file right? I still have the hitch of not knowing what driver to use though. Thanks for all of the help so far pooh and you too Nokia.

Correct, you would have

/sbin/modprobe modulename in rc.local :)


http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc...-Creative_Labs

That is the url to view all creative lab (sound blaster) cards that are avalaible to the ALSA project.

Looks like the modulename would be ES1371 for Soundblaster Ensoniq AudioPCI. But, I don't know if that is the -exact- same. All we can do is try, and then move on from there. After you /sbin/modprobe ES1371 as su root in your terminal, also run these commands:

chmod 666 /dev/mixer*
chmod 666 /dev/snd*
chmod 666 /dev/snd/*
chgrp wheel /dev/mixer*
chgrp wheel /dev/snd*
chgrp wheel /dev/snd/*

And make sure your normal user is part of the wheel group (dropline gnome has a gui interface to do that, look for Users and Groups on the Gnomebar) Those will set permissions correctly for sound to work as a normal user in slackware 9.1 + dropline gnome.

I tried modprobe with es1371 and it failed. Is there a reason for this? Do I need to reboot my system after I change the permissions and the groups before I try modeprobe or should it work magically? I am sorry I am being a pain about a sound card but I feel so excited about getting everyhing to work on my system. It feels good, lol.

I got it to work! I looked on the site that you put up for Creative soundcards and I found the module snd-ens1371 and tried it and it worked, I also loaded soundcore. Is soundcore neccessary? Well I am gonna go add the stuff to rc.local now. Thank you guys for all your help, I am deeply greatful to you pooh for all your patience and help with everything!