So I'm relatively new to Linux and have been test-installing several different distros...it seems that every single one HATES my Aureal Vortex 1 soundcard...most of the other distros wouldn't even recognize that I even had a soundcard...

On to my question - so after GRUB starts booting KDE for Mandrake 10.0, it always gets hung up on the soundcard-related drivers...it hangs at the point where it says something about "booting ALSA 1.0.2c" (or something similar)...it does the same thing if I skip that step and allow it to boot a 'sound device'...as far as I know, it's attempting to run the au2880 driver...if I skip all these bootup sound steps, my computer works great! Unfortunately, I really need my soundcard...

Like I said, I'm a linux n00b, so if I haven't given enough information, please tell me what else I should submit, and how to use linux to get that info...thank you all very much!

Ok, so the alsa projects site says there is a bugfix for some sort of 'initialization' hang up problem...now it's time for me to learn how to upgrade! thanks anyway