Yeah, I disabled it in the BIOS & now alsa doesn't know anything about it.

But, when I just run alsaconf (as root, of course), I still get these messages about unknown symbols
& unknown parameters when it tries to insert the driver. Essentially, it fails & alsactl thinks I haven't got a soundcard......

Go here,

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kern...rusty/modules/

download a version 3.0 tar or bz2.

Unzip to a convenient directory.

VERY IMPORTANT read the README and follow instructions for installing to /sbin

Kernel 2.6 has issues with old versions of modprobe...this package contains new versions and should deal with those unknown symbol errors.

I downloaded the following:
module-init-tools-3.0.tar.gz

uncompressed it to a tmp directory where it made a
module-init-tools-3.0/

directory. I printed the readme & installed it to /sbin:
[ros@localhost module-init-tools-3.0]$ ./configure --prefix=/
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking target system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
configure: Adding gcc options: -g -O2 -Wunused -Wall
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: executing depfiles commands
[ros@localhost module-init-tools-3.0]$

which I presume was successful.

make moveold informed me that the modules had already been renamed.

Then as su I went to build it:

[root@localhost module-init-tools-3.0]# make
....
....
....
gcc -g -O2 -Wunused -Wall -o modinfo modinfo.o zlibsupport.o
gcc -g -O2 -Wunused -Wall -o insmod.static -static insmod.o
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lc
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [insmod.static] Error 1
[root@localhost module-init-tools-3.0]#

I guess that failed...

That ld -lc indicates a linker error which is beyond my ken to diagnose. However, we can get round that by using a pre-compiled binary to do the same job.
Download this>>>>

Dumb dumb dumb...for soem reason i gave you slackware instructions..d'oh

Getting the mandrake one for you now.

Note that post #34 was edited with additional info

Go here,

ftp://fr2.rpmfind.net/linux/Mandrake...-1mdk.i586.rpm

and accept the download.

This one is in rpm form designed for Mandrake so you should be able to install it by clicking on the downloaded file.

Once it's in (please, please, please no errors), reboot and go through the alsaconf etc routine again.

I couldn't download that file cos I didn' t have access permission or something,
so I searched with google and found another location of exactly the same file,
which I downloaded. When I went to install it on the command line as root, I got
a little message telling me that it was already installed. However, when I queried the installed packaged, nothing came up and I couldn't uninstall it. So I forced it.

I typed the following:
[root@localhost ros]# rpm --force -ivh module-init-tools-3.0-1mdk.i586.rpm

and 100% of 1 package was installed.

then I typed alsaconf

and got that same old error again:

Loading driver...
Starting sound driver: snd-cmipci WARNING: Error inserting snd-mpu401-uart (/lib/modules/2.6.3-7mdk/kernel/sound/drivers/mpu401/snd-mpu401-uart.ko.gz): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
WARNING: Error inserting snd-mpu401-uart (/lib/modules/2.6.3-7mdk/kernel/sound/drivers/mpu401/snd-mpu401-uart.ko.gz): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
FATAL: Error inserting snd-cmipci (/lib/modules/2.6.3-7mdk/kernel/sound/pci/snd-cmipci.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
FATAL: Error running install command for snd-cmipci
done
Setting default volumes...

[1]+ Stopped alsaconf
[root@localhost ros]#

Did I miss somthing obvious? Did I buy that new soundcard in vain?

Your soundcard should work without problem with your linux distribution. That is a 'known'. The on-board sound has problems, that is also a 'known'.

The continued 'symbol' type errors have had me thinking for days about what could be wrong (I never get such errors)......

I think the problem lies with the way that Mandrake has installed the symlinks that point to the kernel sources.

Have a look in /usr/src using knoqueror. I remember you installing the kernel source earlier in this thread so you have the source okay BUT what about the symlink?
Look for a folder in italics named linux and right click on it.

Look at where it says Points To and it should list the folder of the source that you are using.....2.6.4 wasn't it?

If it's not there or it points to the wrong folder, change it and then run
Re-run your alsa package installation routine. etc.

If it is there then the best I can suggest is to backup your files and re-run your linux installation from a freshly downloaded installation CD set that natively uses the kernel you want to use.

It points to the right place, all right. I looked through dmesg a bit
more carefully after I rebooted and saw this line:

snd: no version for "struct_module" found: kernel tainted.
snd-mpu401-uart: disagrees about version of symbol snd_rawmidi_receive

I guess that's bad news, isn`t it. Does that mean I've got to reinstall everything because my kernal is tainted?

That means that I shall have to re-order the CDs cos I have a dial up connection and it would take a month of sundays to download everything.

However, sitting in my drawer are 2 disks containing slackware 10.0 that I haven't dared to try, a) in case it doesn't recognise my existing partitions & overwrites everything, eg XPpartition, which would upset the domestic harmony considerably & b)because if mandrake is "easy", just what is slackware going to be like?

Should I give it a go?

Oh yes...stick Slack 10 on ASAP.

B4 you do though, have a look at Shilo's How I Do It All Thread in the Slackware sub-conference. Very useful.

Slack doesn't come with a slick installation GUI but it is well within your grasp.

As you already have XP installed, Slack will recognise it and give you the option to leave it alone.

Lilo should be written to the MBR as then it over-writes XP's boot manager and everything works swimmingly.

I'd recomend leaving kernel 2.6.x alone and going with eth stock 2.4.x version (bare.i) as it is very stable.

Have the nvidia driver file (you use nvidia graphics?) somewhere handy on a CD or something...save you dowloading in on poxy 56k.

Good luck and see you on the other side :-)

So I'm more or less on the other side!

I've got sound so I can listen to the BEEB

I should have had enough courage to do this weeks ago - it would have saved me a fair amount of fiddling. But I'm sure Slackware has its own quirks, but I entertain high hopes of overcoming them.
My usb printer was detected all by itself, as was my monitor, but my german keyboard wasn't quite such plain sailing - I still have a key that refuses to work, and my mouse won't scroll.

But the biggest thing is how do I get it to stop? I've changed my /etc/rc.d/rc.4
so that kdm is used instead of gdm, and it unmounts everything fine, but then, just at the end, the power stays on.

thanks a bundle for all the help

wooohoooo

well done you :-)

Your PC doesn't power down automatically because Advanced Power Management (API) is not enabled by default.

I can't remember how to do it right now (it's just a lil module to be loaded) but I'll have a look l8rs for ya.

PS We should really continue this over in the Slack subconference - more chance of snagging a Slack guru.

Try modprobe apm. If that works, unncomment it in rc.modules.
good luck.

That'll be the fella, thx peace.

Your mouse will magically work if you edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to look like this....

The importnat bits being the IMPS/2 protocol and the ZAxis mapping bits. Obviously your Identifier bits might have differnet names. Edit, save, restart X and you should be scrolling happily.

I'd also recommend reading the FAQ post in the Slack sub-conf and following the instructions to bot to init 4 rather than init 3...makes things prettier at login and gives a nice friendly dragon to help you shut down/log off or reboot.

Your German keyboard key will just be a keymapping issue..favourite first stop would be SETTINGS->CONTROL CENTRE->REGIONAL&ACCESSIBILITY->KEYBOARD LAYOUT. Perhaps you have an International variant of the DE QWERTY? Or maybe something a little more advanced than a basic 104 key unit?

Glad to make a small contribution, you've done all the hard work here, cheers to ya mate.