it was a pci soundcard

alsaconf picked it up fine, then failed to install it again!

anyway, im downloading the kernel now

I found something interesting on another thread... http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...5&pagenumber=4. The important part is the /etc/modules.conf contents... mine has nothing like this in it, so this is why I missed it... If the following lines are not there, add them to the file:

alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0


The first line is absent in my /etc/modules.conf. See if you have it. If you don't put it there, then retry "mknod /dev/dsp b 14 0".

new kernel installed, but it lacked hardware support for a lot of other devices such as my wifi device and graphics, so im back on 2.6.3-7 now!
Does FC2 support ATI radeons?

I may change to fedora if i cant get sound working in mandrake at all!

There should be some drivers from ATI... dunno 4 sure... I'm using GeForces

would disabling ALSA in the kernel work maybe?

EDIT: if i did disable alsa, what would i have to use to config oss?

It might help. You'd then be using OSS for output. OSS is also market DEPRECATED in the kernel . There are some pointers in the thread i linked. Check this out... It's alsa site's section for Cmedia 8738: http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc...&module=cmipci

ill try installing using those instructions, otherwise ill recompile the kernel without alsa support. Will probably mess it up completely!

I don't know if that would help. Better disable than recompile. The doc says what you have to insert for OSS. Just make sure the lines in the Alsa are not in your /etc/modules.conf

# ALSA portion
# alias char-major-116 snd
# alias snd-card-0 snd-cmipci
# module options should go here

# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

# card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss


Notice the comments on the ALSA section. This is untested. Harddrake2 can help you slect the driver. I believe the snd-cmipci is from alsa and cmipci is from OSS. You can change the driver from harddrake2...

ok then tha ALSA config has failed, again!

So I will disable all the alsa settings tomorrow and try out oss

I had similar problems as you trying to get ALSA to work on my integrated ICH5 sound (Intel D865PERLK motherboard with and onboard Analog Devices AD1985 chip). After spending about a day scratching my head, installing/re-installing ALSA drivers, mod-probing, etc., I decided to use OSS which got the integrated sound finally working in Mandrake 10.

I initially encountered skipping and crashing when playing MP3s but this went away after I set Sound Quality to use "Full Duplex", 16 bits (high) under Sound in KDE's configuration applet.. I also selected "Run with the highest possible priority" option.

FWIW, I also installed aRts after I did a fresh re-install of Mandrake and selected XMMS to use aRts (Output Plugin). This allowed me to hear multiple audio streams at the same time (XMMS, noAutun, KDE system sounds, etc.).

Note that I had to disable ALSA from running at boot time.

cyclo

ok then, how do I fully disable/remove ALSA?

I removed all the entries from /etc/modules.conf and modprobe.conf. Still no sound, so what else do I have to remove?

I did not remove alsa, I just disabled it from starting up... on Mandrake control panel > System > Services.

I then unchecked start on boot.

You might have to start with a fresh install as I did because I think I messed up my sound configurations during the compile / install of Alsa drivers from Intel, and from Alsa. Setting up the OSS drivers also required some trial and error. I think I had to select and run some of the options on the applet that comes up after running the OSS installer.

If you decide to re-install Mandrake 10, when you get to the point where you need to setup the hard disk, do not re-format the /home partition so most of your settings plus files (e-mail, etc.) will remain intact.

What a pain in the rear... I was almost about to give up and buy and Audigy2 until I tried OSS. I had no problems with onboard sound on my other PC (nForce2 motherboard) when I installed Mandrake 9.2 on it last year.

You might also want to check this link. Apparently some folks were able to configure the Intel onboard sound using Alsa. I must have missed a step or something but I don't want to spend another half a day or so doing trial and errors... I am perfectly satisfied with the sound through the OSS drivers.

cyclo

I'd given up this morning and installed RH9 again! But Mandrake supports my graphics card aswell, so I'll try that again this afternoon.

ALSA is disabled and I am using the OSS sound driver, yet i am still getting /dev/dsp errors does this mean its still looking for the alsa modules?

While you were installing OSS, did you play with the options available on the applet that popped up? The default is to accept and save the changes but there are other options which you can select and run such as testing the oss sound if it works. I believe one of options was to set up configurations that might have fixed that problem.

I also recall having encountered that dev/dsp error but it went away after fiddling with OSS and AFTER reinstalling Mandrake 10. You can repeat the install of the OSS modules if you want (./oss-install) and play with the options in the applet. I had to do this twice or thrice until I finally got the sound coming out of the speakers.

Also on the KDE control Panel, under sound, don't forget to select OSS instead of ALSA plus the options I outlined in my other post above.

As I said, it can be a pain in the rear to get integrated sound working in Mandrake 10 for some of us.

cyclo