Need some help on this one. Just put together a box using a Biostar NF61S board, which has a ALC861 integrated audio chipset. Setting up this card, MCC calls for the snd-hda-intel driver. Going through all the troubleshooting steps shows a boatload of errors. After some searching, I find this particular chipset is troublesome and after trying to download the realtek drivers and installing them I give up on it and install a PCI card that uses the CM8738 chipset. I've used this one before with no problems.

Still no sound. MCC shows the card is recognized and is using the snd-cmipci driver. The troubleshooting steps show:

root@desk ed]# modprobe snd-cmipci
WARNING: Error inserting snd_rawmidi (/lib/modules/2.6.17-13mdv/kernel/sound/core/snd-rawmidi.ko.gz): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
WARNING: Error inserting snd_mpu401_uart (/lib/modules/2.6.17-13mdv/kernel/sound/drivers/mpu401/snd-mpu401-uart.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
WARNING: Error inserting snd_hwdep (/lib/modules/2.6.17-13mdv/kernel/sound/core/snd-hwdep.ko.gz): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
WARNING: Error inserting snd_timer (/lib/modules/2.6.17-13mdv/kernel/sound/core/snd-timer.ko.gz): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
WARNING: Error inserting snd_opl3_lib (/lib/modules/2.6.17-13mdv/kernel/sound/drivers/opl3/snd-opl3-lib.ko.gz): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
WARNING: Error inserting snd_pcm (/lib/modules/2.6.17-13mdv/kernel/sound/core/snd-pcm.ko.gz): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
WARNING: Error inserting snd_rawmidi (/lib/modules/2.6.17-13mdv/kernel/sound/core/snd-rawmidi.ko.gz): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
WARNING: Error inserting snd_mpu401_uart (/lib/modules/2.6.17-13mdv/kernel/sound/drivers/mpu401/snd-mpu401-uart.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
WARNING: Error inserting snd_hwdep (/lib/modules/2.6.17-13mdv/kernel/sound/core/snd-hwdep.ko.gz): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
WARNING: Error inserting snd_timer (/lib/modules/2.6.17-13mdv/kernel/sound/core/snd-timer.ko.gz): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
WARNING: Error inserting snd_opl3_lib (/lib/modules/2.6.17-13mdv/kernel/sound/drivers/opl3/snd-opl3-lib.ko.gz): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
WARNING: Error inserting snd_pcm (/lib/modules/2.6.17-13mdv/kernel/sound/core/snd-pcm.ko.gz): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
FATAL: Error inserting snd_cmipci (/lib/modules/2.6.17-13mdv/kernel/sound/pci/snd-cmipci.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
FATAL: Error running install command for snd_cmipci

The output from dmesg was:
snd_cmipci: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_new
snd_cmipci: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_lib_preallocate_pages_for_all
snd_cmipci: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_hw_constraint_minmax
snd_cmipci: Unknown symbol snd_opl3_create
snd_cmipci: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_lib_malloc_pages
snd_cmipci: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_lib_ioctl
snd_cmipci: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_lib_free_pages
snd_cmipci: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_set_ops
snd_cmipci: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_hw_constraint_list
snd_cmipci: Unknown symbol snd_mpu401_uart_interrupt
snd_cmipci: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_suspend_all
snd_cmipci: Unknown symbol snd_mpu401_uart_new
snd_cmipci: Unknown symbol snd_opl3_hwdep_new
snd_cmipci: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_period_elapsed
snd_cmipci: Unknown symbol snd_pcm_format_width

I tried switching to the OSS driver, (cmpci), but I get a FATAL error, module not present when I try to load it. Any help would be appreciated.

For the purposes of this issue, I will presume you are using KDE (the default Mandriva desktop environment). First things first. Since I do not know your level of expertise, we will start with the simple things.

Check that sound is enabled in KDE. Open the KDE Control Center (System > Configuration > Control Center in the menu system), expand Sound & Multimedia in the navigation tree (left) and select Sound System. Enable the sound system should be ticked.

Check that sound is not muted. If Kmix is not running, start it (Multimedia > Sound > Kmix in the menu system). If there is a hash mark through the speaker icon in the system tray (near the clock), click the icon and click the dark green radio button above the volume slider to un-mute sound. Also check that volume is not off.

If sound is enabled and not muted, open MCC (System > Configuration > Configure your computer in the menu system). Select Hardware in the navigation list (left). Open the look at and configure the hardware icon in the main pane. When you select your sound card in the left pane, you should see its configuration information in the right pane as well as a Run config tool bar near the bottom of the pane. Run the config tool to set up your sound card. MCC may ask to install additional software. If it does, let it do so.

If you have already tried all this, the last thing I can think of is to move the sound card to another pci slot. Changing card location can change resource allocation, and eliminate a possible resource conflict. Admittedly, this is a grasping at straws measure, but it has worked for me in the past.

HTH,

Well, I had tried most of that. I went ahead and tried moving the card with the same results. Maybe someone knows of a good guide for sound setup?

Just a follow-up note. I ended up doing a reinstall and the new card was working after that. It's a shame we couldn't get an answer as to how to fix it without having to reinstall.