My PC Configuration [for reference] is
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intel 2.8 HT Processor + Intel 915 GAV Mother board
Geforce 6600 - 256 MB Graphics Card [ PCI Express ]
512 MB Kingston RAM
Seagate 80GB SATA Hard Drive
Creative Inspire 4.1 Speakers
Samsung 15' inch Monitor 55v
Cabinet with SMPS = 350W with 2 extra fans for cooling..
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Audio Driver installation for Intel High Definition Audio for the onboard Sound for Intel 915GAV MotherBoard [original] .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Initially i started off by looking at the Automatic Sound detection tools which get installed with the Fedora Core 3 installation.
It was invain.. The next thing i did was to download the
Intel HD Audio beta drivers from Intel's Official site
-- > http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/av/av_drive.htm#su91
The Drivers that i have used are Suse 9.1 drivers but they are working for Fedora Core 3
"aud_linux_1.5_beta.sh_2.gz".
Direct running of the shell script in the file would not help. it would just return sayin that no related devices are found..
So follow the pdf file given below for advanced installation where u have to extract the files and compile the files manually..
I have also downloaded the documentation file
"IntelReadme_HD_Audio_1.5_Beta.pdf"
which clearly explains the procedure which is lengthy ofcourse but it worked for me. It included Alsa drivers which is now shown in my xmms audio output plugins list.
u can do
lsmod | grep -i snd_azx
to check if ur driver is installed to find this entry .
Now the sound volumes can be tweaked by the
"alsamixer"
utility from the console..
What i was still not able to reason out is xmms plays only when i use the arts output plugin and says my sound is being used by some other device when i select the Alsa out put plugin [configured now for Intel HDA ]. But the Sounds edited by the alsamixer are reflected here though we are using the artsoutput codec..
so there it goes the sound worked after a restart.. [though alsamixer was giving some error(some device not ready) before i restarted]
Although a new installation of Alsa is needed.. if required do the following step too.. [ it wasnt working first - before restart .. so i downloaded and compiled alsa 1.0.8 too and after a restart i found this working] :D
I dont know the alsa version embedded in the Intel's beta driver but the latest alsa version 1.0.8 can be downloaded from the alsa's site. " www.alsa-project.org " that is "alsa-driver-1.0.8.tar"

if u have any problems installing this.. contact me at !
gnanaswaroop <AT> gmail <DOT> com ..

I will be talking about Intel High Definition Audio (HDA) for 915 GEV Motherboard - Pentium 4 -

Short story: This hardware requires alsa 1.0.8 +

Long story: To start with I tryed installing Mandrake 10.1 because I already knew Rad Hat and wanted to change. The install was just fine, next, next ... but on reboot the sound would not work.

I went to intel web site downloaded the driver to compile into also, but in no way I got alsa correctly compiled. Eventually I got a really crapy sound working =(

Then I installed Mandriva 2005 LE and everything was great!!! Wonderful sound detected on installation.

The problem was: This hardware need a relatively new kernel and also alsa 1.0.8. Mandrake 10.1 had only alsa 1.0.6 and I was unable to install the newer alsa into that version because it would not compile.

I have bought the same Intel 915 motherboard.I ve problem. I have 1GB DDR RAM..P4 2.8Ghz,
Debian 3.1r1 has the kernel version of 2.6.8.1-i386
so no way to support my Intel HDA sound system.
So i get the kernel 2.6.16.14 fro net and compiled succes.
Now the driver for my sound is "snd-hda-intel.ko" which loaded and detected my card well.
And the only problem i have is...no channels are open in "alsamixer" and "kmix" no output channel and "aumix" is bad..

while i play a song ..the song still in the same frame and making a sound..