How did you test your sound card? Do you have the Frozen Bubble game installed (it plays merry background music). If you start Frozen Bubble, what do you hear? What sound mixer you have? Have you tried adjusting sound volume using this mixer?

It has nothing to do with that. I just had it working, but reformatted.

Agh!

Help me, macondo!

I tried to use sndconfig (I had never needed to get that far, before...). It doesn't work, though...even after using modconf to install the right module...

"It has nothing to do with that. I just had it working, but reformatted."

Did you reinstalled Debian because you were having problems with Fluxbox?

Did you read the APT-HOWTO?

#apt-get remove --purge fluxbox
apt-get install xfce4

I can't remember exactly what kernel you got, or if your installation puts you in Woody or Sarge. But it should suffice to backtrak the posts, till the point you got it working.

install discover, mdetect, read-edid modconf sndconfig aumix

reboot

now you should be in, start with sndconfig, install modules with modconf, use adduser to get yourself into the audio group, use aumix to calibrate volume etc.
If you don't remember go back and read the posts before this.

Look at the errors you get if any, read the last article for kernels 2.6 on the list after my post if you are using kernel 2.6, take 2 aspirins and report back
to us.

Edit: oops i guess you are using Sarge, probably installed with the beta installer.

Edit: YO! i forgot the most important package

apt-get install x-window-system

sorry, i'm goofy today

I use the same module at tiapan67, I've tried to follow his advice. Still no sound.

I'm using kernel 2.6.7, I also have 2.4.25 available. Neither will work.

Visually, xmms seems to be working, it comes up seems to be playing. But when I exit I get these errors at the command line:

-----------------
# xmms 2*.mp3
Gdk-WARNING **: locale not supported by C library
libmikmod.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
-------------------

When I try sndconfig with 2.6.7 kernel, I get:

--------------------
You don't seem to be running a kernel with modular sound
enabled. (soundcore.o was not found in the module search path).
To use sndconfig, you must be running a kernel with modular
sound, such as the kernel images shipped with Debian Linux or
a 2.2 or greater kernel.
-------------------

When I try sndconfig with the 2.4.25 kernel, I get an error message saying that AC97 is not supported. BTW: I've been trying several version of linux, this is the only version that will not work with my sound chips.

When I do an apt-get upgrade, I get:
-----------------------
The following packages have been kept back:
libdiscover1
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
--------------------

I'm completely lost.

Tavilach,

Since your reformat, have you still got the "alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0" entries in /etc/modules.conf? The alsa-configuration text file i've referred to before gives the impression that they're fairly important... If not, please follow the earlier posts, editing the files in /etc/modutils/, & running "update-modules", rather than editing "modules.conf" directly. Apologies if that comes across as patronising.

Walterbyrd,

I don't have any notes with me today, plus my copy of 'sarge' only shipped with pre-compiled 2.4.25 kernel-images, no 2.6'es. It may be possible to check your configuration by running "lsmod" from the command-line, & looking for "soundcore". The long-winded way is to read /boot/config-kernel-version (unless you know how to use 'grep', which i don't, cos i'm lazy), & look for the sound section. In my 1200-line gentoo config file, the sound-section starts around line 750. If it helps, you can open the file read-only in gedit (or probably any other editor) & enable line-numbers to assist.

Unfortunately, every kernel-config file i've looked at has had a different layout, evolving with newer versions, presumably. This is from memory, but mine looks something like this (kernel-2.6.5):-

#
# Sound
#
CONFIG_SOUND=m

#
# Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
#
CONFIG_SND=m

...then goes on for about 150 lines, most of which (on a non-precompiled kernel) says something like "#CONFIG_STUFF_I_DON'T_NEED is not set". If your "CONFIG_SOUND" entry is set to 'm' (compile as module), or 'y' (build in to kernel), you're okay. If it's set to 'is not set'... It may be time to build yourself a custom kernel!

I'll check back in on Monday morning (GMT) for a progress update, & try not to batter my noisy neighbour in the meantime...

Does this tell you anything?

-----------------
# lsmod | grep soundcore
soundcore 10400 1 snd
localhost:#
-----------------

------------------------
I'll check back in on Monday morning (GMT) for a progress update, & try not to batter my noisy neighbour in the meantime...
------------------------

Good luck with the noisy neighbor, I call the police on mine all the time.

Morning walterbyrd!

No other feedback over the weekend, eh? Ok, i think i see the cause of your problem, but as ever, get a second opinion...

The output you got from "lsmod | grep soundcore" suggests to me that your driver-module isn't actually loading. The last part, "1 snd", is the 'used by...' column, so i suspect it's saying that only one currently loaded module, snd, depends on soundcore. As practically everything sound-related depends on it, i think your listing should've included a whole shit-load of modules whose names start with "snd-".

Try running "lsmod | grep snd" & see if you get your via82xx module. If not, that's probably why no sound.

If 'snd-via82xx' does come up, skip ahead to "I still had no sound...". Otherwise...

I think the first course of prudence would be to make sure the module actually exists. Henceforth, whenever you see "<kernel-version>", please substitute whatever's on your system. The path is /lib/modules/<kernel-version>/kernel/sound/pci/ & the module is called 'snd-via82xx.ko' (on 2.6 kernels, that is). If it's not there, try running "grep VIA82XX /boot/config-<kernel-version>" from the command line. (See, you've motivated me to read the grep man-page - congratulations!). Three possible outputs:-

CONFIG_SND_VIA82XX=m (built as a module - which we can't find)

CONFIG_SND_VIA82XX=y (built-in to something else - which would explain why we can't find it)

#CONFIG_SND_VIA82XX is not set (Uh-oh...)

I'm hoping we find the module at the first try, otherwise this would turn into my most mixed-up post to date (which would take some doing).

Assuming the module is there, but not loading, you could try following macondo's earlier posts to automate everything. I don't appear to have a copy of 'discover', so my alternative is to add "snd-via82xx" to the file /etc/modules. This loads the required module, plus a bunch of others that it depends on.

I still had no sound, though, until i added "snd-mixer-oss" to the same place. As of this posting, those two modules are the bare minimum my system needs to make noise.

And now my brain hurts, so i'll wait to see how you get on...

ps:- I'm still posting, so i can't have been arrested, so my neighbour must still be alive!

As it turned out, the only left that I needed to do was run alsamixer, and un-mute everything. Sorry to make your head hurt.

No worries. If i could just get my pc online, i wouldn't have to dredge all this stuff up from memory. Glad you're audible...