Hi,
I have a problem with the sound on my PC which uses the AC97 chipset and is running RH8.

'unname -r' reports...
2.4.20-18.8

/var/log/messages contains....

Feb 12 12:07:20 linux2 kernel: ac97_codec: AC97 Audio codec, id: ADS114 (Unknown)
Feb 12 12:07:20 linux2 kernel: i810_audio: AC'97 codec 2 supports AMAP, total channels = 2
Feb 12 12:07:20 linux2 modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module sound-service-0-3

and 'grep sound /etc/modules.conf' yields

alias sound-slot-0 i810_audio
post-install sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -L >/dev/null 2>&1
|| :
pre-remove sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -S >/dev/null 2>&1 |
| :


I have spoken to the supplier of my machine and he says.."Yes, there is a problem!" and "I don't know, look on the web".

I have looked through the archives of linuxquestions.org (there have been many related postings) but as far as I can tell there is no solution although a partial one may be possible. It appears that RH8 makes a mistaken assumption about the sound chip system based on its DAC.

I have tried the Redhat site and a general Google search. There are many hits (often in foreign languages that I can't understand :-( ) but I am left with the impression that "better men than I have failed" and as one poster said, it may be best to "buy a Sound Blaster Live Card". This is rather defeatist.... if you feel it to be unduly defeatist please can you suggest a suitable link.

It has been suggested that a newer kernel will solve the problem. Is there a kernel which is known to work? If so, must I compile it myself or can I get it "ready made"? I am willing to try compiling a kernel but fear that as a "newbie" I don't have the skill or knowledge to do this without a walkthrough. However, I will "give it a go" if this is likely to solve my problem.

Thank you....grovel grovel.

compiling a kernel is not that big deal...it's quite easy after you've done it few times and with a little help you'll surely succeed. but before going into that, I suggest you shoot a question to your modules, like this:

so you get the names of all the modules that are related to sound. chech out what pops up, and if you see something that could have something to do with your soundcard, try to

where <modulename> is the name of the module (without any path) you wish to load. try this if it helps...and for the kernel recompilation, what you need to do if you need to compile your own kernel, is to find the module you truly need for your card and enable it either in kernel or as a module. but your card seems (to me, at least) quite ordinary so stock kernels should have support for it..?

I myself have not-so-new soundcard, not any sb live but somekind of integrated card...at first (with my Arch) it didn't work out, and I figured out that my kernel didn't have a module/builtin support for it...I added it & recompiled, rebooted and got my music play

so check out the modules you have, and try modprobing them...

Wow,

That a bit embarrasing..all I need to do is type

modprobe ac97

Thanks

You may also be interested on knowing that as of late - there has grown a huge base of support for the Intel i8x0 chipset. In fact, the machine I am posting this on is an i810 .
You can find a lot of patches out there nowadays, for both sound and video, so that you are not running generic drivers, and can use the full capacity of both the sound and video sets. This machine is running 1600x1200@24 bit depth, and it's flawless - much better than the "beta" drivers that were out less than 6 months ago. Try these:

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/linux/audio.htm

http://support.intel.com/support/gra.../CS-009129.htm