Computer specs:
Daewoo CT6560
Celeron 667MHz
256Mb PC100 Singlesided RAM
Intel i810 onboard video
Soundblaster Soundcard
AC'97 onboard sound.

I used to have a lot of trouble with my onboard soundcard (sound would just stop working), so I finally purchased a decent Soundblaster for like $40 or something like that. The card worked beautifually under Windows, along side the old onboard sound card. After a while, I switched the Jumper on my mobo so that the onboard sound codec would be disabled - worked fine under windows.

However, upon attempting to install Linux (I have tried 6 different distros in the past 3 days, in an attempt to find the perfect one for my needs), Linux stalls out on boot, because it finds my onboard soundcard, and is unable to load it (because the jumper is disabling it). If I switch the jumper back on, everything runs find, except that I don't have any sound (Linux tries to use the onboard). Incase you are thinking it, no there is not a way to onboard sound codec the card in my BIOS (good ol' [sarcasm] PheonixBIOS).

I have settled upon CollegeLinux (seems to work great on my system, offers access to every aspect of linux, but isn't quite as evil to install as Gentoo, or such), and am wondering it there is anyway to get linux to use my Soundblaster card, so that I can get sound. Disabling the onboard doesn't seem to be an option.

Oh yah, and I did have success with sound in one distro - Redhat, because its setup detected both sound cards, and asked which I would like to use.

I would greatly apprieciate any help anyone could offer (even if it is an unlikely solution.)

Thank-you in advance, and thanks for reading,

Could you let us know what distros+versions you've tried? Have you tried SuSE 8.x?

I have tried RH9, Gentoo 1.4, Slackware 9, Lycoris, Lindows, and finally Collegelinux. If I can't get sound working under CollegeLinux, I intend to try Suse, and then Mandrake. As for kernel version, I have used the defualt kernels for each install (except slackware, inwhich I attempted to use 2 different versions [can't recall which they were])

Just a quick update (I still really need help)...

I just downloaded and burned Mandrake, so I am going to install that tommorow. I was just reading around the forum about other people with AC'97 trouble, and noticed that a lot of people use sound driver suites. If someone can reccommend a way to get both sound cards working at the same time, I'd be ever greatful.

The other alternative I noticed was disabling the onboard card at the Kernel. If someone could give advice on this, again I'd be very greatful.

Hopefully awaiting help, with thanks extended in advance,