I have a dell dimension 8200 desktop with winXP and redhat 9 installed. Linux is working well except there is no sound. Whenever I run the soundcard detection thing, all it says is "no soundcard detected". I just have the standard SoundMax integrated digital audio that comes on most new dell's that do not get an upgraded soundcard.

How can i fix this? Will it not recognize my sound card because it is integrated? Should I just buy a new sound card, and if so what (cheap) sound card would be recommended.

Any help would be welcome, because I enjoy my music, and i find myself booting up windows most of the time because of this problem.

I'll give it my best shot.
What is the output of
lspci -v;

lspci: command not found

That is odd. Are you logged in as root?
If it still cannot find it then
cat /proc/pci;

PCI devices found:
Bus 0, device 0, function 0:
Host bridge: PCI device 8086:2578 (Intel Corp.) (rev 2).
Prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xe8000000 [0xefffffff].
Bus 0, device 1, function 0:
PCI bridge: PCI device 8086:2579 (Intel Corp.) (rev 2).
Master Capable. Latency=64. Min Gnt=8.
Bus 0, device 29, function 0:
USB Controller: PCI device 8086:24d2 (Intel Corp.) (rev 2).
IRQ 11.
I/O at 0xff80 [0xff9f].
Bus 0, device 29, function 1:
USB Controller: PCI device 8086:24d4 (Intel Corp.) (rev 2).
IRQ 10.
I/O at 0xff60 [0xff7f].
Bus 0, device 29, function 2:
USB Controller: PCI device 8086:24d7 (Intel Corp.) (rev 2).
IRQ 9.
I/O at 0xff40 [0xff5f].
Bus 0, device 29, function 3:
USB Controller: PCI device 8086:24de (Intel Corp.) (rev 2).
IRQ 11.
I/O at 0xff20 [0xff3f].
Bus 0, device 29, function 7:
USB Controller: PCI device 8086:24dd (Intel Corp.) (rev 2).
IRQ 5.
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xffa80800 [0xffa80bff].
Bus 0, device 30, function 0:
PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BA/CA/DB PCI Bridge (rev 194).
Master Capable. No bursts. Min Gnt=2.
Bus 0, device 31, function 0:
ISA bridge: PCI device 8086:24d0 (Intel Corp.) (rev 2).
Bus 0, device 31, function 1:
IDE interface: PCI device 8086:24db (Intel Corp.) (rev 2).
IRQ 9.
I/O at 0xffa0 [0xffaf].
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfebffc00 [0xfebfffff].
Bus 0, device 31, function 2:
IDE interface: PCI device 8086:24d1 (Intel Corp.) (rev 2).
IRQ 9.
I/O at 0xfe00 [0xfe07].
I/O at 0xfe10 [0xfe13].
I/O at 0xfe20 [0xfe27].
I/O at 0xfe30 [0xfe33].
I/O at 0xfea0 [0xfeaf].
Bus 0, device 31, function 3:
SMBus: PCI device 8086:24d3 (Intel Corp.) (rev 2).
IRQ 3.
I/O at 0xeda0 [0xedbf].
Bus 0, device 31, function 5:
Multimedia audio controller: PCI device 8086:24d5 (Intel Corp.) (rev 2).
IRQ 3.
I/O at 0xee00 [0xeeff].
I/O at 0xedc0 [0xedff].
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfebffa00 [0xfebffbff].
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfebff900 [0xfebff9ff].
Bus 1, device 0, function 0:
VGA compatible controller: PCI device 10de:0181 (nVidia Corporation) (rev 162).
IRQ 11.
Master Capable. Latency=64. Min Gnt=5.Max Lat=1.
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfd000000 [0xfdffffff].
Prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xf0000000 [0xf7ffffff].
Bus 2, device 1, function 0:
Modem: Broadcom Corporation BCM v.90 56k modem (rev 2).
IRQ 10.
Master Capable. Latency=64.
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfcffe000 [0xfcffefff].
I/O at 0xdf30 [0xdf3f].
Bus 2, device 8, function 0:
Ethernet controller: PCI device 8086:1050 (Intel Corp.) (rev 2).
IRQ 5.
Master Capable. Latency=64. Min Gnt=8.Max Lat=56.
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfcfff000 [0xfcffffff].
I/O at 0xdf40 [0xdf7f].

k im logged in as root now.
this is what lspci gives:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 2578 (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 2579 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB USB (Hub #1) (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB USB (Hub #2) (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB USB (Hub #3) (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB USB EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB USB EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BA/CA/DB PCI Bridge (rev c2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801EB ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801EB ICH5 IDE (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24d1 (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801EB SMBus (rev 02)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB AC'97 Audio (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP
8x] (rev a2)
02:01.0 Modem: Broadcom Corporation BCM4212 v.90 56k modem (rev 02)
02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB (ICH5) PRO/100 VE Ethernet Controller (rev 02)

That doesn't give me mutch to go on. Intel Sound card. I am going to have to search Dell's archives. I will get back to you.

Forget about my last post I just got you lspci dump. Give me some time.

Good news/bad news
It looks like you can get you sound card to work./It is not supported out of the box from redhat 9. Here is a link that should start you no your way.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...03/10/1/100228

I've tried folloing the steps in the other posts, but when i try sndconfig all i get is command not found

Ok, this thread http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...=sndconfig+RH9
has been useful.

I downloaded and compiled the cmaudio driver and changed my /etc/modules.conf as the readme said adding:

alias sound-slot-0 cmaudio
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 || :

When i restarted the new hardware thing came up (when booting), and so i went through that which excited me, since I thought i was on the right track

No, when i run the soundcard detection program, it no longer says no soundcard found, but actually detects my soundcard. When I click play test sound it says the cmaudio driver could not be found.

are my settings in /etc/modules.conf correct? i just copied them out of the readme file that came with the driver i downloaded. can anyone explain this:

mark]# /sbin/modprobe cmaudio


/lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/drivers/sound/cmaudio.o: init_module: No such device
Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
/lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/drivers/sound/cmaudio.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/drivers/sound/cmaudio.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/drivers/sound/cmaudio.o: insmod cmaudio failed

Sorry to keep bumping this to the top, but does anyone have any ideas? I have had this problem for several months now, and it is very frustrating. I have tried everything i can think of. This problem causes me to almost always boot windows instead.

The way solved the same problem was:
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/
Search for the manufacturer Intel
Then follow the link "Details" on i820 row
Now click on "Planet CCRMA for Redhat" http://www-ccrma.stanford.edu/planet...#configurealsa
and follw the instructions for installing precompiled 2.4..ccrma kernel with related alsa libs
That's all folks

No i have installed alsa driver, lib, and utils, and everything went fine(no errors). I unmuted the chanells, and changed the modules.conf file. Everything seemed to go ok, and I no longer get any "FAILED"'s while booting.

However, when I run the soundcard detection wizard it has not changed. it says:
Model: 8201EB AC'97 controller
Module: cmaudio

and it always says the cmaudio controller could not be loaded. should it not be different now that I installed the alsa-driver? how do i remove this old driver, and make it work with the alsa drivers?