Yes, I'm a Linux , but not new to computers or Windows. A few days ago I installed a second HD, and installed the RH Linux on it. From what I've seen so far... I like the new OS. Just one thing about it that is driving me nuts. No sound at all.

The sound card is an SB Live, and it was detected as such at install time, but no sounds ever came out during the test. RH, just gave a message saying ---Well, too bad, you can't use sound on your system. (Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz.... unacceptable)

I did a 'lspci', and it lists the sound card port and the game port.

I next executed the 'sndconfig' utility. It found the SB Live card first thing, but again... no sound during the test. Then, it let me pick a card from a list, which I did, but still no sound.

I'm frustrated ... this sound card was on the RH compatibility list, so I'm wondering why it's so dang hard to get it working. From what I've found so far, doing many Google searches looking for answers, ---I'm not unique in this experience.

My system is a Gateway Pent 4, 1.4 gHz, 256 Mb RAM, 40 gb HD with Windows XP Pro on it, and a 60 gb HD with RH Linux 9 on it. (I'm booting Linux from a floppy.)

Any help would be appreciated...

Welcome to LO!

Have you tryed creative.com (sb is owned by creative)? Try might have drivers for linux. Is sound support compiled into your kernel? Just my

Also, have you checked Red Hat's site? They have realy good howtos.

I have not tried this with my sound blaster live, but there are to speaker ports on the card. You might be plugged in the wrong jack. Try the other one and see what happens. Make sure the mixer settings are turned up also.

Good luck
Brian1

Also, check your volume levels in your sound settings. I am talking about the one on the start menu->sound and video->audio.
If you are talking about Mplayer, check to see if you are using the proper driver (OSS I think)
also.
Good Luck

Thanks Joey.Dale..... Well, yes I've been to the Red Hat site until I practically have parts of it memorized. They talked about using the 'sndconfig' command, which I tried.

Yup, went over to Creative site too. Unless I didn't find the right area to look at --it appeared their response was, No we don't support or distribute an drivers for Linux.

I guess I'm really at a loss to know how RH could have this card on their compatibility list (as ok), yet it is such a pain in the rear to get it to work.

I'm kind of wondering if ANYONE has ever gotten their SB Live card to work with the Linux 9 distro.

Well, I'm pretty sure I only have one output jack, but this SB Card is not a new installation. It works perfectly when I'm running Windows XP, I have system sounds and CD sound. Shouldn't it work with the same with Linux?

Yup... brought up sound settings. They were most all set at about 3/4 volume. I moved the audio out ones up to the max.... but nothing changed.

By the way, I stuck an audio CD in the CD-ROM player and the Player graphic came up and indicated that the music was playing, but of course ---nothing was coming out of the speakers.

Type lsmod as root and show me the output. You're looking for a line called "emu10k1". If it's there then check mixer settings, change plugs at the back etc. If it's not there, try the command modprobe emu10k1 and then try to play a piece of music. Try an mp3 first instead of a CD. Also, if your using xmms, make sure you've installed the right plugin for the type of music you're trying to play. The cd play plugin doesn't come by default and the mp3 plugin may not come standard anymore due to licensing problems.

[root@localhost root]# lsmod
Module Size Used by Not tainted
emu10k1 69032 0
ac97_codec 13640 0 [emu10k1]
sound 74228 0 [emu10k1]
soundcore 6404 7 [emu10k1 sound]
parport_pc 19076 1 (autoclean)
lp 8996 0 (autoclean)
parport 37056 1 (autoclean) [parport_pc lp]
autofs 13268 0 (autoclean) (unused)
natsemi 19552 1 ..........

The list was longer, but I think the module you mentioned is the very first in the listing.

I brought up the Sound & Video, Volume Control screen and most all the controls were set at 3/4 of max, with the exception of mic and igain, which were set at zero (bottom). Is this the control panel you are talking about?

Actually, I'd just like to get system sounds working.... so I haven't really tried any mp3s yet. I did put an audio CD in the player, just to see what would happen, and the timer showed it was playing ---but no sound.

Sometimes linux outputs on a different port than windows. Did you try a few different plugs? Other than that I can't think of anything. Maybe try installing alsa.

My sound blaster live has two ports one for front speakers and one for rear speakers. I did unplug from the front to the rear and sound went way done. Almost no sound. I use the green ringed plug. The rear is black ringed.

Okay.... I checked my jacks on the card. From left to right, they are 1)Black, 2)Green, 3)Red, 4)Green . I'm pretty sure the Red is microphone input. I just now tried the Green Plug from the Woofer in the Black, then the 2-Green and then the 4-Green. Each time I brought up the Soundcard Detection utility and Played the Sound. Turned up the volume some on the desk speakers... but heard nothing in any of the positions.

About an hour ago, I registered as a new user with Red Hat, and downloaded and installed all the latest updates, including a new kernel. The kernel is now 2.4.20-20.9



So, are you running the same kernel, and the same SB Live card that I have???? ....and I assume it works on your machine???

Tacobill,
I have RH9 and SBLive!. Goto start->preferences->sound. Ensure that enable sound server startup is enabled. If you want all the little bells, dings, and whistles when you point & click, enable sound events. It seems to me I was having the same problem once and that solved it.

I use debian but my kernel version is roughly the same. I have an SB Live in my other computer and it works with the above settings. I don't have separate outputs for the front and back, though. Mine might be an older version.