got gentoo 2005.0 stage1 tarball, kernel 2.6.12r6, kde 3.4.1
running on
athlonxp 2000
nvidia geforce fx 5700 ultra 128mb
soyo dragon kt-333 lite mother with built in sound (cmedia 8738)
1 gig mixed ddr (all pc 2700)

i have alsa support for cmedia 8738 compiled into kernel
kernel options for alsa are exactly as shows in gentoo linux guide
i have followed the gentoo linux alsa guide for the kernel provided method
i get the no pnp or pci supported cards found when i run alsaconf
upon boot into x i get a pop error saying couldnt start sound /dev/dsp not a valid device
(or something similiar)

no sound, any ideas? i'm sure i am missing something

if you have no /dev/dsp file then alsa didnt configure and install properly, can you run ./snddevices in the alsa folder? that would give you all the /dev sound files you need

any idea where the alsa folder might b?
also, i do see a dsp file in the /dev folder

Do not run snddevices. Also alsaconf will not help, so do not use it. As root type `modprobe snd-cmipci`. Linux should then made /dev/dsp.

Its directory not folder.

i tried the modprobe snd-cmipci and get the error that the module was not found. how can i load this module? my modules.conf file does not show an entry for snd-cmipci

Hello!

I believe that the module snd_cmipci is not supported in the kernel, so you need to follow the instructions in the Gentoo Alsa howto and install alsa-driver separately.

Razze

well, i followed the directions for the alsa-drivers from the gentoo alsa configuration manual.
still no sound. i think i am getting closer.....hehe..
alsaconf works until last step the alsa configurator, here i hit ok and get

Running modules-update...
Loading driver...
Setting default volumes...
Saving the mixer setup used for this in /etc/asound.state.
/usr/sbin/alsactl: save_state:1163: No soundcards found...
even though i picked my card from list in the last step.


if i run "/etc/init.d/alsasound start" i get
* Loading ALSA modules ...
* Loading: snd-card-0 ...
WARNING: Error inserting snd_seq_device (/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r6/alsa-driver/acore/seq/snd-seq-device.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg).................etc..........etc
followed by a whole list of errors inserting devices


if i run "modprobe snd-cmipci" i get the exact same set of errors

I also ran into the same sort of error messages onec. It turned out that I had been messing with the power saving settings in the kernel, and that I had some inconsistencies there. If i remember correctly I had selected APM but no modules. I suggest you check your kernel settings to make sure they are OK.

"Unknown symbol" means that some kernel dependency is required. Try to build experimental kernel with almost all options turned on, after that try to insmod again. Also you should explore log files to understand which symbol is unknown and to understand which feature of kernel you should turn on before building kernel.

checking dmesg the only thing i can find is

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.9rc2 (Thu Mar 24 10:33:39$
ALSA device list:
No soundcards found.

any ideas?

please.................

I think your sound card support is not included in kernel or kernel can't find/probe module during boot up.

I still think you don't have your kernel settings correct:

For the alsa-driver you only need to make sure that you enable "device drivers --> sound --> sound card support" as module and leave the rest of the sound settings off (neither M nor Y)

Please also make sure that you have disabled the power management support (I got the same error when I had enabled power management support but did not have any modules to go with it).

After that save your new kernel configurations and run If you don't want to compile support for every possible soundcard, please make sure you have the line in your /etc/make.conf before you emerge the alsa-driver.

power management support is definitely disabled
sound module loaded in kernel, no other sound options selected
did
# make modules modules_install
# emerge alsa-driver alsa-utils
with ALSA_CARDS="cmipci" in make.conf

still get no soundcards found error on boot, using alsaconf, and in dmesg

just so you know.... my sound works fine on windows partition, and i have had 5 other flavors of linux installed in same machine with same sound card and all worked with no trouble.