I've been working on recompiling my kernel (2.6.16), because NO linux distro I've ever used has been able to work with my sound card (which is an Aztech ISA AZT2320). I needed to recompile my kernel anyways so that I could install ALSA.

I was poking around in the "menuconfig" and I found that I could compile an ALSA module specifically for my sound card right into the kernel!

I wanted to make sure soundcore was loaded into my kernel, so I hit the [ / ] button to bring up a search field. I typed in "soundcore" but, nothing came up.

I configured the built-in ALSA module with the mixer, and I try running Amarok to play an mp3, and it looks like it's playing, but I'm not hearing any sound.

Do I need to have soundcore present in my kernel to be able to make use of my sound card?

After you recompile a kernel remember to reload all of your modules. This is especially true if you compiled ALSA as modules. If ALSA is built in as well make sure you've ran alsaconf to setup your "new to the kernel" sound card. After that make sure you've gone into alsamixer and unmuted any channels. Finally make sure that amaorak is trying to use ALSA to output sound, and that it has its own volume loud enough to hear.

thanks for your response Penguin, but I've already done all that, and still no sound.

if I type: I get an error saying that it cannot be found: Do I need to have soundcore loaded as a module to be able to have sound output? Because, if that's the case, I can't find the soundcore module anywhere in the kernel "menuconfig"

Well if you the module isn't found then you've haven't compiled it into the kernel. Be sure to run "make modules" and "make modules_install." Then try to modprobe the kernel. It looks like the module name is soundcore.o . When configuring your kernel, it will be in the "sound card" section, probably under Hardware, if I remember correctly from the last time I configured my kernel. What kind of sound card do you have? You might not even need that module to get sound. Have you tried "modprobe es1370"?

I've run "make modules" and "make modules_install".

My biggest concern is whether or not I need soundcore for playback. soundcore is not in the sound section: the only entries in the "sound" section is ALSA and OSS.

My soundcard is an Aztech Systems AZT2320.

I'm just going to try recompiling, and see what happens.

My best advice is to just compile everything in since your not sure. The worst that can happen is that your kernel is a couple k bigger.

that's what I'm doing as we speak.

=) thanks for all your help Penguin, I'll put up a response as to what the situation is after my new kernel finishes compiling

Soundcore is the main option for sound support in Linux. ALSA and OSS are sub options to this. All you need to do is make sure the Sound support is compiled as a module instead of hard coded.

regards,
...drkstr

ok, thanks drkstr.

how come I should keep it a module, and not hard-compile it into my kernel?

During the kernel config, select the help option for "sound Support" It will state that there will be compatability issues if this hard coded when any of the sub options are compiled as modules. It is a good idea to set your device drivers as modules so things like 'alsaconf' will work properly, thus making it necessary to compile sound support as a module.

regards,
...drkstr

ok. sweet. thanks drkstr.

another quick question, when I rifle off the "make modules && make modules_install" command, do I issue that command before or after I copy the kernel to the /boot folder?

here is what I do when I compile my kernel: This will install your kernel image and System.map automatically, as well as install your modules to be loaded at boot. It will even reinstall your boot loader for you so the new kernel will boot correctly.

note: you can run 'make modules && make modules_install' at any time, it is independed of the kernel image compile which does not need to be done if you are just adding new modules. If however, you switched something from being hard coded to modular, the full make process will need to be preformed.

regards,
...drkstr

The only downside to chaining, using the &&, is make sure that when you perform the commands your chaining together your sure everything is going to work. If something breaks in the middle of the chain, it'll be hard to tell what happened.

thanks for the word of caution Penguin, and thanks for your response drkstr.

I'm still not getting any sound.

I've checked to make sure I have the right modules, and I do. Everything seems fine, but I'm still not getting any sound.