i am the beginner of Linux os, yesterday i intall the Fedora core 1 in my laptop Asus S5n which uses the intel certrino 1.4GHz. In windows xp it says my sound card chipest is SoundMax intergrated digital audio, but the fc1 says it belongs to i810_audio modules, and it does not work at all. if i click the speaker beside the clock ,it reply that "an't find the mixer in /dev/sound/mixer...".
After read many articles from the internet ,i know i should install the ALSA drivers, then i download the drivers, utilities and lib packets which versions is 1.0.9 and try to install the drivers follow the INSTALL guide. the last step is edit the /etc/modules.conf , but it doesn't say how to edit it ! so when i try to use the modprobe command, it reply that: can't locate the modules...
i think the problem is i didn't edit the modules.conf accurately, so i turn to linuxquestions.org, help me..
Plus:
my original modules.conf :
alias eth0 8139too
alias usb-controller usb-uhci
alias usb-controller1 ehci-hcd
alias ieee1394-controller ohci1394
alias sound-slot-0 i810_audio
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 || :

if use the lspci command:
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 1803
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
I/O ports at e100 [size=64]
Memory at 1f800400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
Memory at 1f800600 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256

It seems that the lspci has identified the card correctly as an AC97 and there is a reference to this here . You perhaps need to see if there is Intel i8x0 support in the kernel modules. I am not familiar with FC but it appears that 2.4 kernels are not ideal and you may be better off with the 2.6 kernel. There are lots of alsa howto's on the net - Google is your friend on that one.

Is that to say to reinstall the OS is best way to solve the problem? or just upgrade kernel?i still know how how to upgrade the kernel ,is that as esay as using the rpm packet?
Actually, i want to learn something about the embedded system, and i think the linux has more advantage than WinCE etc. because of its "Free". That why i install the Linux.
I am Chinese ,and in China the Fedora/Redhat is more popular than any others. But in Europe is the SuSE more popular?
Allowing for my demand which version of Linux is my best choose? And thank you so much for every warmhearted people.

Fedora 1 is fairly old now because I think they are on version 3 now so if you are thinking of a new install and want to stick with FC then the latest version would be the best choice. There is nothing stopping you upgrading the kernel in your current version. There will be a kernel rpm package.

As regards which distro is best/most popular then the answer is that the Debian based distro's are the most popular. I have used pure Debian for 3 years and a great fan. I have used a few others but still prefer Debian because of its packaging system and ease of use particularly with configuring hardware and networking. Debian has a reputation for being very difficult to install and use. The new installer, whilst still being menu driven, is, in my opinion very good, and has made installation much easier. It requires a lot of blood, sweat, tears and patience initially but once you are used to it, it is a great distro. Really it's all about choices, which is the real beauty of Linux. i.e. you do have choices and you do not have to put up with an os that is not quite there.