I recently installed a SBLive(sb220). It was really just a plug in and go affair.

I used the KDE detect soundcard thing to check out which module the card was using and it does indeed seem to be using the EMU10k1 module. - And I get sound

But I downloaded some EMU-tools so I can play with the board and I requested info using these tools. They tell me that my SBLive driver is N/A. So I checked out the web and I get the impression I need to install ALSA.

As my soundcard actually works I would have though it is ok as it is. However as much as the sound is nicer having the SBLive in - if installing ALSA is going to make it very nice - well you would, wouldn't you ?!

My question is simply should I bother installing ALSA or will my current settings work and give me the best possible sound from my card. And if the curent settings are ok why does the emu config tools grumble about there being no driver??

Cheers

looks like that card has 4 different drivers that all work... wish that could be said about most hardware under linux...

check it out:
http://how.to/sblive

hope it helps to answer your question.

I guess my problem in understanding is that I'm not clear on the difference between a driver and module.

Why install a driver for example if the module provides fuctionality of my card?

oh... uhm... driver = module. same thing. windows terminology = driver; linux terminology = module. kinda like you say potato, I say potatoe... you say fem-looking man, I say mom. you know how it is. they're the same thing.