Tis ok, I used to be in your shoes. Linux works on the principle of one large directory tree. Instead of C drive and D drive, you have a directory tree that starts with /. Folders are under that. For example:
/
/etc
/etc/postfix
/mnt
/mnt/windowsdrive
/mnt/cdrom
/mnt/dvd
And so on. In linux, it's a / instead of a \ seperating folders. You can still use the cd command in Linux. but instead of cd\foldername, you'd do a cd/foldername. Your CD-DVD-Additional hard drives have to be mounted. Normally Windows takes care of this for you. KDE is a very good window manager and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised as to how easy it can be once you get the hang of the basics. I opened up the INSTALL file in your file that you told me about and I'll post the quick install instructions at the bottom of this post. Here's a website that has a ton of commands that you can use
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/linux/cmd/ Probably the most useful one is "apropos" You can type "apropos whateveryou'relookingfor" without the quotes and it'll give you commands and such that relates to what you are looking for. It came in handy more then once for me.
Just be patient and everything will come together for you. When you extract the files, you can usually look for an INSTALL file or a README file and just open up a terminal window and type in "kwrite INSTALL" without the quotes (or README whichever the case may be) Kwrite is just like notepad for Windows. There are other programs that do just as good a job (Kate, etc.) so choose one that fits best for you. Make sure you are running the install as root or you may have problems. Anyways, here's the quick install section of the INSTALL file for your driver: Enjoy!
Travis
Quick install
=============
1) You must have full configured source for the Linux kernel which you
want to use for the ALSA drivers. Note that ALSA drivers are part
of the kernel, so there is necessary to resolve all symbol dependencies
between the used kernel and ALSA driver code. Partly installed kernels
(for example from distributor makers) can be unuseable for this action.
2) You must turn on sound support (soundcore module).
3) Run './configure' script.
If you do not want ISA PnP support, use --with-isapnp=no switch.
If you want sequencer support, use --with-sequencer=yes switch.
If you do not want OSS/Free emulation, use --with-oss=no switch.
If you want turn on debug mode use --with-debug=full switch.
If you want debug soundcard detection try --with-debug=detect switch.
If you have kernel source code in another directory than /usr/src/linux,
use --with-kernel=<kernel_directory>.
Example: ./configure --with-debug=full
4) Run 'make'.
5) Run 'make install'.
6) Run the './snddevices' script to create new sound devices in /dev directory.
Skip this step, if you have a kernel with the DEVFS support.
7) Edit your /etc/modules.conf (see the kmod support section below).
8) Run 'modprobe snd-xxxx' where xxxx is the name of your card.
Note: All ALSA ISA drivers support ISA PnP natively, so you don't need
isapnptools any more. Don't use both together. It will
conflict. For disabling the ALSA ISA PnP support, specify
--with-isapnp=no configure switch.
You can also look at the utils/alsasound file. This script is designed for
the RedHat distribution, but it can be used with other distributions which
use System V style rc init scripts.
Note: All mixer channels are muted by default. You must use a native
or OSS mixer program to unmute appropriate channels (for example a
mixer from the alsa-utils package).
Note: This document notices the /etc/modules.conf file. Many current
distributions uses the old /etc/conf.modules file. Both names are
valid.
