Hey guys,
i've gone through and found nothing that seemed to work in the forums for the problem that i have...when i start up kde i get the error message

informational - artsmessage
sound Server informational message:
Error while initializiing the sound driver:
device/dev/dsp can't be opened (no such device)
The sound Server will continue, using the null output device.

well, i know i've got a sound card, it worked before i tried installing ALSA stuff and some other things like ecacound-2.3.0, ecatools, libecasound, pyecasound...that's probably all one package...but i'm just shootin in the dark here...so..anyways, when i run the "lspci -v" command in Konsole...this long list of fun is what i get:

Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Memory at ec000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Capabilities: [e4] #09 [c104]
Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 2.0

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 05
) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, fast devsel, latency 96
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64
Memory behind bridge: e0000000-e7ffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: f0000000-f7ffffff

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #1) (rev 02) (prog-if 0
0 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 1800 [size=32]

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #2) (rev 02) (prog-if 0
0 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
I/O ports at 1820 [size=32]

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BAM/CAM PCI Bridge (rev 42) (prog-if 00 [No
rmal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=168
I/O behind bridge: 00003000-00003fff
Memory behind bridge: e8000000-e80fffff

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801CAM ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801CAM IDE U100 (rev 02) (prog-if 8a [Maste
r SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at 1840 [size=16]
Memory at 10000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM SMBus (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 1860 [size=32]

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Audio (rev 02
)
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 1c00 [size=256]
I/O ports at 1880 [size=64]

00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Modem (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Generic
])
Subsystem: Conexant: Unknown device 5422
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 2400 [size=256]
I/O ports at 2000 [size=128]

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 Go] (rev b2
) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=64K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [44] AGP version 2.0

02:01.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 78)
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 80, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 3000 [size=128]
Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

02:04.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6912 Cardbus Controller
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, stepping, slow devsel, latency 168, IRQ 10
Memory at 10001000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=02, secondary=03, subordinate=06, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 10400000-107ff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 10800000-10bff000
I/O window 0: 00004000-000040ff
I/O window 1: 00004400-000044ff
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

HELP!!! please! i wanna get back to hearing my music...which, being a college student , i live off of music......thanks guys! and your advice for the mplayer worked...
-Robert

Did you try changing to different drivers? I know the intel_810 drivers work for my onboard sound on my a7n8x deluxe.

Try that out.

Had the same exact problem untill I unplugged my webcam.

The lspci commnad seems to show that your Linux system can SEE the card. It looks as though you do not have the drivers needed in your Kernel though.

Asuuming that your kernel has been compiled with them then you need to determine the name of the module needed - for me it was es1371 which I entered with modprobe and everything was fine.

You will also probably need "soundcore" which should show up if you run the lsmod command.

So - to recap (hope some of this is right ...) Determine the name of the driver specific for your card - and modprobe it in.

This stopped the errors for me on my Debian system and let me started playing stuff --- albeit very quietly ...

Hope some of this helps

me too....the same problem like u
try to configure the sound system from AUMIX,
set it to MAX volume...all of the option then split the bar (right click) then turn it MAX too
It works on me

When I would unplug my webcam the sound module would load into the kernel. Whit it plug in it wouldn't. I've havn't got to the problem yet.

1 . well, guys, my webcam isn't even installed or plugged in...and it hasn't been on linux
2. aumix doesnt even work...i click it and it begins to load up on the bottom panel but it just dissapears after about 1 minute
nothing seems to work...it really stinks....

hey guys...sorry about this, but i thought i would add some more info if ya'll need it...
when i open up xmms, nothing bad happens, but when i try to play a file i get the message:
Couldn't open audio
Please check that:

1. You have the correct output plugin selected
2. No other program is blocking the soundcard
3. Your soundcard is configured properly

this all worked before i messed with installing ALSA...i had no problems...but now i have problems.... i even reinstalled my mandrake 9.1 on the \ part of the drive....but i left the \home untouched....and still it's exactly the same...so i tried to delete everything in home....it won't let me delete these files
ecasound-2.3.0
libecasound
.......help! i stink greatly at figuring this stuff out....i apologize for any annoyances i have caused...but i'm a desperate guy!
-=- rob

Are you using Mandrake 9.2?

I know me and other people on here couldn't get sound with Mandrake 9.2. I switched back to 9.1 and my sound works.

When you ran "lspci -v" I saw that some of the output said Dell Corporation. If you have the Soundblaster Live! soundcard it is a special card that Dell made and it is not very compatible with Linux. The only drivers I could ever find where at www.opensound.com and they are not free. The sound quality with those drivers is also very bad. I finally got frustrated and just got a new soundcard to fix the problem. I hope you are lucky and don't have this card.