Yup, that's the wierd part... worked perfectly. Fedora Core 2 and MDK 10.0 CE/OE with 2.63 and 2.6.6 kernels. Can you disable the onboard sound from the BIOS? Try enabling/disabling it and see if harddrake reacts somehow on system bootup. Don't forget to press ESC while booting to see if harddrake2 fires up telling you you've added/removed devices.

Can you test your soundcard and see if it works? Windows migt be the best way if you have it installed.

the card definitely works as it is fine under xp.

I'll try disabling/reenabling in bios

I can only disable the MIDI in the bios, so harddrake doesnt detect any difference and windows stil plays sound anyway. In the readme that comes with the drivers from cmedia, it says that onboard soundcards are supported aswell, so I dont see why it wouldnt work.

Which drivers are you using eqxro?

When I tried to compile mine into the kernel, it came up with an error saying that they cannot be used on the 2.6 kernel as they are designed for 2.4 or lower.

edit: would it be possible for someone to send me a copy of their /dev/dsp file who is using the same soundcard?

The Default drivers that were shipped with MDK 9.2, 10.0CE, 10.0OE, Fedora Core2. Kernel 2.4.25, 2.6.3-7mdk, 2.6.6 (FC2). I don't know wether it's possible to copy/paste the file to /dev, as you need to run mknod or smth. like this to create a /dev entry. I suggest something not too pretty, but might work. Can't guarantee it either, but if you do it, chances are your whole system will become more stable and faster. You might've already guessed where I'm going... Kernel recompilation... Install the kernel sources, go to /usr/src/linux, do a make menuconfig (all commands from now on suppose you are root). Make sure you know your hardware. Harddrake2 will help identifying some hardware you're not sure about. Choose carefully (read the help, it will give you some pointers). Under Device Drivers -> Sound -> Alsa or OSS you'll find modules related to all sorts of sound cards. CMedia 8738/8338 is there also, so that should be selected.

Some tips... So you won't have to run through all the options, get the .config file of your running sytem. It is usually included in the kernel-source-2.xxxx.rpm package, or can be extracted directly from the running kernel (it's accesible through /proc/config.gz, copy it somewhere, run gunzip config.gz, then cp config /usr/src/linux/.config). The extraction works for kernels 2.6.x only. . A simple make menuconfig, then making sure the cmedia modules are selected (built in or as modules) followed by a make and a make modules_install will build your kernel alongside with the installation of the modules. A make install will create a bootloader entry, will modify the symlinks /boot/initrd and /boot/vmlinuz to the newly created initrd-2.x.x-xmdkcustom and vmlinuz-2.x.x-xmdkcustom. Make sure that you have at least one option in the bootloader (either failsafe boot either normal booting) where the initrd and vmlinuz files are reffered by the full name of the original kernel (as in not symlinks pointing to a supposedly old kernel image). This is in case the compiled kernel will panic and won't boot, thus remaining with an option of booting with the old kernel...

Only thing about recompiling is that it takes a long time if your CPU isn't fast. The less the options selected in the kernel, the more the chances your system will boot up faster (6 secs till the kernel gives control to init scripts and 37 to the login screen on an 800Mhz Athlon with 2.6.7-2 recompiled kernel, as opposed to about a minute or so). Fewer options mean less compililng. Too few options might lead to an unbootable kernel

right then, that made my system a LOT faster - boots in 20 seconds but it didnt fix the sound problem.

I think that the problem is that im just missing all of the audio devices in the dev folder. makedev and the like dont seem to be able to create these devices either, so if there is another way to somehow get these devices into the folder, im all ears!

Ok, i've been trying to reply you for some time, but my session leeps expiring, so I'll be quick...

Your soundcard may be installed correctly, but only in sysfs (located in /sys), and not in devfs (/dev). You can search in /sys for your soundcard. It should be there. If it's not, it might be something more compicated due to the fact that it's an onboard card. My PCI 8738 is in /sys/bus/pci/drivers. Also, you'll find some valuable info in /sys/class/sound, among wich some device nodes. For example, for my system in the /sys/class/sound/mixer/dev file there's a number (the first one) that represents the /dev/mixer device node, so I can do a mknod /dev/mixer b 14 3. This works for my system, where that file says the dev type is 14:3.

My /dev/dsp is 14:0, so you could try creating it with mknod /dev/dsp b 14 0, if your mixer also has major nr. 14, minor nr. 3 (14:3).

ok then, this has changed the error message. The devices are now in the /dev folder, which is a lot better than before!

Now the error message is that the device is not present at 14 0. I guess this is to do with irq settings. Could you look in your harddrake 2 tool under the 8738 soundcard and see where it says your location on the bus is?

mine is 0:13:0 which seems like a close enough number to the 14.

EDIT: another interesting thing i just found - in the kde desktop manager, (or "configure your desktop") in the information/sound section, it says "no soundcards" and audio, synth, midi and mixer devices "NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG"

Could this have any effect?

I Have FC2 on the 8738 system, but on the one I am right now the dsp is major 14 minor 3, just like on the other system. The soundcard is a Sound Blaster Audigy, and harddrake 2 says: Location on the bus: ‎0:d:0, so i think it's 0x0d = 13 plus one (counting starts with 0, therefore, 0d would be the 14th entry). I'm really not too familiar with the way devices are asigned to major/minor numbers.

For /dev/dsp you should try using the command "mknod /dev/dsp b 14 3". This is different from my FC2. Use the number in /sys/class/sound/dsp/dev. If the file exists. Try with 14:3 and see if you get the same error.

hmm after a reboot its created a dsp dir and removed the dsp file

I think ill do a reinstall of mandrake. be back in about 1hr after a reinstall!

reinstall complete!

I hav tried dsp 14 3, which didnt work.

In my /sys/class/sound folder i have 5 other folders: controlc0, seq, sequencer, sequencer2 and timer.

These folders correspond with each of the devices in either the /dev/sound or /dev/snd folders.

The error I now get, after creating a dsp device is "error starting dsp (no such device or device location), which I presume means that the wrong numbers are being used?

EDIT: another thing i always seem to get after running alsaconf:

"/usr/sbin/alsactl: save_state:1061: No soundcards found..."

It picks up the soundcard fine, but then on exiting, this happens.

This also happens in verbose mode startup ie when the ALSA service is started on boot

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=190083

just found this - looks like an almost identical problem, just with a different card!

The error you get means there was an error installing your soundcard. It detected it, tried to install the modules (which need the /dev/dsp. a.s.o. files, which were not there/invalid), failed, but did not report the failure to alsa conf that asssumed everything went ok, and then tried to set up the volumes (this is one use for alsactl). As the installation failed, alsactl couldn't set up the volumes, thus the error reptorted on exit.

Also, on boot, after alsa loads the kernel modules, it tries to restore the volumes you had upon shutdown, using, yup, you guessed it... alsctl, filing for the sam reasons. Have you tried kernel 2.4.25? It seems the 2.6 branch has some little problems like this due to the sysfs. This is my best guess. 2.6 introduced the sysfs, trying to eliminate devfs. In the kernel config, the support for devfs (/dev entries) is marked [DEPRECATED], kept only for backwards compatibility. The drivers might get confused about sysfs and devfs, in the end not installing the devices in dev (which is odd), becasue they already installed them in /sys.

It would be interesting to see what happens if you use a PCI soundcard (even a CMedia 8738 PCI soundcard). At least this way we'd know if it's caused by the hardware (onboard sound) or the software (kernel 2.6).

I'd suggest first trying to boot with kernel 2.4.25. It's on the MDK10.0OE CDs. This should have no support for /sys, so after it boots, run alsaconf and see what happens.

I can use the older kernel, which gives me sound

However, on the older kernel I lose my internet connection as i am connected through an external wireless device plugged into a usb port. Apparently the 2.6 usb support is needed for this device.

I have just found a script in /usr/src/linux/sound called snddrivers

It appears to install all of the audio devices into the /dev folder. Still no sound though. Is it possible to disable ALSA altogether and just use OSS?

ok, its definitely a kernel issue as it didnt work with an old sound blaster 16 that i found either

EDIT: is it possible to upgrade the kernel to the latest version?

I hope that was not an ISA sound card, as for those, stuff get complicated. You need the isapnp package and as I recall the ISA support in 2.6 kernels is not so great. I experienced some trouble with an ISA SB AWE64 .

You can try the 2.6.7-2 kernel. It's the one I'm using right now. It's in the cooker somewhere (in cooker/Mandrake/RPMS or something like this. There are some mirrors for the cooker, you should find one close to your location). Scroll down at the bottom of the cooker homepage to see the mirrors. It's about 15 megs .

I'd recommend the sources, as you'll have some trouble due to the difference between the gcc used to compile the kernel and the one used in MDK10.0. In my case it failed to install NVidia kernel modules, lsmod saying something like (-1) Invalid kernel module. After a recompile everything was ok. The sources are 41MB or 15MB (a so-called stripped version). I dunno the difference between the stripped and the full kernel sources, but i guess some support for old/incomplete/experimental evices were dropped.