anyone gotten the ESS 1868 card working?

I don't particularly want to use ALSA, it is a PITA. I tried, then ran out of time, and gave up.

Is there a kernel that has nice and simple support for it?

Currently running slackware 9.0 on an old IBM Pentium 200mmx.

I also have that soundcard on a P133, running slack9.0.

look in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules and find/add this:
(it should be already there, just uncomment it)

modprobe sb io=0x220 irq=5 dma=3 dma16=15 mpu_io=0x300

some of this may change for your system, but you get the point

How do I tell what the hardware settings are?

I don't do modules. What should I compile into the kernel?

The 1868 is already pnp, so try using the isapnp tools to check the settings, but i suppose that if you have a simple pc, it should default to those settings.

in the kernel, i suppose compiling standard sound support & soundblaster compatible cards should be enough, but i've never tried without modules, so it's up to you

Alright, I compiled in SB or 100% compatible support as a module in the kernel.

I'm willing to do anything now to get it working. What do I do....?

I got it to work on an old box running Mandrake 9.1.
All I had to do was 'sndconfig', which detected the Plug 'n Play card like a charm.

This is OOB slackware 9.1. No sndconfig exists.

Sorry - but that's the reason why I said I got it working in Mandrake.
What's OOB?

Out Of Box

I suppose modprobind like in my 1st post should get it running

I gave up on the ess 1868.

I put in a vibra 16c and all was good.