Now I'm trying to get my sound card configured. It's a Shuttle AK31A mobo with built in VIA AC'97 card and I'm using kernel version 2.4.18 with the sound drivers built into the kernel.

When I type "dmesg" command, I do see the drivers listed:

VIA 686a, audio driver 1.9.1
AC97_codec, id: 0x4943: 0x451c (ICE1232)

I have Slackware 8.0 and can't seem to find/use command, Sndconfig, I get message, Not Found, even when I'm root!

I've tried using xmms to play a mp3 file and with the terminal window open, I see the error message, /dev/dsp Permission Denied.

How can I get this to work?

Thnx.

try to install sndconfig from setup cd. you can use pkgtool.

as far as i know, slackware doesnt use sndconfig or whatever it is the previous user said to do, as far as i know that is a redhat program?

ok, it seems that your sound module is loaded ok so that is all good now you just need to give your user account permission to use the sound devices.

all the following should be done as root
create a new group called sound which will own the snd devs

groupadd sound

(if this doesnt work try addgroup sound)
then in your favourite text editor, edit /etc/group file to add the desired user to group sound. look in this file for the bit to do with the group sound, and next to the colon ( add your username. if you need to add more than one user separate these with commas but no spaces at all :user1,user2,user3

then save the file.

next run these commands again as root.

chown root:sound /dev/dsp
chown root:sound /dev/mixer
chown root:sound /dev/audio
and also do this for dev/sequencer if you like
then...

chmod 660 /dev/dsp
chmod 660 /dev/mixer
chmod 660 /dev/audio
and also for /dev/sequencer of you did it above as well

then you need to log out of the current user (if thats the one you added to the group file) and then log back in and you sohould be able to use the sound devices.

People might tell you to just do a
chmod 666 /dev/dsp
but if you have any security concerns at all, my way is a lot better.

Don't have experience with the kernel build-in sounddrivers. They are reputed
simple. You can go two ways: OSS (commercial) and ALSA (free).
I choosed for ALSA. the installation of the ALSA stuff is not very simple, but can be done. www.alsa-project.org. Your sound-card seems supported!
Perhaps you have to rebuild your kernel, providing only CONFIG-SOUND=y and all other sound-option not.
You should go for the 0.9.0... version of ALSA
download driver, lib, utils, perhaps tools & OSS compat lib (last two not necessary for just playing sounds) & install them.
In the driver section there is a directory 'util' with a script 'alsasound' which you can place in e.g. /etc/init.d/alsasound (where i have it) and call at boot time in /etc/rc.d/rc.local, Don't forget to adapt your /etc/modules.conf and indeed, add there the support for OSS. Especially this adaption requires some study...
This having done and being able to play a .wav sound with alsa's aplay, you want to be able to play mp3's from an Xwindow.
I am very satisfied with XMMS under KDE. All sort of plugins available for all sorts of sounds. www.xmms.org
By the way: KDE supports ALSA for its sound-stuff.
enjoy
Douwe.

Try the following options:

1) modprobe ac97
modprobe ac07_codec

2) modprobe via82cxxx_audio

One of them may work.

James Dixon

Thnx again for the replies. I tried Sickboy's suggestions and still not getting anything to work. I will give your suggestions a try, Jdixon. Do you think it may work even though the sound drivers are built into the kernel?

Do you think it may work if I recompiled them as modules?

I have a mobo Biostar M6VLQ with also use the VIA AC'97.

The chipset is a PLE133T with have as southbridge: VT82C686B

I compiled the sound driver into the kernel using the option in the sound section of make menuconfig (or make xconfig): "VIA82C86 audio codec"

and dmesg produce the output:

Via 686a audio driver 1.9.1
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:07.5
ac97_codec: AC97 Audio codec, id: 0x414c:0x4710 (AL
C200/200P)
via82cxxx: board #1 at 0xDC00, IRQ 10

do you have the lines about irq?

hope this information help you ^_^

If you already have the via drivers compiled into your kernel, then no, using the modprobe commands I suggested won't do any good. I didn't realize you had already compiled them into your kernel. The dmesg messages are your kernel recognizing the hardware, but that doesn't necesarily mean that the drivers are compiled in.

The /dev/dsp permission denied problem is, as you would expect, a permissions problem. You should be able to fix it by giving world read and write permissions to /dev/dsp (chmod 666 /dev/dsp). Sickboy's suggestion is a more secure (and therefore more complicated) method of accomplishing the same thing. You may find that you also have to modify permissions on the other files he mentioned.

James Dixon

BittaBrotha, do you sound with anytget hing else? Like when you log into KDE or Gnome, and system notifications or don't you get sound at all?

When I type dmesg, all I see is what I typed in my first post. Yes I do see the IRQ which is 11.

No, I don't hear any system sounds either when using KDE are any other WM! I just don't understand why I'm having such a hard time with this.

The most simple way to find out what the problem is this.

Can u get sound as root? if you can get sound as root but not as user then my above suggestions should in theory fix the problem.

If you dont get sound as root either then it is something else that is causing this problem. I have has issues before when I have compiled sound support and soundcard support into the kernel so now i always make a habit of compiling in as modules. besides this, some soundcards wont offer a full feature set when compiled into the kernel as modules can be passed with modprobe when loading the modules.

To determine if you have sound as root get yourself a .wav file or find one on the computer with a command like
updatedb
locate *.wav

then for any given .wav file run the following command as root from the command like

cat /path/to/file/file.av > /dev/dsp

if you hear sound thru the speakers then you do have sound as root and it is probably a permission thing. basically the above command is the most basic sound operation you can perform and if your system has sound, this *will* work.

try compiling modules rather than into the kernelk and then as root you will need to modprobe the modules

/sbin/modprobe emu10k1 ->or whatever sound module you need to use, i use this one as i have a soundblaster live.

then try as root the above cat command. if it now works, then try what i said in my first post and it should all be good.

Hope this helps

In file file "/etc/modules.conf"
You need a line like this
alias sound yousoundchip

Ummm...doesnt anyone actually read what the guy said?
currently he has sound compiled into the kernel, not as a module, so this is irrelavant

Also, i have used sound modules without the need for this line (i think )

Regards
Stuart

Sorry for the evil suggestion, but:

Why not try with window$?

if it's a hardware problem it will not work in Window$ either. ^_-

You noticed that Sickboy...lots of suggestions on module sound! Well maybe I will try that, recompile the sound as modules, that may work, since everybody suggest do modprobe stuff...lol...and yes the sound works fine in any version of windoze 9x/NT flavors. (

Also I may try to see if the Alsa drivers may work with!