I have seen numerous posts, and tried many things, but I cannot get the sound to work.

Here is the entry in rc.modules :

### Sound support ###
/sbin/modprobe cmpci <-------------------------here we go
# Sound Blaster Pro/16 support:
#/sbin/modprobe sb io=0x220 irq=5 dma=3 dma16=5 mpu_io=0x300
# Sound Blaster Live support:

Here is the output of lspci :

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset Host Bridge (rev 11)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 11 )
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #1) (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #2) (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #3) (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BA/CA/DB PCI Bridge (rev 81)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DB ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DB ICH4 IDE (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 MX/MX 400] (rev a1)
02:03.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10) <-----------------------------right here
02:0c.0 Ethernet controller: D-Link System Inc RTL8139 Ethernet (rev 10)

This is the output of lsmod :

Module Size Used by Tainted: P
nvidia 1539808 10 (autoclean)
ide-scsi 8048 0
cmpci 24976 0 (unused) <--------------Yep
soundcore 3332 2 [cmpci] <--------------Yep

Here is the output of 'modinfo cmpci' :

filename: /lib/modules/2.4.20/cmpci.o
description: "CM8x38 Audio Driver"
author: "ChenLi Tien, cltien@cmedia.com.tw"
license: "GPL"
parm: mpuio int, description "(0x330, 0x320, 0x310, 0x300) Base of MPU-401, 0 to disable"
parm: fmio int, description "(0x388, 0x3C8, 0x3E0) Base of OPL3, 0 to disable"
parm: spdif_inverse int, description "(1/0) Invert S/PDIF-in signal"
parm: spdif_loop int, description "(1/0) Route S/PDIF-in to S/PDIF-out directly"
parm: speakers int, description "(2-6) Number of speakers you connect"
parm: use_line_as_rear int, description "(1/0) Use line-in jack as rear-out"
parm: use_line_as_bass int, description "(1/0) Use line-in jack as bass/center"
parm: joystick int, description "(1/0) Enable joystick interface, still need joystick driver"


And 'modinfo soundcore' :

filename: /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/sound/soundcore.o.gz
description: "Core sound module"
author: "Alan Cox"
license: "GPL"



I still cannot play any sound files, and I still get this error on bootup in KDE :

Sound server informational message:
Error while initializing the sound driver:
device /dev/dsp can't be opened (No such device)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device.


And last but not least, yes sound is supported in kernel, and I chose to have CM8738 support as module.

I don't know if this has anything to do with it :
motherboard = Asus P4B533 (intel 845E chipset)
C-media chip is built into the board.

Any ideas ? I am out of things to try. Please help. And please don't simply suggest "alsa". I am aware of that as an option, and I want to get the sound working in the regular fasion before I move on to something more advanced.

JC

Did you make sure to set the correct permissions as root so all users can use sound?

chmod 666 /dev/dsp* /dev/mixer*

Thanks for the reply trickykid. I did set the permissions for /dev/dsp and /dev/mixer to 777. I also set the permissions wide open to the directory '/dev' , just to make sure that permissions were not hosing me .

JC

Sometimes that's your only option. Those intel boards/chipsets have been known to be tricky at times. You may have to turn to alsa (which, from the looks of what you've done, won't be anything at all for you to get running). Alsa is a good option to look at.

So, besides suggesting alsa, I really don't see anything wrong with what you've done so far. It appears that it should be working. However, maybe your card just isn't gonna work with a default driver....

Cool

I may be late on asking this, but have you tried compiling the sound support and the driver directly into the kernel, rather than moduling them? I found that I had to do this on an older onboard crystal card in an old P1 that used to be my wife's. I did everything you did to try and get that stupid thing to work short of compiling it directly into the kernel. When I finally found out, after searching on the net for nearly a week straight, that this had to be done, I did it, and wallah, sound came through fine.

Similar thing had happened with a SB(wannabe) card I had bought. for the damned thing. Something about that onboard card and intel chipsets... *shrug*

Just thought about another thing: PNP support - compiled in, or modular?
I've found this to make a difference with certain devices as well. *shrug*

Just some more ideas to try out.

I ended up getting the ALSA drivers for my via vt82c686 AC97 controller .... still didn't work: then I checked the BIOS (press del or f1 or f11 at boot) and found sound was disabled. I'm still getting problems, something somewhere is switching it off every now and again, but it always comes back, I just have to use the BIOS configurer.

pbhj

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. And as far as compiling sound into the kernel, it's certainly not a bad idea. The only thing that gets me is that when I installed Suse and Redhat, both distros picked up my sound card with no problem. And as most of us have found out, the stock kernels that come with those distros are modular kernels (lots of modules).

So my question is, what am I doing wrong in Slack ? What is it that I am missing here that will not allow me to do the same?

And as I have found out with Slackware, it is not the distros fault. There is always something that I have missed, and when I find it, it is a glorious thing.

EDIT : BTW: I realize that Suse uses Alsa. Does Redhat also use alsa ? Maybe that's why they work so well with sound.

JC

Alright, I think I've got it.

When I use the default IDE kernel that Slackware 9.0 installs, I can specify in 'rc.modules' that I want the 'cmpci' module (or any other module) , and it will load successfully. I can play audio now.

What this told me is that I missed something in configuring the kernel. And I did. I made the sound support part of the kernel, and only made the C-media support modular. I believe that this was my mistake. The sound support should have been modular.

JC

Don't ya just feel all warm and fuzzy now?