whew... i finally managed to compile the 2.6.0 kernel. i'm having problems with my sound though, during startup this is the message i'm getting : "ALSA Device List : No soundcards detected"

i tried running alsamixer from the CLI and this is the error i'm getting

"alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default : No such device"

what should i do ? how do i configure sound on 2.6.0 ?

Did you try alsaconf? More info about alsa can be found at http://www.alsa-project.org/

yup, tried alsaconf the first time..... its not detecting anything either

Ok I cant remember the details, but I recall there being two different lists of drivers for the oss sound and for alsa sound. Did you make sure to check you alsa sound driver?

Sorry not much help.

Oh and if you are using modules did you make sure to have them modprobed?

I had the exact same problem when I tried to compile ALSA into the 2.6.0 kernel. Absolutely no sound and I got the same error message you received about "No soundcards detected". I know this may seem more like a pain than you would like, but here's what I did to solve the problem.

1) Remove any installed ALSA packages that are currently on your computer. With a default Slack 9.1 install, ALSA 0.9.6 was present. Doing a "ls -l /var/log/packages/alsa*" will tell you if you have any installed.

2) Reconfigure your kernel .config file to support sound, but do not build in support (and not as modules either) for ALSA or OSS.

3) Recompile your kernel.

4) Get the latest code and instructions for ALSA from www.alsa-project.org.

5) Follow the instructions to build and install the various components of ALSA from source.

6) Make sure you level set the master volume and PCM volume using alsamixer or kmix or whatever as the sounds levels will all initially be muted.

This should give you a working sound system with the latest ALSA drivers. However, you may need to edit your /etc/rc.modules file to include the correct modprobes that are included in the ALSA compilation instructions so that you have sound once you reboot.

I know this sounds like it is a lot of work, but this was the only way I could manage to get sound in 2.6.0, and it probably only took me about 30 minutes once I got the appropriate sources and instructions downloaded.

Hope that helps.

Tino27

That's a good idea, but what if I want to use both kernels (naturally not in the same time)? I have Alsa with 2.4.22 (9.1 "built in") and it works perfectly, autodetects soundcard (I don't have to "modprobe" anything), so I really don't want to get rid of this.
Unluckily Alsa, which comes with 2.6.0 kernel, doesn't behave so friendly. No autodetection, I have to "modprobe" proper module, and even then arts from KDE doesn't want to start, complaining about missing /dev/dsp (but of course it is and with 2.4.22 works OK).
But if I totally remove both Alsa version and decide to compile original one, do I have to do it twice, with both kernels (probably so)? And what with Alsa libraries, also twice?
I think it has not many chances to work, maybe someone could give a little advice?

Waldi, to put your concerns to ease.

When I upgraded to the 2.6.0 kernel, I also kept my 2.4.22 kernel around as well (just in case I needed it). I did what I posted above and got sound working in 2.6.0. Sure enough, I needed to return to 2.4.22 to get VMWare to behave correctly and sound was also working in 2.4.22. I didn't need to recompile specifically for the 2.4.22 kernel.

The other thing to remember, too, is that if you do decide to return to the 2.4.22 kernel and the 1.0.0rc2 ALSA isn't working, uninstall it and simply reinstall the ALSA packages from the original Slack disks.

But, like I said, it works in both 2.6.0 and 2.4.22 for me.

I had exactly the same problem. maybe you already recompiled everything, but my solution was a lot simpler. the thing was (at least with me) that the /dev/snd/xxx devices were not there... you have to run the snddevices script in the alsa drivers source to create them. no compilation at all
after that you can run alsamixer (and make sure to unmute the master channel if it.s muted... (shift-M to toggle mute/unmute))

anadyr,
can u explain clearly how to run alsa sound script?
i have the similar problem.
my sound are totally not working.

vi /proc/asound/cards gived me "No sound cards"
but ISA PNP detected my sound card as opl3sa2 during boot time.
i ran alsaconf b4, it detected my sound card as opl3sa2 but end of
with doing nothing.
i can't run alsamixer or alsactl at all.

When i tried to click the speaker icon, i got this message:
Couldn't open mixer device /dev/sound/mixer

Note: i droped OSS totally since it was depreciated.

Please help.Thanks

-download this file:
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa/ftp...0.0rc2.tar.bz2

-unpack it
tar jxvf alsa-driver-1.0.0rc2.tar.bz2

-run as root the snddevices script in the file
./snddevices

then you should be able to run alsamixer...
(and if there.s no sound toggle mute/unmute with shift-M)

Thanks everyone. My sound is ok now.

thanks guys, i just read this post and am gonna try the above suggestions