Installed debian 3.0r1 "woody" the other day
changed the apt stuff to upgrade my packages to "unstable"

Both KDE & Gnome & xmms etc complain that there is no sound installed. I took a look in the /dev directory, and noticed that that dsp, dsp1,dsp2, dsp3,dsp4 are there.

while installing, i selected to install the agpart & ntfs options for the kernel, but nothing else... is this why my sound is broken?

Using onboard sound.

Have you recompiled? You should not have to (unless your onboard sound is not supported by the kernel you are using).

Give us the output of:

uname -a

lspci -v

then run:

modconf

and go to sound and select the appropriate module (if you know what it is from the output of lspci -v)

Next, add your user to the sound group: (I use usermod -G audio myname). Logout/in.

Good Luck!

$ uname -a
Linux penance 2.4.18-bf2.4 #1 Son Apr 14 09:53:28 CEST 2002 i686 GNU/Linux

$lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8363/8365 [KT133/KM133] (rev 02)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8363/8365 [KT133/KM133 AGP] (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
Memory behind bridge: dc000000-ddffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: d0000000-d7ffffff
Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:06.0 Communication controller: Lucent Microelectronics 56k WinModem (rev 01)
Subsystem: Multiwave Innovation pte Ltd: Unknown device 9804
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 5
Memory at df000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
I/O ports at c000 [size=8]
I/O ports at c400 [size=256]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:07.0 Ethernet controller: Winbond Electronics Corp W89C940
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 11
I/O ports at c800 [size=32]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=32K]

00:14.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 22)
Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686/A PCI to ISA Bridge
Flags: bus master, stepping, medium devsel, latency 0

00:14.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT8233/A/C/VT8235 PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 10) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32
I/O ports at cc00 [size=16]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:14.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 10) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. (Wrong ID) USB Controller
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 5
I/O ports at d000 [size=32]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:14.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 10) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. (Wrong ID) USB Controller
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 5
I/O ports at d400 [size=32]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:14.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 30)
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 3
Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:14.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 20)
Subsystem: FIRST INTERNATIONAL Computer Inc: Unknown device 8905
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 10
I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
I/O ports at dc00 [size=4]
I/O ports at e000 [size=4]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV28 [GeForce4 Ti 4200 AGP 8x] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.: Unknown device 8943
Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 248, IRQ 11
Memory at dc000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <available only to root>


the section in bold looked like my audio stuff, so i ran modconf and selected the following modules:
ac97
ac97_codec
soundcore
via82cxxx_audio

Will I need to reboot after this?

nevermind, xmms is happy, maybe gnome is just weird. would i need to logout/login for gnome to be happy? it still reports that /dev/sound/mixer isn't there.

update: turns out xmms is only happy to play when i launch it from a root command prompt; does this have anything with the line for my audio controller saying:

Capabilities: <available only to root>

?

Thanks much for all the excellent help.

that's a lspci function: if ran as root you get more info. Is your user in the audio group? If not, add them. Logout/login. That should fix it right up.

usermod -G audio nameofuser