This question is very similar to thread #101027. I've just moved from Red Hat 9 to Debian 3.0... The word 'moved' is not really appropriate since at work we still use RedHat.. Anyways, after installing Debian I got this error:

"Sound server information message
Error while inializing the sound driver
Device /dev/dsp can't be opened. No such device.
The sound server will continue using the null input device."

And it appears each time I log to KDE -> I checked the permissions, and everyone has r-w permissions. My friend suggested to use modconf, but there are no audio modules.. This is the result of an lspci -v (although I don't know why it's important to be seen):

00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 0650 (rev 01)
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 8079
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32
Memory at ee000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [c0] AGP version 2.0

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5591/5592 AGP (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
Memory behind bridge: ed800000-edffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: f0000000-febfffff

00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 0961
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:02.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001 (rev 07) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 807a
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 3
Memory at ed000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)

00:02.3 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001 (rev 07) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 807a
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 9
Memory at ec800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)

00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE] (rev d0) (prog-if 80 [Master])
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 807a
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 32
I/O ports at b800

00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS7012 PCI Audio Accelerator (rev a0)
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 805e
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 5
I/O ports at a800
I/O ports at a400
Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 2

00:03.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 10/100 Ethernet (rev 90)
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 807c
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 9
I/O ports at a000
Memory at ec000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

00:0e.0 Modem: PCTel Inc HSP MicroModem 56 (rev 02) (prog-if 04 [Hayes/16750])
Subsystem: PCTel Inc: Unknown device 0001
Flags: stepping, medium devsel, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 9800
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 6325 (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 8079
Flags: 66Mhz, medium devsel, IRQ 11
BIST result: 00
Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)
Memory at ed800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
I/O ports at d800
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 1
Capabilities: [50] AGP version 2.0

Hope you can help me sort this one out. Thanks.

PS: I moved to Debian because of the apt-get power. Does an 'apt-get -u dist-upgrade' upgrades my distribution as well as my kernel? How can I find if there are any security updates to be done?

Ganninu.

Have you run 'adduser yraccount audio' (where yraccount is the name of your user account) to give yourself access to the audio device?

Also it seems that your soundcard is an integrated sound chipset with ac97-codec produced by SiS.
run modconf and select the 'i810_audio' driver and it should work.

The other question:

An easy way is to use aptitude to manage packages.
(you have the line , do you?)

You can just press u (same as running apt-get update) to get new package lists and it
shows what packages has to be updated.

I haven't done 'adduser myccount audio' yet, but even doing it, modconf doesn't give me the opportunity to select *any* audio drivers - the onle modules available are for:

fs
cdrom
network
block, and
misc (a strange module)

In fact you're right, the driver which I need is the i810_audio driver after doing some research. The problem is that although I know which driver I want, I don't know how to proceed.. Thanks a lot.

Ganninu

By the way, thanks for your response - it made me reflect from not jumping to another distro such as Slackware. The problem is that I think that I have a very compact version of Debian (Debian 3.0 r.0) and it had no modules, so i have to start it from scratch - though it would be nice to find out how I can I install modules instead of re-installing release 1 which comes with a kernel supporting audio modules (Although I'm already downloading its iso)

First you need some debian network source line in the /etc/apt/sources.list, like or your local alternative.
You could use 'apt-setup' to set those up. If you have installed debian from network, you allready have these ok.

Now you could install new kernel (with all those modules) by

• first running 'apt-get update' or press u in aptitude (if you have changed the sources list) .
• Picking up the proper kernel-image packgage. There are few ways to do it.
  First check your processor architecture (use 'cat /proc/cpuinfo' if you are not sure). And install one of (kernel-image-2.4.18-1-k6,kernel-image-2.4.18-1-386 kernel-image-2.4.18-1-686,
  kernel-image-2.4.18-1-k7, kernel-image-2.4.18-1-586tsc kernel-image-2.4.18-1-686-smp).
• You can use the command 'apt-get install kernel-image-2.4.18-1-XXX' (where XXX is your selection). Or you can use aptitude to visually browse and select the package
  (Tip: Use the limit-command in aptitude (hit l and type kernel), now you see only a list of packages that has a word 'kernel' in their name so the correct packages are easier to find)

I've installed the new kernel successfuly!!! thanks a lot. I've also managed to install the sound modules and now the error is not appearing. However when I play an mp3 although i can see the equaliser bars moving, i can hear no sounds - possibly something is muted, but as a new debian user I cannot really find out where to tweak it. Any tips? thanks again.

edit: Ok I managed to make it work using the gnome mixer... Is there a similar mixer for KDE???

Download a mixer app like tkmixer, aumix or whatever else. Make sure you've actually loaded the right module (i810_audio) as well.

hey ganninu, did u get ur sndcard working?
could yu post ur kernel config file here for me? i have the sis7012, and it wont work, no matter what i try. i have the i810_audio and ac97 modules up, but no use - all i hear are just console beeps and audio cd's.

Yes I got it working. all I needed to do was apt-get install kmixer and turn OFF aRts at startup... Where is the kernel config file?

/boot/config-running_kernel_version_number eg. /boot/config-2.4.22

It's really big man... and as you can see it didn't fit...

#
# Automatically generated make config: don't edit
#
CONFIG_X86=y
CONFIG_ISA=y
# CONFIG_SBUS is not set
CONFIG_UID16=y

#
# Code maturity level options
#
CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL=y

#
# Loadable module support
#
CONFIG_MODULES=y
CONFIG_MODVERSIONS=y
CONFIG_KMOD=y

#
# Processor type and features
#
# CONFIG_M386 is not set
# CONFIG_M486 is not set
# CONFIG_M586 is not set
# CONFIG_M586TSC is not set
# CONFIG_M586MMX is not set
CONFIG_M686=y
# CONFIG_MPENTIUMIII is not set
# CONFIG_MPENTIUM4 is not set
# CONFIG_MK6 is not set
# CONFIG_MK7 is not set
# CONFIG_MELAN is not set
# CONFIG_MCRUSOE is not set
# CONFIG_MWINCHIPC6 is not set
# CONFIG_MWINCHIP2 is not set
# CONFIG_MWINCHIP3D is not set
# CONFIG_MCYRIXIII is not set
CONFIG_X86_WP_WORKS_OK=y
CONFIG_X86_INVLPG=y
CONFIG_X86_CMPXCHG=y
CONFIG_X86_XADD=y
CONFIG_X86_BSWAP=y
CONFIG_X86_POPAD_OK=y
# CONFIG_RWSEM_GENERIC_SPINLOCK is not set
CONFIG_RWSEM_XCHGADD_ALGORITHM=y
CONFIG_X86_L1_CACHE_SHIFT=5
CONFIG_X86_TSC=y
CONFIG_X86_GOOD_APIC=y
CONFIG_X86_PGE=y
CONFIG_X86_USE_PPRO_CHECKSUM=y
CONFIG_X86_PPRO_FENCE=y
CONFIG_TOSHIBA=m
CONFIG_I8K=m
CONFIG_MICROCODE=m
CONFIG_X86_MSR=m
CONFIG_X86_CPUID=m
CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM=y
# CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G is not set
# CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G is not set
# CONFIG_MATH_EMULATION is not set
CONFIG_MTRR=y
# CONFIG_SMP is not set
CONFIG_X86_UP_APIC=y
CONFIG_X86_UP_IOAPIC=y
CONFIG_X86_LOCAL_APIC=y
CONFIG_X86_IO_APIC=y

#
# General setup
#
CONFIG_NET=y
CONFIG_PCI=y
# CONFIG_PCI_GOBIOS is not set
# CONFIG_PCI_GODIRECT is not set
CONFIG_PCI_GOANY=y
CONFIG_PCI_BIOS=y
CONFIG_PCI_DIRECT=y
CONFIG_PCI_NAMES=y
CONFIG_EISA=y
CONFIG_MCA=y
CONFIG_HOTPLUG=y

#
# PCMCIA/CardBus support
#
CONFIG_PCMCIA=m
CONFIG_CARDBUS=y
CONFIG_I82092=y
CONFIG_I82365=y
CONFIG_TCIC=y

#
# PCI Hotplug Support
#
CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI=m
CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI_COMPAQ=m
CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI_COMPAQ_NVRAM=y
CONFIG_SYSVIPC=y
CONFIG_BSD_PROCESS_ACCT=y
CONFIG_SYSCTL=y
CONFIG_KCORE_ELF=y
# CONFIG_KCORE_AOUT is not set
CONFIG_BINFMT_AOUT=m
CONFIG_BINFMT_ELF=y
CONFIG_BINFMT_MISC=m
CONFIG_PM=y

ha - thanks. yeah, its big - can u do me a favor, and mail the file to me at r_menon1@yahoo.com?

appreciate it.

also, i see u disabled smp, and included all the apic support - my kernel doesnt boot wheni do that, and just ends with a "Aieee - kernel whatever".