Hi,

My computer's sound card is not recognized. some websites suggest to upgrade the kernel from 2.4.27-3-386 to 2.6.x. Do i need to upgrade the kernel? I also tried installing alsa packages but it doesnt help much.

My pc configuration: Pentium 300MHZ and 226 mb Ram (using Debian Etch). Its an old machine and i dont have details about sound card. It worked nicely in Windows 2000.

Any help/ideas/suggestions to make it work?

thanks

At the command line prompt, as root type, apt-cache search linux-image, to view a list of kernel images. Look for one to fit your system. I guess a 300mhz is i586, and then type, apt-get install linux-image-whatever you choose. Make sure to choose the 2.6.18 is the latest.

You may have to check in windows to see what type of sound card it use.

You might get some hints about the audio device with the 'lspci' command.

Thanks i will try today and update you. I cannot check my sound card in windows, because i did not choose dual boot option and wiped out windows unfortunately.

Hi,

i have limited knowledge on linux internels. Will it be easier for me to install the new kernel? Do i need to compile stuff like that? If yes, is there any easier option for me to install the kernel alone, because i prefer not to re-install etch again.

thanks

Does sound work with VectorLinux?

To install a stock kernel.

As root in a terminal window

apt-get update
apt-get install linux-image-2.6.18

make sure its the image for your system.

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440LX/EX - 82443LX/EX Host bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440LX/EX - 82443LX/EX AGP bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
0000:00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
0000:00:10.0 USB Controller: Silicon Image, Inc. (formerly CMD Technology Inc) USB0673 (rev 06)
0000:00:14.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev 0c)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 86C326 5598/6326 (rev 0b)


this is what i am getting... ? I dont see the any clues about audio device

btw, will it be faster if i upgrade the kernel to 2.6.18-i586?

You're right, no trace of a sound card there..
I'm starting to think you probably have some old ISA-bus card, that would explain why it isn't shown there. Hopefully someone with ISA experience (I got nil) will see this and help you out.
Yes

i managed to find the sound card details by installing windows. it is creative sound blaster 16 plug and play. any ideas how to make it work in debian sarge version

You could try to get it to play with the OSS driver, try this:
- uninstall all the alsa packages you have installed
- reboot
- login as root, load the sb driver module (modprobe sb)
- startX and see if you can get sound out of any application

You could have just booted up a live CD like KNOPPIX to figure out which card you have. It looks like you need to load the "sb16" kernel module according to the ALSA project web site.

Do:

and your sound card should start working.

http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc...-Creative_Labs

Thanks for the tip. sound is working fine. Here is what i did.

1. Installed Etch directly from RC1 installer cd
2. logged in as root
3. Fired this command modprobe sb
4. Start the KDE

Sounds is working good. I could listen to music. :-). Sad part of this whole exercise is - Etch is just too slow...:-(.

Thanks to all

I think the problem is that the Debian kernel-image for sarge isn't set up right for isa pnp support.

I use a soundblaster AWE32 pnp which is pretty much the same thing as an SB16 pnp, except with some extra midi related hardware. It too is an ISA pnp card from the time where 'plug and pray' got it's name. The problem is that the stock kernel-image, at least the ones I tried for Sarge, don't seem to be configured properly for ISA pnp. However, if I download debian's kernel-source and configure it manually, I was able to get the sound working with no problems. It never made much sense as to why, because it has all the related settings enabled in the kernel image (checked it out by loading the kernel-image's config in and looking at the settings in menuconfig). I think perhaps, other setting they have enabled, or set as module, is creating some strange conflict. Possibly, since I have my kernel configured very precisely, in relation to the hardware I'm running, I must have avoided the possible conflict.



Maybe that issue was worked out in later 2.6 kernel version that Etch happens to be up to.

Anyway, for future reference in case you run into this issue again, it's just really a matter of having something in place to configure proper resources to an ISA PnP card (set their registers which is the equivilent of setting jumpers on legacy ISA cards, except it's just being done in software instead of physically). That something can be the kernel itself (if configured properly) or some third-party solution such as isapnptools. I believe that there is also many other options you could opt to go with if you so choosed. Personally, I like avoid such routes if the kernel can handle things.