I have put in a Creative Labs SB 5.1 Live and upgraded to kernel 2.6 (my orig distro is FC1). Since 2.6 has alsa in the kernel source, I configured them as modules and wrote my /etc/modprobe.conf as follows. I have an Intel onboard sound so that's why I put in 2 sound card configuration. However I've not been able to get any soudn at all no matter what I tried.

**********************************************************************************
include /etc/modprobe.conf.dist
alias scsi_hostadapter ata_piix
# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
# --- ALSACONF verion 1.0.6 ---
alias char-major-116 snd
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-1-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-1-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-1-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss
alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
alias snd-card-1 snd-emu10k1
alias sound-slot-0 snd-emu10k1
alias sound-slot-1 snd-emu10k1
**********************************************************************************

Here's my lspci -vv output and dmesg. It looks like the SB card is being recognized, but yet in dmesg I dont' see ALSA doing anything with it... Is it a problem with IRQ? I've been struggling with this for a long time. ANy help will be very much appreciated.

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 0162
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 17
Region 0: I/O ports at ee00 [size=256]
Region 1: I/O ports at edc0 [size=64]
Region 2: Memory at febffa00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
Region 3: Memory at febff900 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

02:01.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 0a)
Subsystem: Creative Labs: Unknown device 8066
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64 (500ns min, 5000ns max)
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 22
Region 0: I/O ports at dda0 [size=32]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

dmesg:
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 0.9.7 (Thu Sep 25 19:16:36 2003 UTC).
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.5 to 64
intel8x0: clocking to 48000
ALSA device list:
#0: Intel ICH5 at 0xfebffa00, irq 17

I think you need to disable the on board sound and then reboot. They may be conflicting with each other. Here any wrestling matches going on in there.

Also, make sure you unmute the sound. Linux is generally muted till you unmute it. Don't ask why, I'm just the messenger. I have done it myself and seen countless others do the same thing.

Hope that helps. I too disabled on board and installed a SB card.

When I disable sound in BIOS, ALSA found no sound card (in dmesg). Sounds like it's never found my SB card, although lspci was listing it, and when I cat /dev/dsp0 and /dev/dsp1 I"m seeing outputs. Am I missing some config (other than modprobe.conf)? Thanks for your help!

This is what mine says in dmesg:

Sure you have it in the kernel correctly? I did mine in the kernel instead of a module. It shouldn't matter but. You may also want to type in lsmod to make sure it loaded. Should be listed if it is.

You also might want to go into your kernel (make gconfig) and make sure that you've got the newer linux sound system enabled and the older one disabled. (I don't remember their names off the top of my head, but it'll tell you which is which in the comments.) My SB LIVE! MP3 card was pretty picky about that.

Good luck.

--Dane

check (and change alsa settings)
$ alsamixer

worked here.

luck
Bas

Thanks for all the replies. I've turned on the alsa support in kernel config, unmuted in alsamixer, and my lsmod is showing the following:

Module Size Used by
snd_mixer_oss 18272 -
snd_emu10k1 94212 -
snd_seq_device 7784 -
snd_util_mem 4288 -
snd_hwdep 8864 -

I still suspect that for some reason the device is not being recognized, evident by the no-show of ALSA device in dmesg once I turned off on-board sound. The card is working fine in Windows though. I have to be missing some config? just don't know what it is...

There is another place to unmute but I can't remember where it is. There is one that is command line and one in the GUI. You might try searching, I found it once when I did mine.

I wish I had better memory.

Later

I got it!! Disabling onboard sound actually did the magic. The only reason why I didn't notice this at first was that I tested with the cd player, which wouldnt' work unless I turned on digital audio extraction in xmms per this thread: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/214061.

Thanks everyone for helping out! I still dont' understand why my dmesg is saying 'No Sound card detected', but I'm surely much happier now that i hear sound, i can tell you that much!

Woooo Hoooooooo