hi, im trying to install gentoo (got most of it installed, just geting a few bugs out while i wait for a new monitor, i dont know the refresh rates for this one )

anyways, since there nothing much else i can do i was trying to get ALSA working so i could listen to my mp3's i got off my former windows drive), i had a few problems with it from the start(i was and am using udev, so after geting that working):

for starters quite a few devices wherent there, after a few hours (some of wich was trying to isntall ALSA-driver as that (as i remembered) installed the ALSA devices , to bad gentoo dident play well with installing it, (either i was using a 2.6 kernel, or some other error when i switched kernels (had a 2.4 one laying around from the pratice install) anyways i grabed the snddevices script from the sources gentoo isntalled, but both mpg123 and mplayer still cant open the devices (/dev/dsp and /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p) , both devicees exist, but even when i am root it still claims it cant find the devices ..

any ideas on why the devices arnt being able to be opened? (i been trying to get them working for 7 - 12 hours)

I find with udev and ALSA, the best solution is to avoid modules, build the ALSA drivers into the 2.6 kernel. That way udev creates the nodes in /dev at boot, just like all the other nodes the kernel needs.
Then the next problem is changing the permissions so that non-root users can play sounds. To do this I edited /etc/udev/udev.permissions (the config files may be somewhere else on Gentoo, I've only used udev on LFS) and changed the rules for the audio stuff so that the permissions were all 0666

snd/*:root:audio:0666
admmidi*:root:audio:0666
adsp*:root:audio:0666
aload*:root:audio:0666
amidi*:root:audio:0666
amixer*:root:audio:0666
audio*:root:audio:0666
dmfm*:root:audio:0666
dmmidi*:root:audio:0666
dsp*:root:audio:0666
midi*:root:audio:0666
mixer*:root:audio:0666
music:root:audio:0666
sequencer*:root:audio:0666

thanks ... as it looks like to me i didnet include my cound card in (with was a easy mistake as the mother bored mearly claims it to seem a AC'97 Codec ... nothing else, and i was looking at the kernel as it compiled so it had AC'97 stuff compiled in, then eliminate the cards one by one ... seems like it wasent a card after all (cursid mother bored, shoulda spent $10 more for a better one, with more fetures)

ok anyways, now the problem is not that mplayer and mpg123 (im testing the sound with trying to play a mp3) cant find the devices, its that theres no sound ... i type "amixer set Master 100 unmute" and it says something about unmute not valid or something "amixer set PCM 100 unmute" says no PCM stuff or something ... i just dont see why it wont play sound, no errors, and sound is up at 100% for all the sound thingyies "amixer" displays

I'm not familiar with amixer. What does alsamixer show (run it as root)? Also, what's your processor? What options did you enable on the sound menu?

i enabled all the alsa sound devices,
alsamixer shows everyhting at 100%, but sadly, that the card was a dummy card (err!m, this motherbored might be cheap and works good, but $10 more and a few headaces would go away )

i just recompiled the kernel with no alsa dummy drivers, now it wont work (looks like ill go search google for what sound card pcchi[s bords use (last time i buy anything pcchips, the least they could have done was tell me what sound card they use!)

What's your chipset? What's the processor?

processor: AMD Athlon 2600+
chipset: sis (the motherboard is, the manual doest say anything about the sound card chipset, some searching around i think i read somewhere it is CMI9761A , not supported by alsa i don't think, i cant seems to find linux drivers anywhere

Hmm..there's an CMI8338 and 8738 chipset on the pci submenu of the ALSA menu in the kernel make menuconfig. Did you try building that into the kernel? The one I choose is
<*> Intel i8x0/MX440, SiS 7012; Ali 5455; NForce Audio; AMD768/8111
but that's because I have a Pentium 4 with an sis chipset. Give it a go with these options
Device Drivers ->
Sound ->
<*> Sound card support
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ->
<*> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
<*> Sequencer support
<*> OSS Mixer API
<*> OSS PCM (digital audio) API[*] OSS Sequencer API
PCI devices ->
<*> C-Media 8738, 8338

yea, i enabled everything there is, and still no worky.... my dad said we could get a new cheap sound card tho, so ill just make sure they pick one that alsa supports

thanks Andrew