OK good luck

Well, I followed your AD1980 driver installation instructions, and now I have no sound at all (I must've messed up somewhere), and get this message on boot:

device /dev/dsp can't be opened (No such device)

But...it's there.

This also -

[root@localhost init.d]# /etc/init.d/alsasound stop
bash: /etc/init.d/alsasound: No such file or directory
[root@localhost init.d]#

Also, this is my modules.conf file -

alias eth0 tg3
alias eth1 8139too
alias usb-controller ehci-hcd
alias usb-controller1 usb-uhci
alias ieee1394-controller ohci1394
# alsa
alias char-major-116 snd
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0
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

# restore mixer settings from /etc/asound.state
post-install snd-intel8x0 /usr/sbin/alsactl restore
# Save mixer settings to /etc/asound.state
pre-remove snd-intel8x0 /usr/sbin/alsactl store

# prevent syslog messages
alias snd-card-1 off
alias sound-service-1-0 off
alias sound-service-1-1 off
alias sound-service-1-3 off
alias sound-service-1-8 off
alias sound-service-1-12 off
alias snd-card-2 off
alias sound-service-2-0 off
alias sound-service-2-1 off
alias sound-service-2-3 off
alias sound-service-2-8 off
alias sound-service-2-12 off
alias snd-card-3 off
alias sound-service-3-0 off
alias sound-service-3-1 off
alias sound-service-3-3 off
alias sound-service-3-8 off
alias sound-service-3-12 off
alias sound-slot-0 i810_audio.o


That last line kept coming back, so I did as you suggested - no difference, though.

Can you help me?

Mmmm... I must confess I don't know how I managed to stop the

alias sound-slot-0 i810_audio.o

line from appearing - I think I might have modified the file name or something.

So try the following (logged on as root)

1. Rename i810_audio.o to something else or move it to another directory.. Find it in /lib/modules/2.4.20-18.9/kernel/drivers/sound

2. Check that you do have the file /etc/init.d/alsasound - if you don't you probably need to re-install the alsa rpm's. I would suggest getting them from freshrpms.net. Let me know if yoy need help installing them - should just require downloading and installing alls the alsa rpm's and any dependencies.

3. Once you have /etc/init.d/alsasound installed check you can run

/etc/init.d/aslasound start

or

/etc/init.d/aslasound stop

4. Now try running alsamixer- just type alsamixer from the command line.

Let me know where you get stuck

duncang

First, I was using the kernel module for your kernel, not mine. I corrected that. I have re-installed everything. I don't have modprobe, insmod, alsasound, alsamixer, etc. I have alsa player, but hey, big deal without sound! I like XMMS just fine - it's just that sound coming through the mic jack is terrible compared to sound in XP. Like a little $5 CD player compared to a $10,000 system with surround sound.

I have had a belly fully of trying this. I have read and re-read your instruction.

At the present time, I am reading some information concerning installing Debian Woody. There is just too much junk in RedHat for me. Similar to a basic install of Windoze, you know? I'd really like an OS with nothing installed that I don't need, and I don't care to spend all my time trimming up RH9.

Thanks for the help. If you happen to have some advice I'd like to hear it.

If you can't run modprob you are probably not logged on as root. Don't use su root - log on as root as this way the paths get set up correctly.

If you are not logged in as root try running /sbin/modprobe or look in /sbin to see if modprobe is there.

Also check if /etc/init.d/alsasound exists - if not were you logged in as root when you installed everything ?

I was not logged in as root. Didn't think that was necessary. Well, I will try it again. I was just about to format this hd and install Debian instead. If I could get sound to work, I would think there may be hope for me and RH - though I still need to dump a lot of services or whatever to get it to run better. Well, here goes mate, I'll login as root and give it a go. I've done it so many times it should only take a few minutes.

Good luck and welcome to Linux. I have found in the long run it always pays to know how things work under the covers - no matter which distribution you go with you will always benefit by having a good working knowledge of the underlying system. Stick with it for a while - no doubt you will find the same types of problems with most of the other distributions as well.

Hope it works better for you this time !

Okay, glad you're online.

It works! Hallelujah! I never thought I'd have sound. Alsa player wasn't too good, so I switched back to XMMS.

Your suggestion is to stick with RedHat, and get it fined tuned, then? I'm gonna boot back to my user and get out of root.

Don't be surprised if you have some trouble back as user. You may need to set up some permissions. I think my systems sounds do not work properly when not logged on as root.

Anyway glad to hear its working now - you might want to download the latest version of Realplayer One.

Cheers

You show disdain for (quote you) Windoze and you call your linux partition wonderful. Yet you can't use photoshop in Linux and you can't get a basic thing like sound to work without trawling through these message boards. I bet you have little trouble getting sound in "Windoze". Go figure huh.

Thanks, duncang!

It didn't sound quite as good as user, but it's working. I did crank up alsamixer as user and adjust it a little. There is probably more that I need to do. What permissions do I need, and how do I set them?

I don't have Preferences -> Sound, and I would like to get alsamixer without having to login as root.

Thanks for your patience with me! I'm not giving up on Linux this time. Whatever it takes, I will trim it down of unecessary things running. I didn't know how to do that in Windoze when I first starting using it years ago, but I can now. I just want to get this Linux box running as fast as it is capable of running.

As for Realplayer One, why use it and what for?

To access this stuff as a user you just need to set up the correct paths to the files. I would suggest you purchase a book on Linux administration to find out how to do this - its basically the same as what you would do with Windows except that Windows does not automatically provide the same level of security that Linux does - so by default you cannot easily access things in Linux whereas the default in Windows is that you can. Linux (or Unix for that matter) sort of assumes that everything is a potential risk and so even things like sound need to be configured to allow users access. This means that its very difficult for a VIRUS to affect a Linux system because the virus has to run as root to affect anything seriously.

I would suggest you try the RedHat Linux 9 Bible - its a good start. RealPlayer is probably a bit more polished and supports many formats and runs on many platforms. It also provides the ability to listen to radio and watch video. No need though if you are happy with what you have already.

I had the same problem, no sound from my ASUS P4PE and Redhat 9. I just moved the speaker jack plug into the "pink" hole, where the mike should go and IT WORKS! I am amazed that someone thought of that. Congratulations. I can now enjoy my movies without the hassle of trying to reinstall the whole stuff or any commercial drivers (OSS).