I just installed Slackware 8.1. Everything works great, and got my Geforce3 up in running, but the only problem is that the sound is not enabled. I have some /dev/dsp error and my sound card, Soundblaster 16 is not loaded.

I've had Redhat and Mandrake installed before, and both were able to configure my sound card automatically upon installation.

I ran /sbin/lspci and my sound card is identified as "Ensoniq 5880".

How do I enable my sound card with Slackware??

You have a few choices, one, do a search on this site...

2. modprobe sb16 (and hope it works)

3. modprobe your correct module, to find it I would check ALSA's homepage

4. rebuild your kernel to enable support for your card

5. And this is a good idea, sort of related...

Slack doesn't AUTO configure much for you. Which can, and is, a good thing. Now you can learn how to use Linux.

6. Either add a user called sound, have him own /dev/dsp /dev/audio /dev/mixer and then make a group called sound and add your regular users to that group; OR
chmod 777 /dev/dsp
chmod 777 /dev/mixer
chmod 777 /dev/audio

7. Hi, welcome to LQ, I am MasterC

Cool

The driver for your card that should work is the es1371. You should be able to enable that driver thru your /etc/rc.d/rc.modules file by uncommenting it there.

Also you want to make sure your permissions are set like this for these devices:

chmod 666 /dev/dsp

chmod 666 /dev/mixer

That did it. Got it working after following your instructions.

You are the Man tricky! Sorry if my instructions were vague, as they are not always up to par with Tricky's.

Welcome to LQ, where newbies come for help, and MasterC always shows em what not to do

Cool, now you can tell everyone how much Slack rules! Go slack go!

Thanks MasterC,

I'm glad I found this site/forum that is very user freindly. The reason I switched over to slackware is to learn how to configure Linux. Redhat and Mandrake were cool, and were good to learn the basics, but slackware really helps to get you into learning further about how Linux works.

Thanks a whole bunch!!!

No problem, peek up if you didn't see my post right above yours

And to think I usually suck at sound in Linux. I just actually got around to getting sound on one of my Slack boxes running a SB Awe 16 ISA card. That's a whole lot of fun using the pnpdump and isapnp.conf files to get that bad boy working..
And don't laugh at my sound card, it cost me like 150 bucks way back in the day, so I am getting my money's worth out of it still.

Anyways, glad to hear that worked for ya.

150 for an isa! Wow, hey, that's cool. I spent like 90 on my SB Live with Dolby Digital Surround sound, but hey, whatever you want j/k

Wait until he reboots and comes with another Q which I'm anticipating but was answered by Trickykid.

great answer Mr. MASTER C.

Yeah, that was about 7 to 8 years ago though.. top of the line sound card then.. I've got several others just sitting in the closet not being used, but I opted to use that one since I spent so much on it.. hehe..