Hi,

Is there a linux distro that recognises the CMI8738 at installation.I have tried it under RHL 7.1 and 7.3...but no use.I have compiled the kernel with CMI8738 compiled in as module...still no use.On "cat info.wav > /dev/dsp" it just produes a creacking sound and the whole system hangs.I searched the forums and tried all that was specified in them.What about slackware?Does it has the same prblm ?Comments welcome.

I recommend you Mandrake 8.1. I am using this distro with the same soundcard as yours (CM8738) and it's working perfectly...

Works fine for me with RedHat 7.3 This is in my /etc/modules.conf:

alias sound-slot-0 cmpci
post-install sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -L >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
pre-remove sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -S >/dev/null 2>&1 || :

It's been a while but I don't think it detected or worked straight up after install. I had to do "modprobe soundcore" and "modprobe cmpci" manually. I added them to /etc/rc.d/rc.local for a while. Then I added that to modules.conf and created a new initrd boot file and took those lines out of rc.local Been working fine ever since...

PS. This is on a 1U rackmount server that among other things plays a few .MP3 files with mpg123 in an endless loop piped to our phone system for on-hold music

PSS. Kernel is 2.4.18-19 RedHat updated kernel and here is results of lspci -vv

00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10)
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 80e1
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: 32 (500ns min, 6000ns max)
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
Region 0: I/O ports at 9800 [size=256]
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

..to make this work without having to manualtt enter this parameters everytime I boot the machne. I'm using mandrake 9.2

thanks in advance....

I'm using Mandrake 9.1 and it was detected at installation.

I now thast the sound chip is detected correctly on 9.1 I have 9.2 and it seems to have been detected fine, but unless I run this command at the prompt (modprobe cmpci) I dn;t get any sound. how can I have this command run at startup, instead of running it manually?

One way is to create an executable Bourne shell script called /etc/rc.modules that loads the module using modprobe.

Sorry TheOneKEA. I'm a newbie here...how do I do that?

My card has been detected on installation with red hat 9, SuSe 9 and Mandrake 9.0 and 9.1. It works perfectly with all of them.

...... I know that the chip is detected correctly in Mandrake 9.2 but one thing is a correct detection of the chip and the other is that sound comes out of it. Agai unless I issue a modprobe cmpci in the terminal window under the root user nothing comes out of the chip....