I have an intel 8x0 based motherboard onboard sound. I am running a 2.4.17 kernel with no soundcore module loaded. It is a redhat 7.2 based distro. This entire distribution has been cloned from a central server on 10 machines at my office. However, sound seems to work on some workstations and does not work on others. All workstations have identical configuration.
Following are my related config files:

/etc/modules.conf:
alias eth0 eepro100
alias /dev/cdrom ide-cd
alias /dev/hdc ide-cd
alias scsi_hostadapter aic7xxx
alias char-major-116 snd
options snd snd_major=116
alias snd-card-0 snd-card-intel8x0
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
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 parport_lowlevel parport_pc
alias char-major-10-135 rtc

/etc/sysconfig/hwconf:
...
class: AUDIO
bus: PCI
detached: 0
driver: es1371
desc: "Ensoniq|CT5880 [AudioPCI]"
vendorId: 1274
deviceId: 5880
subVendorId: 1274
subDeviceId: 2003
pciType: 1
...

lsmod gives:
snd-pcm-oss 17440 0 (autoclean)
snd-pcm-plugin 14576 0 (autoclean) [snd-pcm-oss]
snd-mixer-oss 4608 1 (autoclean) [snd-pcm-oss]
snd-card-intel8x0 2304 1 (autoclean)
snd-intel8x0 6704 0 (autoclean) [snd-card-intel8x0]
snd-ac97-codec 24032 0 (autoclean) [snd-intel8x0]
snd-mixer 24464 0 (autoclean) [snd-mixer-oss snd-ac97-codec]
snd-pcm 31584 0 (autoclean) [snd-pcm-oss snd-pcm-plugin snd-intel8x0]
snd-timer 9056 0 (autoclean) [snd-pcm]
snd 32576 1 (autoclean) [snd-pcm-oss snd-pcm-plugin snd-mixer-oss snd-card-intel8x0 snd-intel8x0 snd-ac97-codec snd-mixer snd-pcm snd-timer]
firegl23 141840 7
eepro100 17344 1
af_packet 9008 1 (autoclean)

modprobe soundcore gives:
modprobe: Can't locate module soundcore

uname -a gives:
Linux calypso 2.4.17-p3d #2 SMP Wed Jan 23 10:00:33 PST 2002 i686 unknown

This config is identical on all machines and yet sound works on some machines and does not work on others. Analyze this, anyone?

since it works on some and not on others you could make sure all the sound is unmuted on each of the non working machines and you have to make sure the headphones are unmuted ( don't ask me why but its what i had to get the sound working on my machine among other things ).

Hi Palin.
Thanks for the reply. However, the problem is not with muted mixer levels (maybe i missed something). When i run kmix (for example), it does not show any mixer channels. Running aumix also tells me cannot initialize mixer....
Rather perplexed

ok other 2 thoughts
have you tried sndconfig ( not sure of the exact name I think thats it )
is pnp os turned off in the bios.

Good questions. I double checked both.
1. sndconfig (yeah, the name is right) complains that i'm not running a kernel with modular sound enabled and hence cannot detect my sound card.
2. Yes, pnp os is turned off in the bios (is this the problem???)

ok try redhat-sndconfig I think thats what its called
and you want pnp os off.