OK everyone, I managed to get sound! (but I had to struggle a bit)
Here's what I did:
I went for the alsa module has
la'quv and
GregLee suggested.
I went to alsa-project.org and looked for Creative Labs soundcards support.
As pointed there I installed the following packages from my distro CD:
alsa-driver-1.0.5a-i486-2
alsa-oss-1.0.5-i486-1
alsa-lib-1.0.5-i486-1
alsa-utils-1.0.5-i486-1
And loaded into the kernel the recently-installed module for my card:
# modprobe snd-emu10k1
# lsmod
snd-emu10k1
snd-pcm
snd-timer
snd-hwdep
snd-page-alloc
snd-util-mem
snd-ac97-codec
snd-rawmidi
snd-seq-device
snd
soundcore
Opened XMMS, and specified the ALSA Output Plugin in the "Preferences-> Audio I/O Plugins" (thanks for the tip
KilahChris)
With
alsamixer I unmuted the master volume and sound started to pump!
I also changed some other controls to see if I could get a better output (improved a bit)
I have 6.1 speakers and I can hear sound from all of them except from the rear center collumn.
To load the modules at boot time I added the following line in the /etc/rc.d/rc.modules file:
/sbin/modprobe snd-emu10k1
However, after rebooting the sound disappeared. The alsamixer settings where as I left it but the sound was gone and no error messages shown when I played mp3's.
Removed the modules and did it all from the begining, except this time after setting alsamixer I run the following command to keep my card settings:
# alsactl store
Now after rebooting everything works fine.
Have I done this the proper way? Any comments on my steps are welcome.
I have another a doubt:
In alsa-project.org they mentioned the
modules.conf file and that we had to put some lines there for the card configuration but I couldn't fully understand what their purpose was. I left the file untouched and the card works.
Can someone explain me the use for the modules.conf file. And what good would it do for my soundcard if I put something there?
By the way, can someone point me out some directions to fine tune my card since I have it working now.
Thanks!