I just trashed windows and installed Debian. The sound card, an Ensoniq ES1371 AudioPCI-97 worked just fine. I didn't even have to touch it. But I wasn't happy overall with Debian, so I downloaded the latest fedora (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4) and installed that. Unfortunatly, the sound does not work now. Booting into Gnome, I tried opening up the soundcard detection. It listed the correct soundcard, and said that it was using the snd-ens1371 module, but it did not play the test sound, or any other sound either.

Booting into KDE I got the message,

"Sound server informational message:
Error while initializing the sound driver:
device: default can't be opened for playback (Invalid argument)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device."

I read through a bunch of posts, but all of the ones I could see seemed to be about installing the correct module. I know the soundcard works with linux, both because it is on the hcl here, and because I heard it (in debian). I don't have any idea what to try doing.

the lspci output:
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C693A/694x [Apollo PRO133x] (rev c4)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C598/694x [Apollo MVP3/Pro133x AGP]
00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C596 ISA [Mobile South] (rev 23)
00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 10)
00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 11)
00:07.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C596 Power Management (rev 30)
00:0e.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq ES1371 [AudioPCI-97] (rev 08)
00:11.0 Ethernet controller: Linksys NC100 Network Everywhere Fast Ethernet 10/100 (rev 11)
00:13.0 Modem: PCTel Inc HSP MicroModem 56 (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11DDR [GeForce2 MX 100 DDR/200 DDR] (rev b2)

Okay, so since I had no clue what to do, I went ahead and installed Fedora Core 5 (2.6.15-1.2054_FC5). Same problem. It detects the correct soundcard, and installs the same module, but still no end, unless I turn the volume control in linux all the way up. If I do that, I get some static. After failing to install the soundcard correctly, the computer referred me to /root/scsound.log. I have included what I thought was relevant.

-----------------lsmod-----------------------------
Module Size Used By
snd_ens1371 24801 1
gameport 15177 1 snd_ens1371
snd_rawmidi 24001 1 snd_ens1371
snd_ac97_codec 83937 1 snd_ens1371
snd_ac97_bus 2497 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_seq_dummy 3781 0
snd_seq_oss 28993 0
snd_seq_midi_event 7105 1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq 47153 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device 8909 4 snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss 45009 0
snd_mixer_oss 16449 2 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 76869 3 snd_ens1371,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 22597 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 50501 10 snd_ens1371,snd_rawmidi,snd_ac97_codec,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss, snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 9377 2 snd
snd_page_alloc 10441 1 snd_pcm

------- /etc/modprobe.conf --------
alias eth0 tulip
alias snd-card-0 snd-ens1371
options snd-card-0 index=0
options snd-ens1371 index=0
remove snd-ens1371 { /usr/sbin/alsactl store 0 >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-ens1371

------- /etc/asound.conf --------
#Generated by system-config-soundcard, do not edit by hand
#SWCONF
#DEV 0
defaults.pcm.card 0
defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.ctl.card 0

------- aplay -l --------
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: AudioPCI [Ensoniq AudioPCI], device 0: ES1371/1 [ES1371 DAC2/ADC]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: AudioPCI [Ensoniq AudioPCI], device 1: ES1371/2 [ES1371 DAC1]
Subdevices: 1/1

------- /proc/asound/version --------
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.11rc2 (Wed Jan 04 08:57:20 2006 UTC).

------- rpm -q alsa-lib --------
alsa-lib-1.0.11-3.rc2.2

------- rpm -q alsa-utils --------
alsa-utils-1.0.11-3.rc2

------- /proc/asound/modules --------
0 snd_ens1371

------- /proc/asound/pcm --------
00-01: ES1371/2 : ES1371 DAC1 : playback 1
00-00: ES1371/1 : ES1371 DAC2/ADC : playback 1 : capture 1

------- system-config-soundcard --------

/usr/share/system-config-soundcard/soundcard.py:273: DeprecationWarning: use gtk.ComboBox
self.primarySubDeviceOptionMenu = gtk.OptionMenu()
/usr/share/system-config-soundcard/soundcard.py:308: GtkDeprecationWarning: gtk.timeout_add is deprecated, use gobject.timeout_add instead
self.timer = gtk.timeout_add (100, self.checkStatus, self)
/usr/share/system-config-soundcard/soundcard.py:548: GtkDeprecationWarning: gtk.TRUE is deprecated, use True instead
gtk.main()
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/system-config-soundcard/sound-sample.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
Read config:
card 0
device 0
HW 0
----------- Kudzu -------------
Desc: Ensoniq ES1371 [AudioPCI-97]
Driver: snd-ens1371
Device: None

----------- **** -------------


Now, I am in all respects to linux, a newbie. I have very little idea what any of that really means. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I still haven't heard any ideas, or found any solutions. I checked all of my cables again, I read many more posts, but stil nothing. Does nobody have any ideas as to what the problem could be? If not, I'm going to have to switch back to Debian and sort out my other issues with it.

Could be the volume controls, have a look at them. There may be a muted one!! Or like me you may have pressed the mute button on your comp. If it lists the device then that could be the problem. Good luck

nope, that wasn't it. I went ahead and reinstalled debian, just to check that the card actually did work, and yes, it does work in debian, without me having to touch a single configuration file or driver. Ironically, Debian is using the same driver as Fedora attempted to use.

The files /dev/dsp and /dev/snd/* might need perms changed on them to allow you to read/write them.

Check these and if you change them, restart KDE/Gnome or even reboot to ensure that the sound daemon restarts.

bit_reaper.