I have an IBM thinkpad with no sound, it a Ess Technology Es1969 Solo-1 AudioDrive. Does anyone know how to configure it? Fedora 3 saw the card but was unable, I got the ASCII screen when I made first boot. It said that it was setup wrong....

What thinkpad model do you have?

I have an old 390x that also has an AudioDrive card (same version IIRC), and was able to configure it fine with alsaconf.
But I am running a fairly recent kernel (2.6.23) and a more or less up-to-date alsalib as well.

Yes that is exactly what I have, a 390X, this is the first time that I have ever tried to troubleshoot hardware because I have a Dell Inspirion 1721 and I can't figure out how to get sound of that machine either on fedora 8 and its pushing a ATI Technologies Inc, SBX00 Azalia

PCM Device STAC92XX Analog

And so far, Nada. Its always this way, if I'm going to have a problem its with sound or modem every time....

On the 390x, what kernel version does your distro have?
What is the alsalib and alsa tools version?

Also, what are the specific errors you get when you run alsaconf as root in a terminal?

Dell Inspiron 1721
Fedora 8
fedora 2.6.25.11-60.fc8

IBM Thinkpad 390X
Fedora 3
fedora 2.6.9-1.667


I don't know how to answer the question about the alsalib tools, if there isn't a GUI, I don't know it. Thats the reason I'm asking, I'm out to shake my Windows roots....

I don't know how to run terminal very well and the problem is that Linux is very heavy in it....So help me out, after these commands, what do you do.....

[alberthocking@localhost ~]$ su root
Password: [password]
[root@localhost alberthocking]#


I thought about wiping the dell and installing F7 but i'd rather work the problem if I can....I have a feeling that I got a crappy book but I have a SAMS book on F9. I haven't had too good a track record with that company......Next time I'll shop by publisher and then by subject.....

But I just wanted to get these two machines setup.....Then I was going to go through that book.....

Well, after switching to root in the terminal (which you did correctly), just type in alsaconf and hit return.

By the way, before trying that, there is a BIOS option that you need to disable to get sound working on the 390x (almost forgot about it :P).
Enter the BIOS setup at boot, navigate to the advanced setup, then in the power management section, disable the option called "PCI Bus Power Management".
For some reason, sound wont work properly with that option enabled.

Ok, here is what I have:

DELL

[alberthocking@localhost ~]$ su root
Password:
[root@localhost alberthocking]# alsaconf
bash: alsaconf: command not found
[root@localhost alberthocking]#

IBM

PCI Bus Power Management is Disabled, it was on automatic

[tonirowe@localhost ~]$ su root
Password:
[root@localhost tonirowe]# alsaconf
bash: alsaconf: command not found
[root@localhost tonirowe]#


Sorry, it didn't work....

Does this method work? sndconfig is not in shell but the alias crap is risky and it said it wasn't for a novice, but I will admit I am.

I get the same error as alsaconf:

[alberthocking@localhost ~]$ su root
Password:
[root@localhost alberthocking]# sndconfig
bash: sndconfig: command not found

Shell is not my friend...

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...sndconfig.html

Hmmm, that is odd...

I think the problem with those commands not being found is that sndconfig is probably not in your path.

Try using this command to find its location:

Anyway, doesnt fedora core 3 have a graphical sound configuration tool in the System Administration section?

I also found this page from a few years back that seems to indicate that fedora core 3 might need that bios option disabled before installing it:

http://web.archive.org/web/200608311...-390x-fc3.html

Lastly, why not install a more up-to-date distro? newer distros have a more up-to-date software selection and the kernels that ship with them have better power management features (more energy efficient and fairly good suspend/hibernation support).

For a laptop like yours, I would suggest a lightweight distro like VectorLinux Standard, VectorLinux Light, Zenwalk, Puppy or Damn Small Linux.