I am a Linux newbie. I have just constructed a Shuttle XPC with the FN45 motherboard using the nVidia nForce 2 Ultra 400 chipset and the nVidia Soundstorm embedded audio. I have a Sony CRX320£ CD/DVD drive. Linux is Fedora 3. I have audio coming from the soundcard but no audio if I insert an audio disk. An audio CD ripped using Sound Juicer generates files that play successfully. I have replaced the analogue audio cable but this has not solved the problem. I have not yet downloaded any drivers. Being a newbie I am still trying to find my way around the command line. So, is my problem likely to be hardware (I should mention that the audio plays perfectly from the direct output on the drive itself} or is it a driver issue? If a driver issue, where do I begin? Can any provide me with some 'baby' surefire steps?

Are these normal audio cd's or cd's with mp3's? What drivers are you using, oss or alsa? What mixer settings or channels do you have available?
good luck.

Thanks for the info. While I recognise all the terms you used there - oss, alsa - I have a lot more work to do on the command line to dig out this information.

Just for reference, /sbin/lsmod should list the modules loaded. All of the alsa modules start with snd-, as in snd-intel8x0. The oss modules generally have the last part, as in i810_audio. Hope that helps.
good luck.

the rom drive needs to be configured to use digital audio.currently it's running anlog,easy solution is to add an analog cable from the rom to the sound card.

Thanks. I have made further progress on the issue. Yesterday, I wiped my hard disk clean and started over by doing a dual-boot installation with Windows XP and Linux. I installed the nVidia chipset software that includeds the Soundstorm audio software for the soundcard. Everything worked just as it should and the analogue box was checked in the nVidia control panel. Now I know that I should be looking at downloading the correct nVidia drivers for Fedora and configuring them as you have suggested.

I'm learning!

The nvidia drivers for linux are here.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux.html

good luck.