this is what sndconfig says:

I think my problem is either with Mandrake or Gnome. I have sound when I used Xmms and Xine.

I had to configure Xmms a little:
Options>Preferences>Output Plugin>Configure>
And then in Audio Device I had a second option.
(oddly enough it's not longer there, but I'm pretty sure it said "SB Live" instead of the default option.)

Crap, now that I'm checking I can't get Xine to give me sound either. Well the point is that I know I can get it to work. It's just for some reason it doesn't want to be automatic for me. I've made sure that Sounds were on in Gnome, and that the sound server is running, volumes are all good too.

Any thoughts?
TIA
-Gerrard

I'm at work so I can't check my machine to compare, but if you open a console and do:

/sbin/lsmod

what do you see?

I'm very curious about this because I have an SBLive and Mandrake 9.1 picked it up right off the installed...(running ALSA drivers).

I hope I can help, but if I can't, I'm sure there's a guru out there who will.

Ok...now have you tried it in KDE?

(Note, you may have to start up KMixer and raise the volumes up a bit because by default they are set pretty low, almost off...)

Which makes me think to ask...and I do apologize if this sounds pretty stupid, but it got me the first time I installed 9.1:

Have you tried a mixer in Gnome to check the sound volume?

I don't use Gnome so I couldn't tell you where to check (which is another reason I'm asking about KDE)

Have you disabled plug'n'play in the bios?

carlywarly, I can't say that I have ..
nor can I say that I know how to right now
I'll look into that now, but if ya could post a link or let me know where I would go about doing that. Thanks

tcaptain, I'm going to have to download KDE I did a net install when I left RH9, and I didn't install KDE to save time.

Well before you go to THAT extreme, check your BIOS like carlywarly said, you should have a setting that's something like "Plug and Play OS" and that should be N...also, check see if you can find a mixer in Gnome and fiddle with the volumes. I mean from the list of modules it seems like its installed and you did have sound with XMMS.

So here's the deal now.. I have Xmms working. I have 2 options again when selecting a driver. Either the defaut or SigmaTel. The default won't work, but sigmatell does. I have a feeling that Mandrake, or gnome is using the default, which would cause me to not have sound. HardDrake shows me two things under SoundCard SBLive! (audio) and VT 8233. I'm not sure if I should be seeing two things. Also in the Volume Conrol I have both AdvaceLogic and SigmaTel. How can I get rid of that AdvaceLogic. (I think that's an ALSA driver, not sure though, still somewhat of a Linux newbie)

Do you also have onboard sound? It looks like you may have. Go into your bios and disable the onboard soundcard, if you have one.

try:

and see what happens post the result

hi, I tried OSS commercial on Mandrake 9.1 and then uninstalled it.
I have now no sound whatsoever
I just did those 3 ismod commands and withemu10k1 it says:
------------
Using /lib/modules/2.4.21-0.13mdk/kernel/drivers/sound/emu10k1/emu10k1.o.gz
/lib/modules/2.4.21-0.13mdk/kernel/drivers/sound/emu10k1/emu10k1.o.gz: unresolved symbol ac97_read_proc_Rbae4da72
/lib/modules/2.4.21-0.13mdk/kernel/drivers/sound/emu10k1/emu10k1.o.gz: unresolved symbol ac97_probe_codec_R84601c2b

-------------

after /sbin/lsmod:

Module Size Used by Tainted: P
sound 70676 0 (unused)
soundcore 6308 0 [sound]
ppp_synctty 7488 0 (unused)
ppp_async 9216 1
ppp_generic 24092 3 [ppp_synctty ppp_async]
slhc 6564 0 [ppp_generic]
agpgart 40928 3 (autoclean)
nvidia 1672864 10 (autoclean)
nfsd 74288 0 (autoclean)
af_packet 14984 2 (autoclean)
sr_mod 16952 0 (autoclean)
floppy 55164 0
ne2k-pci 6784 1 (autoclean)
8390 7916 0 (autoclean) [ne2k-pci]
keybdev 2720 0 (unused)
mousedev 5300 1
hid 20932 0 (unused)
usbmouse 2936 0 (unused)
input 5696 0 [keybdev mousedev hid usbmouse]
nls_iso8859-1 3516 8 (autoclean)
nls_cp850 4316 8 (autoclean)
vfat 11820 8 (autoclean)
fat 37976 0 (autoclean) [vfat]
supermount 15296 2 (autoclean)
ide-cd 33856 0
cdrom 31680 0 [sr_mod ide-cd]
ide-scsi 11312 0
scsi_mod 103316 2 [sr_mod ide-scsi]
printer 8480 0 (unused)
usb-uhci 24684 0 (unused)
usbcore 73024 1 [hid usbmouse printer usb-uhci]
rtc 8092 0 (autoclean)
ext3 59916 1
jbd 38972 1 [ext3]
--------------------

I'd appreciate any help. I'm desperate to watch movies again

I had *exactly* the same problem : 1 SB Live, AC 97 on motherboard, Mandrake 9.1... and no sound at all.

I tried to plug the speakers in the motherboard outlets, no sound either.
I pumped up the volume in Aumix and all the KDE sound configurations I could find... no sound.

Then I followed carlywarly advice : I entered my Bios Setup and disabled the AC97 soundchip on my motherboard.

The next time I booted, KDE Mandrake linux welcomed me with an opening sound !

Wonder wonder !! :-) :-)

Thanks to you all !

Ah. you are missing the ac97-core

now do this then, i can almost 100% guarantee it works:

insmod ac97_codec
insmod ac97
insmod soundcore
insmod sound
insmod emu10k1

if all above fails because of some dependency, replace the instruction "insmod" to "modprobe" - it will work

by the way, type the same thing again if it fails

# insmod emu10k1
Using /lib/modules/2.4.21-0.13mdk/kernel/drivers/sound/emu10k1/emu10k1.o.gz
/lib/modules/2.4.21-0.13mdk/kernel/drivers/sound/emu10k1/emu10k1.o.gz: init_module: No such device
Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg



//edit: ok, I did

"insmod snd-emu10k1"

and this time it worked