Using: Mandrake 10.0 Community
Kernel: 2.6.3
Sound hardware: Hercules Muse XL, also have onboard sound which i dont use

I've tried a lot of the stuff on this site but i think my problem is slightly unique. I can't understand why, but my sound won't seem to get going. I want to use the hercules sound card, and mandrake recognised it as CM8738, (from my tireless browsing i've found that other people use this driver with this card and it works).

Can anyone help me to get my sound going please?

Well you weren't very descriptive in that message about what the problem excactly is, but some things to try are, make sure the drivers are loaded in your kernel, make sure you have permission to /dev/dsp0 ( maybe its /dev/dsp1 since you have 2 sound cards ), also one that always gets me ever since i started using the alsa drivers is that my PCM volume is muted when i boot. I need to load alsamixer and change the values.

basically this is the problem:

When i boot up linux i get no sound, and i suspect that it may be because linux is trying to use my other sound card. How can i prevent it from doing that and ensuring it only uses my Muse XL?

try doing
cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp0
if you dont hear any static, try
cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp1

if neither works, check alsamixer, if PCM isn't muted, then your drivers probally arent loaded, your going to probally have to recompile your kernel in order to do that.

If on the other hand you do hear static when you do one of those commands, then create a symlink so /dev/dsp points to one of those devices, ex:
ln -sf /dev/dsp1 /dev/dsp

Sometimes you can disable onboard sound in bios.

First, no need to re-compile the kernel to make it work. All you need to do is edit your modules.conf file.

Display whats in your modules.conf. Its usually under /etc directory. Also give us a list what lsmod shows.

Disabling sound can also be done with a motherboard jumper. Check the motherboard manual.

phek, after you set your volume controls. Login as su, sudo, or as root and type "alsactl store". To make sure your settings are set every time you boot up. Add "alsactl restore" in your start up scripts.

hmm, i'll have to give that a try, thanks.

firstly -- yes i did get static when testing the second device, but only out of the back two speakers... so i went back into hardware configuration and i changed the driver to cmipci rather than snd-cmipci and i got sound out of the front! i'll try doing that routing technique, but firstly:
-- is there a way to undo it if i need to? if so what is the command?

thanks

I'm also going to check out the 2nd guru's advice on this, see what he has to say:

Ok heres my modules.conf file:

probeall scsi_hostadapter imm ppa
probeall usb-interface usb-uhci
alias sound-slot-1 snd-via82xx
above snd-via82xx snd-pcm-oss
above snd-cmipci snd-pcm-oss
alias eth0 tulip
alias sound-slot-0 snd-cmipci


and heres what lsmod gives:

Module Size Used by
md5 3872 1
ipv6 232352 6
nvidia 2068232 12
sg 38044 0
sr_mod 17060 0
lp 12200 0
snd-seq-oss 31232 0
snd-seq-midi-event 7552 1 snd-seq-oss
snd-seq 51024 4 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq-midi-event
snd-cmipci 33236 0
snd-opl3-lib 9984 1 snd-cmipci
snd-hwdep 8928 1 snd-opl3-lib
snd-pcm-oss 51812 0
snd-mixer-oss 17952 1 snd-pcm-oss
snd-via82xx 24128 0
snd-pcm 93156 3 snd-cmipci,snd-pcm-oss,snd-via82xx
snd-timer 24484 3 snd-seq,snd-opl3-lib,snd-pcm
snd-ac97-codec 58148 1 snd-via82xx
gameport 4480 2 snd-cmipci,snd-via82xx
snd-page-alloc 11972 2 snd-via82xx,snd-pcm
snd-mpu401-uart 7072 2 snd-cmipci,snd-via82xx
snd-rawmidi 23616 1 snd-mpu401-uart
snd-seq-device 8008 4 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq,snd-opl3-lib,snd-rawmidi
snd 52484 15 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq-midi-event,snd-seq,snd-cmipci,snd-opl3-lib,snd-hwdep,snd-pcm-oss,snd-mixer-oss,snd-via82xx,snd-pcm,snd-timer,snd-ac97-codec,snd-mpu401-uart,snd-rawmidi,snd-seq-device
soundcore 9248 1 snd
af_packet 20520 2
hid 53312 0
ide-floppy 18752 0
ide-tape 34864 0
ide-cd 40548 0
cdrom 37184 2 sr_mod,ide-cd
floppy 59444 0
tulip 45248 0
nls_iso8859-1 3904 2
ntfs 85932 2
supermount 37876 1
via-agp 7360 1
agpgart 31016 2 via-agp
ppa 12296 0
parport_pc 32832 1
imm 12360 0
scsi_mod 114744 4 sg,sr_mod,ppa,imm
parport 38952 4 lp,ppa,parport_pc,imm
usblp 12256 0
uhci-hcd 29104 0
usbcore 99132 5 hid,usblp,uhci-hcd
rtc 11576 0

Add/edit your /etc/modules.conf to look like the lines below.

You make want to add hid or ehci-hcd (whatever modules works) to the line that saids "probeall usb-interface usb-uhci".