Hello. I'd like to start by saying that I'm rather new to Linux, and as such, am probably going to ask stupid questions, or say stupid things, so please, forgive me.

OK, now that that's out of the way. I can't get sound working in Mandrake 10.1, with what Windows defines as "ES1869 Plug and Play AudioDrive (WDM)". I'm running a dual boot if you're wondering. I've browsed through related articles, but I can't seem to find anything that helps. Here's what happens when I try to insert snd-es18xx, as suggested by another article.

[root@localhost chris]# modprobe snd-es18xx
FATAL: Error inserting snd-es18xx (/lib/modules/2.6.8.1-12mdk/kernel/sound/isa/snd-es18xx.ko.gz): No such device

I've tried running "alsaconf", and auto-detecting my hardware, but even telling it to try all possible configurations hasn't helped. The only promising thing that I've noted, is that if I run "sndconfig", I can actually get a test sound to play properly, but the settings must not be saving or something.

When "sndconfig" starts, it says "Probe Results" "No PnP or PCI sound cards were found in your system. Please select your card type from the following list.". After that, it brings up a list of sound devices. I select the closest match, "ESS1868 AudioDrive", I leave it at the defaults for configuration, it plays a sound. At that point, it says "File Exists" "There is already a file called /etc/modules.conf. The existing file will be renamed /etc/modules.conf.bak and a new file will be written.". Then, it ends, and I'm still without sound.

I'm certain that my sound isn't muted, so that's ruled out. Also, a little while ago, it was telling me some sort of message like "You do not have permission... Blah blah blah...", talking about the soundcard. I prevented this from happening again, by adding that user to the "Sound" group in UserDrake.

Anyway, long-story short, I'm out of ideas. Any help in this matter would be great. Thanks.

Just something else. I tried running some code I found on another post that was supposed to send garbage to my speakers.

cd /dev
cat urandom > dsp

Lo and behold, it indeed sent garbage to my speakers. Another point of interest: I tried running Audacity, and I actually got sound out of it, although the sound was extremely choppy, almost like a scratched CD, and it took forever to get through the shortest of sound clips. One more thing. I tried running a sound-related program from the terminal, (I forget which.), and it told me something about the alsa drivers not being found, or not being accessable, or something to that effect. I think this has something to do with the computer's inability to take "modprobe snd-es18xx", but again, I don't know how to fix this, or I wouldn't be here. *sigh* Anyway, any help in this matter would be great. Thanks.