I am a newbie to Linux and have recently installed the SuSe 10.0 distribution. However, whilst I do get some "noise" which is supposed to be sound coming from my speakers I wouldn't exactly call it music. I have searched the forums and haven't found a problem similar to mine.

If some kind soul could help me with the issue I would be extremely appreciative

I have read a few articles on ALSA but they weren't exactly written with the Linux novice in mind and I remain . If anyone out there is able to help me rectify my problem please HELP

it sounds like your sound is working at least.

i would adjust my settings while playing a long song so you can detect which 'switch' is set wrong.

sounds like pcm is set too hi possibly.. but try turning on/off some other one also until you find the culprit.

good luck.

Halvy thanks for the response. I will try what you have suggested and with any luck I will get some proper sound coming out. I'll let you know what happens!

Thanks again

Tried altering the PCM settings, etc on the volume controls to no avail. The sound coming through the speakers is hard to explain. It's not giving me any music from CD's or playing any audio files properly. If anyone is able to help I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

does alsa have a driver for your card?

if not i think you can compile one as a module.. but i have never done that (yet).. usually a generic one will get you by.

it sounds like your not getting enuff power to the speakers (are they powered seperately?)... if not you need to get a set a speakers that are powered seperatly from the soundcard.. or you will have crapy sound no matter what you do.

and try running alsaconf from the command line.

alsa-base & alsa-utils must be installed first.

it will tell you if it found a driver and which one it will install/use.

then you will need to go back and choose the correct card/chip setup in your volume control master program (aumix or whatever your using ).. along with re-setting your volume and other switches.

don't fret.. linux is a pain to set up multimedia wise.. but once you do it will be much better than win.

let us know.

Halvy,

Thanks again for the quick response! So far as I can figure out ALSA does have a driver for my card and I finally plucked up the courage to compile it as a module by following (or trying to follow) the instructions on their site. It appeared fairly straight forward once I sat down and did it but that might be because I didn't do it right!

My speakers are powered separately and I know I have enough power to them. Everything works perfectly in windows. Is it essential to run alsaconf again once you install the drivers as a module? The site didn't seem to mention this unless I've done it and not realised it

I guess I can give that a go as I have alsa base and utils installed I believe and see what happens after all I don't think it could really get much worse

I'll keep you posted and thanks again for the assistance!

Well I tried aslaconf and still no joy. I've messed with volume settings and also no change. I think I have "enabled" the module but not sure how one does this. I entered the modinfo soundcore command and it returned some details so I assumed this meant everything was OK. I gather from the documentation that I have no need to recompile the kernel. If I've omitted part of the process I can perform it again so no problem there!

Any ideas? Thanks in advance from a vexed linux newbie!

earlier on you said " as far as i know, alsa has a driver for my card..". well are you SURE they do?


either way-- try this next: if you use kde you need to make sure the sound server is set correctly in kcontrol... then set the systems sounds to work (if you like beeps & boops

you can test to see if sound is working there also. leaving the choice to 'autodetect' once you found your correct setting is probably the best way to go.

leave 'duplex' and network sound off for now.

in gnome you use gstreamerprobe (maybe you can use this prog in kde tooo, i'm not sure though).

it will be under: desktop : preferences : multimedia systems selector.

in either one of these windowmanagers you will need to set the sound to the proper 'sound manager'.. ie. alsa, oss, esd, etc.

hang in there..