I've been toying around with Linux for years, but have never stuck with it for long for several reasons, but the most disturbing to me is that not ONE distro I've tried can detech ANY of the sound cards I've used. I've had everything from top of the line Creative Audigy cards down to dime-a-dozen cards.

I found Ubuntu and so far it has solved a lot of the other Linux issues I've had over the years, but yet again, no sound. I'm currently using a Philips Rhythmic Edge sound card, and I've tried a few others in the system to see if it detects it.

Can someone either suggest a way to get Ubuntu to recognize my Philips (or any card) for that matter, or at least suggest a distro that will recognize sound cards easily? I would love to dump Windows, but I do a lot of video and audio editing and desperately need sound to work.

Thanks.

The distro shouldn't really affect hardware like this.

Have you got the correct modules loaded for your hardware?
Can you post the output from:
lspci
lsmod
uname -a

I'll try that when I get home, but I've been through all this before. Either the system doesn't recognize that I have a sound card, or it can't find drivers for it. I'll post the results later this afternoon. Thank you.

There are two reasons why it may not be working. One it is already loaded by hotplug, but sometimes it does not load the correct module. Second you are trying to load a module or driver when the module is already taking up a device or this case a sound card.

I tried Mandrake, Slackware, Redhat, Gentoo. I can setup sound in all of them. The sound cards that I used are INTEL, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, Creative Labs Soundblaster LIVE!, and Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1. Each sound card has its own setup, but I did not have one that did not work.

Post your /etc/modprobe.conf or /etc/modules.conf. Also if you can post the chip model of the sound card. To do this physically look at the sound card.

Here is the output of lspci:

brent@byzantine:~$ lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
0000:00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
0000:00:08.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
0000:00:0a.0 Multimedia audio controller: VLSI Technology Inc Thunderbird (rev 06)
0000:00:0a.1 Input device controller: VLSI Technology Inc Thunderbird
0000:00:0c.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage I/II 215GT [Mach64 GT] (rev 41)


Here is the output of lsmod:

brent@byzantine:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
proc_intf 4100 0
cpufreq_powersave 1920 0
cpufreq_userspace 4572 0
cpufreq_ondemand 6172 0
freq_table 4100 0
video 16260 0
battery 10244 0
container 4608 0
button 6800 0
pcc_acpi 11264 0
sony_acpi 6280 0
ac 4996 0
vga16fb 12488 1
vgastate 8576 1 vga16fb
ipv6 229504 9
af_packet 20744 2
8139too 24320 0
8139cp 19200 0
mii 4736 2 8139too,8139cp
tsdev 7488 0
i2c_piix4 8592 0
usbhid 29376 0
i2c_core 21264 1 i2c_piix4
uhci_hcd 30224 0
usbcore 107384 3 usbhid,uhci_hcd
pci_hotplug 30512 0
intel_agp 20636 1
agpgart 31784 1 intel_agp
floppy 54864 0
pcspkr 3816 0
rtc 12216 0
evdev 9088 0
md 43856 0
dm_mod 53116 1
capability 5000 0
commoncap 7808 1 capability
psmouse 19336 0
mousedev 11160 1
parport_pc 34372 1
lp 10792 0
parport 33480 2 parport_pc,lp
ide_cd 38532 0
cdrom 36508 1 ide_cd
reiserfs 225616 1
ide_generic 1664 0
ide_disk 18176 4
piix 9988 1
ide_core 118988 4 ide_cd,ide_generic,ide_disk,piix
unix 26164 675
thermal 13576 0
processor 22708 1 thermal
fan 4612 0
fbcon 34048 71
font 8448 1 fbcon
bitblit 5120 1 fbcon
vesafb 6948 0
cfbcopyarea 3968 2 vga16fb,vesafb
cfbimgblt 3072 2 vga16fb,vesafb
cfbfillrect 3584 2 vga16fb,vesafb

I could not find files of /etc/modprobe.conf or /etc/modules.conf, so I couldn't post those. Any suggestions? Windows finds the sound card fine, so I know it is installed on the board correctly. Thanks for your help.

I'm sorry that the SAA7785 is not supported in Linux. The Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1 works well in Linux and it does have better specifications. However, I can only find Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1LT and what a read on ALSA bug reports is it half works.

Use Google's Froogle to help you find Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. It has equal specifications as the SAA7785 chip.

Okie dokie. I'll just see if I can get the Santa Cruz with my next payday Thanks!