Yes, that's it. But I can't see what's wrong. No idea about any solution.

Well what ever has altered, it has now denied access to the sound card.
do I have to do a re-install to get back to the point where I did have an occasional, sporadic connection to it?

No, re-installation wouldn't solve anything. Might need even more drastic action: possibly choosing another distro, one that's more tolerant of old hardware.

Do a search here for "distros for old computers?", it is a question that crops up regularly.

You could try updating alsa to the latest release and see if that helps.

http://monespaceperso.org/blog-en/20...id-lynx-10-04/

I would make one change to the above. Install checkinstall and use that in place of make install.

And then replace each instance of make install with checkinstall, ie, if it says
do instead
EDIT: Also for some reason they have you running ./configure and make with "sudo". Do not do that. You should configure and compile it as your user and just install with sudo.

Actually, those instructions kind of suck. Don't make a directory in /usr/src either.

Instead of this (everything before this section still do)
Do

Hi Brian, I'm beginning to think that my forray into "Linux Land" is reaching it's end!
I don't really have the skills to manage one of the distros that doesn't just "work" out of the box!
I've tried AntiX, but it put me in mind of Kruschev's USSR.......spartan shall we say, not to mention depressing!

I was aware quite early on that I had been poorly advised to try Mint 9 LXDE on this machine, but if I could just get the sound to work again, and find the key to making it survive a re-boot, I would be happy with it on this machine, even though it's as slow as XP Pro was, it's so close to being useable!

For the winter nights, I harvest PC bits using Freecycle and then try to make useable PC's from them to give away.
They are usually P2 or P3 CPU's and generally have 256MB of RAM, but they easily cope with a bit of surfing and emailing far flung friends and family, which is all that the folks I give them to are wanting.
I sometimes cannot find any serial number to get a "valid" install of XP, so I wondered if Mint 9 Lxde would suit these machines?
(I have enough bits for about 7 machines in my garage at the moment, but lasck enough HDD's and DDR to make many!)

Besides "The Beast in the Corner", which I'm using now, I have an old Lappy (not as old as the Thinkpad) about 2003/4, it's a Clevo D22ES which runs a desktop Celeron 2GHz CPU and has 1GB RAM of which 32MB is assigned to Video.
When I got it, I put in a new 120GB HDD and did a clean install of XP Home.
I'd really like to dual boot it with a Linux Distro, what would you recommend?

reed9:
Oooh! you've totally lost me here!
Are you saying ignore your post#110 and follow #111 ?
Or ignore some of the instruction in your link?
I'm really out of my depth here!

Vector Linux might work on your old Thinkpad.
As far as choosing a distro goes, I usually say: try a few. Do a bit of distrohopping 'til you find one that suits you.

Sorry, complete instructions as so
Reboot.

Now run
Linux Mint is generally good for new users and the LXDE version for older computers. Assuming of course, things don't go wrong. Sound, unfortunately, is often one of the more difficult issues to troubleshoot.

Thanks brian, I'll keep that recommendation in reserve though I have no way of evaluating the 5 flavours on offer, but presume my choice should be between "VL6 LiteLive" and "VL6 Lite".

Still hoping to master Mint, and reed9 seems to have a plan...as Baldrick would say!

I think Mint should be OK for some of those you are recycling.
You might be underestimating yourself when you say you "don't really have the skills to manage one of the distros that doesn't just "work" out of the box" or you're "out of your depth".

A plan so cunning you could brush your teeth with it.

If nothing else, you have learned more about Linux in this thread than a lot of people learn in a year. Best of luck, sorry I wasn't more helpful!

Thanks for catering for my simple brain reed9 much appreciated.
Since I'm still on "The Beast in The Corner", I can't try it just yet but I will this evening and let you know how it goes!
I have to go out into the arctic weather late this afternoon (the worst time) so I've had to give my car a bit of CPR!
My fingers are still numb!