I am very new to Linux based operating system & have just installed Kubuntu 5.10 onto an old Compaq SFF Dopens 450Mhz machine. Unfortunatly it does not identify the audio hadware & comes up with an error message as follows.

Sound server informational message:

error while initializing the sound driver:

device /dev/dsp can't opened (no such file or directory)

the sound server will continue, using the null output device


I believe the onboard hardware is ES1869 Plug & play audio Drive WDM (I have another unit running windows XP)


The hardware may be old & slow but they are perfect for P2P as are quiet & can be left running 24/7 so would realy love to get linux running on em instead of windows.

You should try google also..
First of all, what is the module running for your sound device?

Take a look at this post

Regards,

I assume you have tried alsaconf. (Download alsa-base, alsa-utils, and run # alsaconf)

thanks for the information. looks like the best cource of action would be to install a standard soundblaster card & go from there.

As said I am very new to Linux & am still trying to get my head around the installing of software. I have sussed out the Debian packages (.deb) as they can be installed without having to type anything, but when it comes to any other package formats I am a fish out of water.