Here's what I have in my sony RA826G:

Audio Card Advice

Integrated Audio (7.1 channel capable)
"Integrated audio" refers to audio components that are integrated with the computer's main hardware, as opposed to being part of a separate sound card. Integrating allows the computer to deliver very good sound with relatively little extra cost. In this case, the audio system is capable of delivering "7.1" channel surround sound, an advanced form of surround sound based on eight speakers. In terms of sound quality, unless you are a highly discerning audiophile, you will be unlikely to notice the difference between this and more expensive choices.

As you can see it doesn't have a sound card,...how would I setup linux to work with sound in a situation like this? Any help is greatly appreciated,..thanks in advance!

Hi and welcome to LQ. Regardless of it being built in, you will still have a sound card. Do you have Windows still installed? If so, go to the device manager and see the spec lised under sound and let us know what the make/model is.

Under "sound" there are a few things:
Audio Codecs
Legacy Audio Drivers
Legacy Video Capture Drivers
Media Control Devices
Realtek High Definition Audio
Sony MPEG RealTime encorder board
Video Codecs

Not sure which one it is you want

anyone?

If you have linux installed on the machine please post the output of the following commands from a terminal or konsole.

/sbin/lspci -v

/sbin/lsmod

good luck.

[root@localhost sbin]# /sbin/lspci -v
bash: /sbin/lspci: No such file or directory
[root@localhost sbin]# /sbin/lsmod
Module Size Used by
vfat 12704 0
fat 41952 1 vfat
parport_pc 32352 0
ppdev 8676 0
parport 35848 2 parport_pc,ppdev
snd-seq-oss 33728 0
snd-seq-midi-event 7328 1 snd-seq-oss
snd-seq 52560 4 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq-midi-event
snd-seq-device 7336 2 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq
snd-pcm-oss 51080 0
snd-pcm 86948 1 snd-pcm-oss
snd-timer 22724 2 snd-seq,snd-pcm
snd-page-alloc 8392 1 snd-pcm
e1000 82500 0
floppy 57168 0
snd-mixer-oss 18592 1 snd-pcm-oss
snd 49028 7 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq,snd-seq-device,snd-pcm-oss,snd-pcm,snd-timer,snd-mixer-oss
soundcore 8288 1 snd
md5 4576 1
ipv6 249412 14
af_packet 17864 2
ide-cd 38528 0
cdrom 38844 1 ide-cd
loop 13896 0
nls_iso8859-1 4672 1
ntfs 149980 1
genrtc 9112 0
ext3 123496 2
jbd 56600 1 ext3
sd_mod 20096 5
ata_piix 7460 4
libata 39300 1 ata_piix
scsi_mod 106788 2 sd_mod,libata

Iam guessing these 2 are the ones:
Realtek High Definition Audio
Sony MPEG RealTime encorder board

Realtek and/or Sony.

Frankly, I would just grab a recent distro (Mandrake 10 and up have excellent hardware detection) and install away. Most of the time the install will deal with all your hardware, and if it doesn't, post back with any error messages.

I have had Mandrake 10.1 installed, I'm just not sure how to set sound up with this system.

Issue this as root or su - and post the results please.

lspci -v

good luck.

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 915G/P/GV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 04)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 819b
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: [e0] #09 [2109]

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 915G/P/GV PCI Express Root Port (rev 04) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000cfff
Memory behind bridge: f0000000-fbefffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: c0000000-d7ffffff
Capabilities: [88] #0d [0000]
Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [90] Message Signalled Interrupts: 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
Capabilities: [a0] #10 [0141]

00:1b.0 Class 0403: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 81a0
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at dfffc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [60] Message Signalled Interrupts: 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable-
Capabilities: [70] #10 [0091]

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
Capabilities: [40] #10 [0141]
Capabilities: [80] Message Signalled Interrupts: 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
Capabilities: [90] #0d [0000]
Capabilities: [a0] Power Management version 2

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 819d
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 23
I/O ports at b480 [size=32]

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 819d
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
I/O ports at b800 [size=32]

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 819d
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
I/O ports at b880 [size=32]

00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 819d
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
I/O ports at bc00 [size=32]

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 819d
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 23
Memory at dfffbc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [58] #0a [20a0]

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d3) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 0000e000-0000efff
Memory behind bridge: fbf00000-fbffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d8000000-00000000def00000
Capabilities: [50] #0d [0000]

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FR (ICH6/ICH6R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 819d
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 819d
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at ffa0 [size=16]

00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FW (ICH6/ICH6W) SATA Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 8f [Master SecP SecO PriP PriO])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 819e
Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
I/O ports at b400 [size=8]
I/O ports at b080 [size=4]
I/O ports at b000 [size=8]
I/O ports at ac00 [size=4]
I/O ports at a880 [size=16]
Capabilities: [70] Power Management version 2

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 819d
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 19
I/O ports at 0400 [size=32]

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 3e50 (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 0002
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at c0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
I/O ports at c000 [size=256]
Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Expansion ROM at fbee0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [58] #10 [0001]
Capabilities: [80] Message Signalled Interrupts: 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable-

03:03.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): NEC Corporation uPD72874 IEEE1394 OHCI 1.1 3-port PHY-Link Ctrlr (rev 01) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 811e
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 20
Memory at fbfff000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2

03:04.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 813d
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

03:06.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82541GI/PI Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 81a2
Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 21
Memory at fbfc0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
Memory at fbfa0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
I/O ports at ec00 [size=64]
Expansion ROM at fbf80000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [e4] PCI-X non-bridge device.

Try to modprobe the module like this.

modprobe snd-intel8x0

I'm not sure if the ich6 is supported by alsa, if it is that module should work. If it's not you may have to look at the oss drivers.

http://www.opensound.com/

good luck.

for some reason, if i try to do "alsamixer" this is what i get:

[pragun@localhost pragun]$ alsamixer

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device

Did you try the modprobe, if so did you encounter any errors? I ask this because you're posting info on failed alsamixer errors which should be expected at this point since the modules for the card have not been recognized nor loaded at this point.

If you do not see this module

snd-intel8x0

loaded from the command

lsmod

then basically the driver is not loaded for the card. If the driver/module isn't loaded then no mixer will work. You'll have to get the proper modules loaded before your mixers will do you any good. Hope this helps, I know it's frustrating, hang in there.
good luck.

I've changed distros to Fedora Core 3 as I like it better....what would be the way to get the sound working on FC3?

I believe the tool is system-config-soundcard.
good luck.