Is this an uncompressed tar file?

I'm trying to solve my sound problems by installing this driver. Some of the instructions in the readme file have me confused.

"Change linux_src_directory to correct path in "config.in"

What does this mean?

it means it wants to be manually told the location of the linux kernel source. i'd assume that as you don't know what it means you've not got it installed. install the kernel-source package from your distro CD and that should put the course in /usr/src/linux, or maybe /usr/src/linux-2.4.10 or something, it's this path that the program wants.

and that's a normal tar file you'll want to decompress. quite how this relates to the main question i have no idea.

Yes, I do have the kernel_source installed in /usr/src/linux or /usr/src/linux2.4.18-6. (I have both files but they look the same.)

So how do I "manually tell it" the location of the kernel source?

The readme also says this driver is for red hat 2.4.x. Will it even work in Mandrake 8.2?

I edited my "config.in" file to specify the source_kernel and /lib/modules.
I untarred the file, cd to the new directory and typed "make" and this is what I got:

gcc -D__KERNEL_ -Wstrict-prototypes -pipe -DMODULE -wall -02 -fomit-frame-pointer -DMODVERSIONS -DEXPORT_SYMTAB -include /usr/src/linux-2.4.18/include/linux/modversions.h -I./ -I/usr/src/linux-2.4.18/include -ffixed-8 -c -o src/sndobj.o src/sndobj.c

gcc: installation problem, cannot execute `cpp0' : No such file or directory.

make: *** [src/sndobj.o] Error 1

Maybe I should have asked a question about the results of the "make" command in the above post so I would get a response.

What does the error message mean? Is the problem that this driver is for Red Hat 2.4.x?

All I know is, I have no sound. I do know that I have alsa, oss, and trident sound modules (drivers). Thru various commands and searches I have found:

00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems Sis 7012 pci audio accelerator (rev a0) (which is why I'm trying the sis driver)

alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-intel 8x0

above snd-card-intel 8x0 snd-pcm-oss

intel ich soundcard not found or device busy

Any ideas?

Try going to the website of your sound card manufacturer and find the exact chipset of your soundcard. Most are clones of chipsets which are supported by the kernel.

Also, have you checked the soundcard howto?
www.linuxdocs.com

The sound is integrated ac97 that is part of the SiS 651 chipset. The Sis website site says the 7012 driver is the one for the Sis chipset.