I recently installed slackware 9 and can't get any sound to work. When I start Gnome I get the message:
Couldn't open mixer device /dev/sound/mixer
In KDE the message is:
Error while initializing the sound driver.
device /dev/dsp can't be opened (no such device)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device.

My computer is an IBM intellistation which I purchased from pc surplus online, I have no manuals or operating system other than Slackware. I understand that I have onboard sound, but that's all I know (I'm not even sure exactly what onboard sound is). How can I use Slackware to learn more about the computer? Can this information help me fix the sound problem? I started using linux a week ago.

To find out what soundcard you have run "lspci" and paste the results

Rgds

Rus

Alright, when I opened the computer I saw all 3 PCI slots were empty.
lspci gave the following:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:02.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:02.2 USB controller: Intel Corp 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 (rev 01)
00:02.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
00:03.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev 05)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics Inc. MGA G400 AGP (rev 04)

anyone?

Well I did some snooping around at the IBM web site and it appears that the onboard chip is an ADI Soundmax. Some other looking seems to indicate that the kernel does support that chipset, if it is actually enabled in slack is another matter. Are you logged in as root or a regular user? If you are root and still no sound then go to IBM support area and confirm that you do indeed have the Soundmax chip. If root user has sound and regular users do not open a console and type the following.

chmod 666 /dev/dsp
chmod 666 /dev/mixer
That should allow sound for regular users. Good luck.

Here's a good thread about Slackware, with some comments on installing sound:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=63172

Thanks. I don't have my linux machine online until I get to use my campus Ethernet in a few weeks (I hope it works out nicely) so I can't try alsa yet.
I'm logged on as root and no sound. Also (if you happen to read this) windsorjax, how did you find out what kind of sound chip I had based on what I posted? Earlier I was trying to use IBM's site to get some specs on my computer (Intellistation 6893 94U) and they didn't have it listed.
Any advice about alsa ( or sound in general) would be greatly appreciated.

OK seems like I hit on the wrong chipset this document seems to indicate that it is a crystal chipset
http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site...id=JBAR-3VYRQ8
This is the page that directed me to that page
http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site...&validate=true

(edit) I looked in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules and saw an entry for crystal sound you may be able to try and insmod that module and see if it loads if it works you can uncomment the line to have it load automagicly. Good Luck!