yes, i already tried 9.1 and it didn't work so i know for a fact it can't run on my box.

ang omg! ya it's an ess 1868! that's it! i thought ess was esoniq but i guess not.

how exactly did 9.1 not work? what are your hardware specs?

what about the live cds? does the sound work on them?

and the alsa rpms?

is 7.x is still maintained?

there was not enough memory to bring up the display i only have a 2 gig drive and 32mb of ram, live cds won't make a difference, and i have no idea if the sound worked because i couldn't bring up the display.

i don't know about the alsa rpms, i'll go check

7.1 is working just fine for me and i'm keeping it.

no the alsa rpms are not installed

a live cd could let you know exactly what you need to do to your real installation to have the sound up and running. they are great for diagnostics and stuff like this. and i'm not pushing 9.1 on you, but it DOES have a text-based install option, you know?

perhaps you should install alsa.

i installed 9.1 in text, graphic mode was to slow.

how do i install alsa?
better yet, what is alsa?

alsa is the advanced linux sound architecture.

http://www.alsa-project.org/

so i take it i should download the drivers one for sure.

there's rpms for alsa if you need them...

i found this one on a 7.1 "updates" mirror:

http://ftp.up.ac.za/pub/linux/distri....4mdk.i586.rpm

check rpmfind for more:

http://rpmfind.net/

by the way, with 32MB of ram, blackbox should run smoothly on any decent distro...

http://blackboxwm.sourceforge.net/

this rpm you linked to would be great, the only problem is my kernel is 2.2.15-4mdk and the kernel i need is 2.2.19_0.5.10b-6.4mdk. is the kernel the version of mandrake? or can i get a newer kernel without anything else changing?

there's an rpm for an updated (mandrake 7.1) 2.2 kernel in that same ftp directory...

yes, updating the kernel only updates the kernel... the rest of the system (shell, gui, etc...) remains the same...

http://ftp.up.ac.za/pub/linux/distri....4mdk.i586.rpm

you could also, if you know what you're doing, go to http://kernel.org/ and download the very latest 2.2 kernel source code directly from linus torvads and his folks', and complile yourself a brand smacking new kernel 2.2...

i suggest you update via rpm.

http://www.redhat.com/support/resour...ernel-upgrade/

http://12.211.163.188/doug/ll/linux_rpm_kernel.html

http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/202/1/

http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue37/martinez.html

um, there is just a wee problem, i can't bring the updated kernel onto my other computer without a floppy, i'm gonna have to wait a while till my internet is working.

I could not agree more about not doing very many things when logged in as root. It seems like there are activities that cannot be done in root, either. Maybe this is because system files are tied up running the root modules or something.

Anyway, I now try to do it all from a nonroot login. And, only when something does not work from that side do I go to root and try it. It seems like I've encountered several occasions when this was the case--THAT ONLY IN ROOT COULD I PERFORM THE TASK I WAS ATTEMPTING. (NOTE) I have only been on Linux for three weeks. However, I have spent about 96 to 100 hours on the system in that time. Be patient, and come back to this site. The people here are not a bunch of penguin snobs. I was afraid to ask questions at the other forums I have visited when troubleshooting my installs. I wish you luck. Myself, I found sndconfig to be the answer. I had to setup the IRQ--correct the setting that is--but once done it works fine now.

PS I like the expression, "I'm on the bird." I've been telling people I'm on the bird because linux is sooooo cool. What I expect to happen is that I can configure my box exactly as I want it--period.

Best,

Joel