Well no so much tired but aggrevated. I am practicing building custom kernels (non distro) for my PC at my house and I'm really need to know how to build modules (ALSA, ATI drivers, etc.) into my kernel. I'm having problems with sound, and I've literally checked everything to get them to work and Linux is not supposed to be about shortcuts so I want to do the right thing and build some hardware specific kernels for my machines. I've got books and tutorials everywhere to build them but none to insert modules into the kernel build. I don't really like the idea of having a bloated kernel with things i don't need in it, so if you'd please guys i need help. TIA -- Judo

May be if you post your hardware specs, people can help you. You can also search on google for specific modules based on your hardware specs. ATI drivers (commercial) are provided by ATI and not included in the Linux kernel (same for nVIDIA). Instead you can use the free drivers that come with the kernel. Building Alsa is just a matter of checking <M> for alsa modules based on your hardware specs.

Have you checked out
or if you want to be extra verbose

If you have a working (default) kernel, you can check out the boot up messages to see what gets recognized

Tux,

ALSA is not too hard and it's included... Knowing your hardware is the key... Run a loaded kernel where the sound works and see what driver is being used...

One useful way to see what support is actually needed is to do lsmod to see which modules are actually loaded. Also, use lspci to see how the various hardware-devices have been identified.

Many CD-ROM "LiveCD" distros have very-sophisticated hardware detection routines. Boot one of them up, see which devices work, and then do lsmod et al to see what they selected. Then go back to your distro and try and do likewise.