Hello,

I have just switched from Slackware 9.1 to 10.0 . I did this as a "from scratch" install. My soundcard is a Soundblaster Live which worked perfectly under Slackware 9.1. After doing this new install I noticed I was hearing no sound events in gnome and windowmaker. I remembered that after my Slackware 9.1 install I had to manually start the sound deamon. I tried running "start alsa" and just plain "alsa" but I recieve an error saying that the command is not found. When I dow a "whereis alsa" it is shown as installed and the config files are in "/usr/share" as they should be. I ran "pkginfo" and saw that I do in fact have "alsa-utils", "alsa-lib", and "alsa-driver". At one point I swithced to KDE and recieved this error.

"Sound server informational message:

Error while initializing sound driver:

device /dev/dsp can't be opened (No such device)

The sound server will continue using the null output device."

This was an "arts" message so I thought maybe arts is screwing with alsa? I uninstalled arts and retried "alsa" with the same result. I reinstalled "arts" and all the "alsa" programs just in case something may have gone wrong during the installation and still the results are the same. My soundcard is definatly ok becuase it was working prior to the change of distros. If anyone can I am out of ideas and can't find anything new to try. If anyone can point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it.

thanx in advance,
javpra

Try entering "alsamixer" at command prompt and make sure that the sound isn't muted. Use the up and down arrow keys to adjust the volume and press 'm' to unmute anything that is muted.

hope this helps,
jrtayloriv

Thank you for the suggestion however It only lead to more confusion. When I ran "alsamixer" I recieved a new error

"alsamixer: function: snd_ctl_open failed for default: no such device"

I'm guessing that alsa is pointed at the wrong device but since I cannot even run "alsa" I am at a loss. Any further suggestions would be appreciated.

javpra

Hello all once more,

Apparently problems with sound in slackware 10.0 are not uncommon. Here is how to go about solving the issue. Thanks to havnblast at http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com for the fix. For some reason when installing or upgrading to slackware 10.0 the driver module for the installed sound card is not extracted. Also there are no users added to the "audio" group. First as root vi /etc/group and add any users that want sound to the audio group. for example

audio::17:root,userfoo

shows that both root and userfoo belong to the audio group. Make sure to separate users with a comma. To find out which driver your sound card needs go to www.alsa-project.org and look it up. Once you know this change to the /lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/sound/ directory and make sure the driver is there. Then run "modprobe <nameofdriver>". This should extract the necessary module into the kernel and sound should be restored. I hope this is helpful.