I have an Alienware Area-51m laptop. I am having problems with ALSA running on the system, and OSS sounds terrible..very crackly.

I just finished installing gentoo and tried installing ALSA.

amixer says something about mixer attach default error.

when i ran lspci | grep -i audio..i just got something like this:

Multimedia audio controller:
Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Sound Controller (rev a0)

no model number or anything..

i just used the intel8x0 module...

Can anyone tell me how to install it on an alienware area-51m laptop, or show me what i'm doing wrong?

I'm not exactly sure what more info I need to post..i followed the Gentoo/ALSA installation on the gentoo website..

dmesg output would be helpful

Gary

Here it is:
Linux version 2.4.28 (root@el-pollo-frito) (gcc version 3.3.4 20040623 (Gentoo Linux 3.3.4-r1, ssp-3.3.2-2, pie-8.7.6)) #4 SMP Tue Dec 7 12:22:16 EST 2004
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000e0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001ffd0000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000001ffd0000 - 000000001ffdf000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 000000001ffdf000 - 0000000020000000 (ACPI NVS)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fff80000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
511MB LOWMEM available.
found SMP MP-table at 000ff780
hm, page 000ff000 reserved twice.
hm, page 00100000 reserved twice.
hm, page 000f9000 reserved twice.
hm, page 000fa000 reserved twice.
On node 0 totalpages: 131024
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 126928 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
ACPI: RSDP (v000 ACPIAM ) @ 0x000f55d0
ACPI: RSDT (v001 A M I OEMRSDT 0x09000429 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x1ffd0000
ACPI: FADT (v001 A M I OEMFACP 0x09000429 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x1ffd0200
ACPI: MADT (v001 A M I OEMAPIC 0x09000429 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x1ffd0390
ACPI: OEMB (v001 A M I AMI_OEM 0x09000429 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x1ffdf040
ACPI: DSDT (v001 1ABFS 1ABFS001 0x00000001 INTL 0x02002026) @ 0x00000000
ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000
ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x01] lapic_id[0x00] enabled)
Processor #0 Pentium 4(tm) XEON(tm) APIC version 20
ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x02] lapic_id[0x01] enabled)
Processor #1 Pentium 4(tm) XEON(tm) APIC version 20
ACPI: IOAPIC (id[0x02] address[0xfec00000] global_irq_base[0x0])
IOAPIC[0]: Assigned apic_id 2
IOAPIC[0]: apic_id 2, version 2, address 0xfec00000, IRQ 0-23
ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 0 global_irq 2 dfl dfl)
ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 10 global_irq 10 low level)
Using ACPI (MADT) for SMP configuration information
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=Gentoo ro root=304
Initializing CPU#0
Detected 3000.104 MHz processor.
Console: colour dummy device 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 5976.88 BogoMIPS
Memory: 514256k/524096k available (2351k kernel code, 9452k reserved, 716k data, 168k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
CPU: Trace cache: 12K uops, L1 D cache: 8K
CPU: L2 cache: 512K
CPU: Physical Processor ID: 0
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU: After generic, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Common caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
CPU: Trace cache: 12K uops, L1 D cache: 8K
CPU: L2 cache: 512K
CPU: Physical Processor ID: 0
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU: After generic, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Common caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU0: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz stepping 09
per-CPU timeslice cutoff: 1462.51 usecs.
enabled ExtINT on CPU#0
ESR value before enabling vector: 00000080
ESR value after enabling vector: 00000000
Booting processor 1/1 eip 3000
Initializing CPU#1
masked ExtINT on CPU#1
ESR value before enabling vector: 00000000
ESR value after enabling vector: 00000000
Calibrating delay loop... 5989.99 BogoMIPS
CPU: Trace cache: 12K uops, L1 D cache: 8K
CPU: L2 cache: 512K
CPU: Physical Processor ID: 0
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#1.
CPU: After generic, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Common caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU1: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz stepping 09
Total of 2 processors activated (11966.87 BogoMIPS).
cpu_sibling_map[0] = 1
cpu_sibling_map[1] = 0
ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
init IO_APIC IRQs
IO-APIC (apicid-pin) 2-0, 2-16, 2-17, 2-18, 2-19, 2-20, 2-21, 2-22, 2-23 not connected.
..TIMER: vector=0x31 pin1=2 pin2=-1
Using local APIC timer interrupts.
calibrating APIC timer ...
..... CPU clock speed is 3000.1514 MHz.
..... host bus clock speed is 200.0099 MHz.
cpu: 0, clocks: 2000099, slice: 666699
CPU0<T0:2000096,T1:1333392,D:5,S:666699,C:2000099>
cpu: 1, clocks: 2000099, slice: 666699
CPU1<T0:2000096,T1:666688,D:10,S:666699,C:2000099>
checking TSC synchronization across CPUs: passed.
Waiting on wait_init_idle (map = 0x2)
All processors have done init_idle
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20040326
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf0031, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
ACPI: Interpreter enabled
ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing
ACPI: System [ACPI] (supports S0 S1 S3 S4 S5)
ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (00:00)
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
ACPI: Embedded Controller [EC0] (gpe 11)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 3 4 *5 7 10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 *10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] (IRQs 3 4 *5 7 10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] (IRQs 3 4 *5 7 10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs *3 4 5 7 10 11 12 14 15)
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
00:00:02[A] -> 2-16 -> IRQ 16 level low
00:00:02[B] -> 2-17 -> IRQ 17 level low
00:00:02[C] -> 2-18 -> IRQ 18 level low
00:00:02[D] -> 2-19 -> IRQ 19 level low
00:00:03[D] -> 2-23 -> IRQ 23 level low
00:00:03[A] -> 2-20 -> IRQ 20 level low
00:00:03[B] -> 2-21 -> IRQ 21 level low
00:00:03[C] -> 2-22 -> IRQ 22 level low
number of MP IRQ sources: 15.
number of IO-APIC #2 registers: 24.
testing the IO APIC.......................

IO APIC #2......
.... register #00: 02000000
....... : physical APIC id: 02
....... : Delivery Type: 0
....... : LTS : 0
.... register #01: 00178002
....... : max redirection entries: 0017
....... : PRQ implemented: 1
....... : IO APIC version: 0002
.... IRQ redirection table:
NR Log Phy Mask Trig IRR Pol Stat Dest Deli Vect:
00 000 00 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 00
01 003 03 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 39
02 003 03 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 31
03 003 03 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 41
04 003 03 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 49
05 003 03 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 51
06 003 03 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 59
07 003 03 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 61
08 003 03 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 69
09 003 03 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 71
0a 003 03 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 79
0b 003 03 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 81
0c 003 03 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 89
0d 003 03 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 91
0e 003 03 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 99
0f 003 03 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 A1
10 003 03 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 A9
11 003 03 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 B1
12 003 03 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 B9
13 003 03 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 C1
14 003 03 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 D1
15 003 03 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 D9
16 003 03 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 E1
17 003 03 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 C9
IRQ to pin mappings:
IRQ0 -> 0:2
IRQ1 -> 0:1
IRQ3 -> 0:3
IRQ4 -> 0:4
IRQ5 -> 0:5
IRQ6 -> 0:6
IRQ7 -> 0:7
IRQ8 -> 0:8
IRQ9 -> 0:9
IRQ10 -> 0:10
IRQ11 -> 0:11
IRQ12 -> 0:12
IRQ13 -> 0:13
IRQ14 -> 0:14
IRQ15 -> 0:15
IRQ16 -> 0:16
IRQ17 -> 0:17
IRQ18 -> 0:18
IRQ19 -> 0:19
IRQ20 -> 0:20
IRQ21 -> 0:21
IRQ22 -> 0:22
IRQ23 -> 0:23
.................................... done.
PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
Installing knfsd (copyright (C) 1996 okir@monad.swb.de).
NTFS driver v1.1.22 [Flags: R/O]
vesafb: framebuffer at 0xd0000000, mapped to 0xe080a000, size 7680k
vesafb: mode is 1280x1024x24, linelength=3840, pages=33
vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:5660
vesafb: scrolling: redraw
vesafb: directcolor: size=0:8:8:8, shift=0:16:8:0
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 160x64
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI ISAPNP enabled
ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
floppy0: no floppy controllers found
r8169 Gigabit Ethernet driver 1.2 loaded
eth0: Identified chip type is 'RTL8169s/8110s'.
eth0: RTL8169 at 0xe0f8bc00, 00:03:0d:1a:2f:c4, IRQ 19
eth0: Auto-negotiation Enabled.
eth0: 100Mbps Full-duplex operation.
Linux agpgart interface v0.99 (c) Jeff Hartmann
agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 439M
agpgart: Detected SiS 648 chipset
agpgart: AGP aperture is 256M @ 0xe0000000
[drm] Initialized tdfx 1.0.0 20010216 on minor 0
[drm] AGP 0.99 Aperture @ 0xe0000000 256MB
[drm] Initialized radeon 1.7.0 20020828 on minor 1
[drm] AGP 0.99 Aperture @ 0xe0000000 256MB
[drm] Initialized i810 1.2.1 20020211 on minor 2
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
hda: HTE726060M9AT00, ATA DISK drive
hdc: Slimtype COMBO LSC-24082K, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: attached ide-disk driver.
hda: host protected area => 1
hda: 117210240 sectors (60012 MB) w/7877KiB Cache, CHS=7296/255/63
hdc: attached ide-cdrom driver.
hdc: ATAPI 24X DVD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
Partition check:
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 p3 p4
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
ohci1394: $Rev: 1045 $ Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>
ohci1394_0: Unexpected PCI resource length of 1000!
ohci1394_0: OHCI-1394 1.0 (PCI): IRQ=[17] MMIO=[defe9000-defe97ff] Max Packet=[2048]
Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
options: [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
usb.c: registered new driver hub
host/uhci.c: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v1.1
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
Yenta ISA IRQ mask 0x02b8, PCI irq 17
IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 32768)
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
Socket status: 30000006
ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023] GUID[00030d5376603b68]
Yenta ISA IRQ mask 0x02b8, PCI irq 17
Socket status: 30000820
IrCOMM protocol (Dag Brattli)
cs: cb_alloc(bus 2): vendor 0x1033, device 0x00cd
PCI: Enabling device 02:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
ohci1394_1: Unexpected PCI resource length of 1000!
ohci1394_1: OHCI-1394 1.0 (PCI): IRQ=[17] MMIO=[21000000-210007ff] Max Packet=[1024]
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k nls_iso8859-1, errno = 2
reiserfs: found format "3.6" with standard journal
ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[1-00:1023] GUID[0000303c0008544e]
reiserfs: checking transaction log (device ide0(3,4)) ...
for (ide0(3,4))
ide0(3,4):Using r5 hash to sort names
VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
Mounted devfs on /dev
Freeing unused kernel memory: 168k freed
Adding Swap: 489972k swap-space (priority -1)
cs: IO port probe 0x0c00-0x0cff: excluding 0xc00-0xc1f
cs: IO port probe 0x0800-0x08ff: excluding 0x818-0x837 0x840-0x84f 0x858-0x877
cs: IO port probe 0x0100-0x04ff: excluding 0x480-0x48f 0x4d0-0x4d7
cs: IO port probe 0x0a00-0x0aff: clean.
cmpci: version $Revision: 6.16 $ time 11:00:23 Dec 7 2004
Intel 810 + AC97 Audio, version 1.01, 11:00:20 Dec 7 2004
i810: SiS 7012 found at IO 0xec00 and 0xe400, MEM 0x0000 and 0x0000, IRQ 18
i810_audio: Audio Controller supports 6 channels.
i810_audio: Defaulting to base 2 channel mode.
i810_audio: Resetting connection 0
ac97_codec: AC97 codec, id: CMI97 (CMedia)
AC97 codec does not have proper volume support.
i810_audio: only 48Khz playback available.
i810_audio: AC'97 codec 0, new EID value = 0x05c6
i810_audio: AC'97 codec 0, DAC map configured, total channels = 6
Trident 4DWave/SiS 7018/ALi 5451,Tvia CyberPro 5050 PCI Audio, version 0.14.10h, 12:22:32 Dec 7 2004
cmpci: version $Revision: 6.16 $ time 11:00:23 Dec 7 2004

two threads going on the same subject is a drag
your loading up the OSS module
so alsa is not loading
need to edit /etc/modprobe.conf or whatever it is for you to load alsa modules instead of OSS
take out what loads OSS i810_audio or if nothing is there just
and the stuff in /etc/modprobe.conf per second link i put in the other thread and when it's working just create the ~/.asoundrc file
for software mixxing nobody has one to start with !
i meant skip past the install stuff and on to the configure stuff on the alsa how to

if you look more closely SiS7012 is listed also in second link at the top as supported by
alsa snd-intel8x0

it is very strange you say you have no output from lsmod but i guess if everything is compiled in instead of modules ?

linux is just linux really -- minor differences but not major ones.....
you might have to jump through some hoops trying to keep i810_audio from loading
(you have to sometimes on debian) but first just try generic way before looking for differences

Well..modprobe.conf is blank..

Actually I compiled them as modules in the kernel, just that they didnt want to load..

Also, I don't have /dev/dsp and when i try doing amixer it says Mixer attach default error: No such file or directory.

And, it says during boot all of this:

Loading ALSA modules... [ok]
Loading: snd-card-0
modprobe: Can't locate module snd-card-0

ERROR: Failed to load necessary drivers
Restoring mixer levels...
No mixer config in /etc/asound.state, you have to unmute your card!

Don't know if that helps..

Also, what should i copy into modprobe.conf? It keeps saying stuff about adding things into modules.conf..and the aliases are already added into the modules.conf file that are there on the web site

ok actually i got the alsa working..i reinstalled the driver..no more errors...and lsmod has all of the modules loaded

my question is now..
I'm playing music in xmms and any other sound has to wait until /dev/dsp is open to play the sound.

How can I make all of the sounds play at once?