I am running Debian 2.2.20 with KDE as my default Windows manager. Everything is working fine except I get an error message once KDE opens. The error message is :

Error while initilizing the sound driver:
device /dev/dsp can't be opened ( No such device )

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

The thing is that I have gone to the \dev directory and the dsp device does exist.

I have no idea of what to do at this point.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The following link will tell you everything about my system :


http://cs.ccny.cuny.edu/~weber/linux/smartstep.html

In addition I have a netgear MA 401 802.11 Wireless network card. Now I have read some doucumentation on this
and based on the information from this website:

http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_...nux/Tools.html

I have to :

In the rare cases where your kernel isn't compiled with Wireless Extensions (/proc/net/wireless non-existent), you need to recompile it with Wireless Extensions (CONFIG_NET_RADIO enabled).

Now I have attempted to download later kernel versions from www.kernel.org
and install
them, however; each time I have had problems with the system not finding my
network card, sound doesn't work, or I could not get it to boot at all.

I have read tons of documentation and while I am getting really good at understanding
kernel commands, and the basic understanding of how the kernels use specific modules
In the end I just cannot seem to get it to work. I am highly motivated, and have
breached the linux/windows barrier. ( You know the one I'm talking about ) I am ready, able
and willing to get this down. I just need a little help. Any help would be appreciated.

Anyhow, Here is what I want to do:

Without having to install a new kernel, or upgrade to a newer kernel. I would like
to enable support for my Wireless NIC mentioned above, and fix my sound device in KDE, without
taking down my network connection.

Can someone show me documentation on the best way to enable these in my kernel without
screwing everything else up.

Thank you for the help and Linux Rules!!!

Tony Mendoza

for the sound, in your /dev directory, do you have dsp0, dsp1, etc.?

if so, then you may only need to become root and do ln -s /dev/dsp0 /dev/dsp and then do chmod 777 /dev/dsp

you will then need to make sure the correct modules for your sound card are loaded (or built into your kernel); i recommend using the alsa drivers

I do have /dev/dsp1,2,3

How can I check to see if the correct modules are installed for my sound card. And if
they are not, how would I go about installing the correct modules. Or alsa drivers?

Thanks,

Tony

ok first do the ln -s /dev/dsp0 /dev/dsp and chmod 777 /dev/dsp

if after restarting nothing has changed, do lsmod (all in terminal or konsole) and you should see things like snd-core, snd-mixer, snd-oss, etc.; if not, then i strongly recommend you get the alsa drivers (i saw from the link you use intel i810 card, which is what i use with alsa)

download these:
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa/ftp...1.0.2c.tar.bz2
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa/ftp...-0.4.3b.tar.gz

decompress the first one and compile it with ./configure, make, su, make install

decompress the second one and cd into the directory and run ./alsaconf to setup your sound card

When I try to run ./configure

Output :

(none):/home/drivers/alsa-driver-1.0.2c# ./configure
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for egrep... grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for an ANSI C-conforming const... yes
checking for inline... inline
checking whether time.h and sys/time.h may both be included... yes
checking whether gcc needs -traditional... no
checking for current directory... /home/drivers/alsa-driver-1.0.2c
checking cross compile...
checking for directory with kernel source... /usr/src/linux
checking for kernel version... The file /usr/src/linux/include/linux/version.h does not exist.
Please, install the package with full kernel sources for your distribution
or use --with-kernel=dir option to specify another directory with kernel
sources (default is /usr/src/linux).

Thanks,

Tony

you need to install your linux kernel sources

do uname -r and see what kernel you are running

go to www.kernel.org to download that kernel source and untar it into /usr/src/

all you need to do is download a kernel image from debian sources and boot in from there.issue this command:
sudo apt-cache search kernel

find a kernel version which suits you and download its image(and the sources or something...i dont remember) and boot into it.everything should work just fine then.
i had the same problem when i installed woody with kernel 2.2.20 but when i upgraded it to 2.4.24...the beautiful kde startup sound did play and i was on the seventh heaven...no but seriously...all u need to do is install the new kernel.thats it.