Apology:

I know that this is a favourite topic, but I have searched for an answer, honest!

Environment:

Standard Pentium system, 512K ram, 2 x 8Gb hard disks, Soundblaster sound card, USB mouse.
Mandrake 10.1 Official, fully up-to-date with downloaded security & bugfix updates.

Problem:

I have a problem with my SoundBlaster card - when MDK installed the system works OK but the soundcard is not found - HardDrake doesn't know that it exists, so cannot configure from there. Mix always comes up with an 'X', so no joy there either.

If I run sndconfig in a terminal window it goes as far as trying to send the Linus sound file, but reports something like "Problem writing to /dev/sound" (I'm away from my home computer so can't get the exact wording).

If I boot to a command line as root I can run sndconfig successfully, and hear Uncle Linus announcing his presence - but then when I reboot to X / KDE my mouse is dead, and the cursor stays in the centre of the screen.

HELP!

For info, last night I started my system with Knoppix - the sound card was immediately identified correctly during startup, and all aspects of sound and mouse worked exactly as they should.

I'm getting very annoyed/frustrated....

thanks in advance for any advice.

Don't worry - I've sorted it!

Did a total re-install with individual package selection, then ran alsaconf - this found the card and set it up OK.

I'm still very annoyed that Mandrake can't automate this correctly at installation, as other distros manage to do it without pain, especially as the SoundBlaster range of cards are near-enough "industry standard".

Never mind - I can play my CDs and listen to the radio now...

DJ