this is an interesting problem. i spent 4 months finding a distro that would work with my sound card (ISA SB 32... which in linux runs as an SB16...) I even went on Call for Help (
www.callforhelptv.com) *brag brag*
There could be a number of things:
1) IRQ (Interupt [i think its interupt] ReQuest) conflicts. I don't know too much about these, since PCI has basically illiminated this problem, but it seems to be a problem with ISA cards. (look somewhere to find out if it is, because i dont know how)
LinuxQuestions.org Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) for SoundBlaster 16:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...&cat=81&page=1
There are talks about IRQs. If it is using IRQ-5 then there might be problems.
2) /dev/dsp is usually a symbollic link to /dev/dsp0 check if you have /dev/dsp0. if so what are the read write options, and who does it belong to? when i type 'ls -l /dev/dsp0' i get something that looks like:
crwxrwx--x root:audio blahblahblah /dev/dsp0
so, you can either add your user to the "audio" group... or change the group that that file belongs to... the first is easier. open KUser and select your user. Select groups, and check the box 'audio' and save.
if you want to change the owning group to 'users'
type 'su' (or open a root terminal)
type 'chown root:users /dev/dsp0'
if you find /dev/dsp0 and its all set up and still says /dev/dsp is not found
type 'su' (or open a root terminal)
type 'ln -s /dev/dsp0 /dev/dsp'
that will create a symbolic link.
Also, try the same for /dev/mixer. /dev/mixer is also a symbollic link to /dev/mixer0
3) Have you tried installing MEPIS again or booting it from CD to test the sound? Try getting the latest MEPIS, it's just a download away (then a cd-r and a few clicks + 5-20 minutes...)!
4) Recompile your kernel? People I know say this is easy, but I don't seem to get the hang of it. You can re-install MEPIS (3.3.1) and it'll ask you on the Live CD bootup to use 2.4 or 2.6.... Use 2.4 if you can. I tried 2.6 and my machine is about 4 years old and there was many problems (mp3s would skip, aMSN kept crashing...etc.) I found when I went back to 2.4 (i had used 2.4 with slackware before I switchted) everything is sterdier.
5) look here for your sound settings: KDE Control Centre > sound & multimedia (on the left side) > sound system > hardware (the tab) Try switching "Select the Audio Device" to Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA). Then open KMix and go Help > Hardware Information. If it gives you info, then ... well... it should work?
6) Try running alsaconf from the single user mode:
press ctrl+alt+f6 (ctrl+alt+f7 will bring you back to KDE)
login as root
type 'init 1'
login as root (again)
type 'alsaconf'
when it's done type 'reboot' (or 'shutdown -r now')
7) are you speakers plugged in correctly (or at all)? Ha, just checking
Tell me if any of those things got you on the right track.
hope that helps
If you have any questions or if anyone else can actually answer "How do I tell the system what card is installed and what driver/modules to load on boot?" please feel free to ask/do so.
if all above fail, try a different distro
linux is linux
note: If you mounted /home on a separate partition, MEPIS will let you save that data when you do a new install, which makes it easier to update.
