can anyone point to a good resource or direct me how to configure my slack 10 system to use my soundblaster awe64 card? what drivers do i need, what do i need to configure etc. i've already added support for it in OSS recompiled kerknel etc. but alsa doesn't recognize it.
i'm a newbie to all this, help a bro. out.
thnx much

how do you know alsa doesn't recognize you card ? maybe ( simple ..) your sound is just muted.
( to unmute type 'alsamixer' ; put all 'sliders' in the green; then control-c , 'alsactl store' )

otherwise , type ' lsmod ' to see a list with loaded modules and check if all is there.
also check ' lspci ' to see how your soundcard is listed.

if still no sound, post the output of lspci and lsmod here..

egag

I have an ISA soundblaster awe64 working fine.

I have the following combination:
- Slackware 10
- 2.6.7 Kernel from kernel.org
- ALSA that came with the kernel.

If you are interested in this way, post your config and I'll guide you further.

i have slack 10 w/ the 2.4.26 kernel (i believe that's the default kernel)
which config file are you referring to? my alsa config file or the rc.modules file etc. i'm a newbie so this may be an obvious answer to you but i need some hand holding as it were.
i'll gladly provide the necessary info. i'm ready to have this working.

thanx much

1. Install ALSA. It is usually installed by default, so once it's installed, just make sure the hotplug script runs at bootup, and it should detect it. If it doesn't, hunt around in /lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/sound to find the right drivers.

Also, I should tell you...the AWE64 is really just the AWE32 in terms of hardware. The 64 was shipped with a software driver that created the extra 32 voices. There's no Linux driver for that, so any AWE64 will act as if it were an AWE32 in Linux. Probably won't matter, I just figured I'd say it.

I've found one has to reinstall alsa packages each time the kernel is recompiled. Go to www.alsa-project.org and pick out the correct card, then follow the instructions.

North49er has a point. Go here and choose details for pretty much any of AWE cards. (they all have the same chip - emu8k).

That is if you wanna stick with the current kernel (2.4.x). If you wanna go the 2.6.x route, just download it from kernel.org and ALSA comes with it.

Why do you wanna make ALSA work, if you already have OSS working fine? (In case you are wondering what I just said... ALSA and OSS are "substitutes")

ok let me back up. the reason i believe that my card isn't being recognized even though i enabled it in the kernel is that i get the following message when i try to run 'alsamixer'

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device

a similar error for 'amixer'
amixer: Mixer attach default error: no such device

now these are most likely the same error and may mean something totally different than i suspect, therefore forgive my newbie ignorance and help a bro out.
thnx

You may not have properly installed all of the alsa files. If you have slack disk 1, reinstall all of the alsa packages in slackware "ap" and "l" directories. These are also available at the slack site.

There have been several threads on how to set up alsa. Just do a search.

Sorry about this, I didn't check the guides on alsa-project.com before giving a link to you.

The guide misses one crucial step - "alsaconf" before you run "alsamix" Make sure you run "alsaconf" as root. It should detect your card and set it up.

thanks much alsaconf worked and then alsamixer worked. it was all good, my system is now fully functional. thanks to all who gave their 2c it was appreciated.