Didn't wanna make a new topic so I just edited this one.
Just got problems with sound mainly, more below.

Original post:


I've used 9.1 for about a year on and off, I just installed it and noticed 10.0 was out. I've always had a few small problems with 9.1 (clock always crashes right after fresh install and nvidia module errors are the main 2), but everything was fine. I'm gonna try and start to make everything work like it's supposed to and hopefully gain a better understanding of how linux works. Right now I'm dling 10.0 since it just came out, I'll install it once I get it, but I got a few quick questions first.

I use the onboard soundcard, I was wondering should I use the nvidia drivers or alsa? Before I've always gotten errors when loading the drivers, all of them, not just for the sound, but everything seems to work. Same question with my videocard, I saw a post where people were having problems with slack 10 and ati drivers. Should I just follow that guide, and is there anything else I should know? I know enough about Slackware, I can do everything I've tried, but I wouldn't say I'm too expierienced with it.

I suggest that you try it. I had a few problems with a clean install, but after reinstalling it, everything seems to work out of the box. My Nvidia drivers seem to be working fine on my system and so is alsa.

Which sound drivers should I use tho, the ones included from nvidia, or the alsa drivers?

I've tried both the nvidia drivers and the alsa driver and neither are working .

Well I can't get the sound to work, I ran alsaconf and it detects my soundcard, and says it's working fine.
I ran lsmod and I notice I have alot of modules loaded, I don't know what they are all for, but there's alot involving sound, maybe some are conflicting with each other?

Module Size Used by Tainted: P
fglrx 179912 6
snd-pcm-oss 37768 0 (unused)
snd-mixer-oss 12504 0 [snd-pcm-oss]
usb-ohci 19240 0 (unused)
ehci-hcd 17580 0 (unused)
usbcore 59308 1 [usb-ohci ehci-hcd]
nvnet 58432 1
snd-intel8x0 18924 0
snd-ac97-codec 49500 0 [snd-intel8x0]
gameport 1420 0 [snd-intel8x0]
snd-mpu401-uart 3200 0 [snd-intel8x0]
snd-rawmidi 12708 0 [snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq-device 3872 0 [snd-rawmidi]
ohci1394 24112 0 (unused)
ieee1394 42276 0 [ohci1394]
tuner 10184 1 (autoclean)
tvaudio 13480 0 (autoclean) (unused)
bttv 94656 0 (unused)
i2c-algo-bit 7144 1 [bttv]
i2c-core 12804 0 [tuner tvaudio bttv i2c-algo-bit]
videodev 5952 2 [bttv]
snd-bt87x 5192 0
snd-pcm 56072 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-intel8x0 snd-bt87x]
snd-timer 13604 0 [snd-pcm]
snd-page-alloc 6328 0 [snd-intel8x0 snd-bt87x snd-pcm]
snd 30852 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-intel8x0 snd-ac97-codec snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd-bt87x snd-pcm snd-timer]
soundcore 3396 8 [bttv snd]
pcmcia_core 39972 0
ntfs 51424 1 (autoclean)
ide-scsi 9328 0
agpgart 43940 4

With slack 9.1 I had agpgart, nvnet, and fglrx and one or two other, I know what the ntfs and ide-scsi one's are for. Other than those, there are alot I don't think I need there, and even if it's not related to my sound problems, I'm sure it's slowing the system down. When I run kmix it crashes also, dunno why, maybe just because I don't have a driver installed I guess.

Slack 10 has alsa preconfigured and if you install the default kernel, as well as the alsa packages, everything should work out of the box. You may need to run "alsamixer" at the command line, to unmute sound and then run, as root "alsactl store" to store the volumes as default.

When I startx I get this:

Sound server informational message:
Error while initializing the sound driver:
device: default can't be opened for playback (No such device)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device.

So, I'm pretty sure there's a problem with the drivers. I thought it would work out of the box too, slackware 9.1 didn't have alsa installed, and it even had my sound working right away. It used some crappy drivers, and I would usually install the alsa drivers, and everything would work fine, but now I'm having problems with 10.0.

Edit: I just ran alsamixer just because and I noticed it says at the top:

Card: Brooktree Bt878 ?
? Chip: Bt87x ?
? Item: FM

I don't know what this is, but thats not my card, it detects my card as an intel8x0 which is what it should (this is when running alsaconf) yet for w/e reason alsamixer is saying it's this other thing.

I did install the defualt kernel btw, so... I don't know, I don't see why I would be having problems. Hopefully I can get this working, don't want to have to reinstall, and it prob. wouldn't help.

Have you tried:

$ alsamixer -c 1

That you should bring up the mixer for the second card on your system, the intel8x0 one.

well I recompiled the kernel, I was using the 2.4.26 one before, didn't know it used that one by defualt on slack 10, so I installed the 2.6.7 kernel, and when I compiled it, I forgot somethings I guess cause I don't have the drivers for my ethernet, and I can't compile things anymore, I get an error, but I think I can figure that out. So I guess my problem is sovled, just gotta combine these two kernels now to make one good one lol.

Well I'm using slack 9.1 now, and I get the same problem I had in 10 when trying to use the alsa drivers. I ran this, and it brings up the nforce card, and the volumes are up, but I still get this error when starting. I think maybe it's trying to use the other card (which I don't have) instead of this one. Is there a way I can disable the other card, and make this my primary card?

I'm sorry if you already posted and I missed it, but are you running KDE? If so, try starting Gnome instead and see if you have the same problem. I had a similar problem before, but I only received the error message with KDE and not Gnome. If it's the same for you, you will have narrowed down your problem.

Good luck,

kryptobs2000, i had the same problem using KDE (as shilo pointed too), it's a problem with arts, the KDE sound daemon, you can choose to disable it, or select other options than Autoselect till you can get it working, you can do that by going to the control panel and there to Multimedia or something like that (i don't have KDE now so i don't remember the exact option).
Also, i remember arts will save it's own volume configuration, you can disable that if you want to use the sound volume you configured trough alsamixer and then saved with alsactl store.

Probably, I would just not modprobe for it (black list the tuner audio module in hotplug if necessary!)

How do I blacklist it? Or even just unload it? I havn't had to do that before, so.. I dunno how lol. I'm not too experienced dispite that I've been using it for a year on and off.

I'm in gnome right now, and although it didn't give me the error, I still have no sound. I just did a fresh install, didn't change anything yet, and it lists my card as the secondary one in the volume control under gnome, and it also lists the other soundcard. I have no idea what this is, or why it's installed. It's listed as: Bt87x [Audio Mixer (OSS)]

edit: oops, I meant to edit the other post, sorry I wasn't thinking.

edit again: Ok, well I found out you use rmmod to unload a module, however I don't know which is which, and looking at lsmod I noticed this

snd-page-alloc 6328 0 [snd-intel8x0 snd-bt87x snd-pcm]

That lists both of the cards, are they somehow related or what? I posted my lsmod up a few posts if that would help any. Thanks for the help.

I didn't read this thread too intently, but here's an answer to one question:

when you lsmod, the modules in brackets are loaded modules that need the current module to run. i.e. if you want to use usb-storage, usbcore must first be loaded. So lsmod should show you:
usb-storage
usbcore [usb-storage]