I've installed Slackware 9 and everything works fine except for the sound, which doesn't work at all and never has. Any tips? Is the only way to compile a kernel?


Thanks

What kind of sound card do you have? What kernel are you using?

And while we're at it... you might want to check out ALSA

Note: Corrected the URL tag.

well, I've installed alsa, and everything works fine until I get to 'modprobe snd-via82xx', which gives me this:
/lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/sound/pci/snd-via82xx.o: init_module: No such device
/lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/sound/pci/snd-via82xx.o: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
/lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/sound/pci/snd-via82xx.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/sound/pci/snd-via82xx.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/sound/pci/snd-via82xx.o: insmod snd-via82xx failed

when I do insmod snd-via82xx I get
Using /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/sound/pci/snd-via82xx.o
/lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/sound/pci/snd-via82xx.o: unresolved symbol snd_ac97_set_rate
/lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/sound/pci/snd-via82xx.o: unresolved symbol snd_ac97_tune_hardware
/lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/sound/pci/snd-via82xx.o: unresolved symbol snd_mpu401_uart_interrupt
/lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/sound/pci/snd-via82xx.o: unresolved symbol snd_ac97_mixer
/lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/sound/pci/snd-via82xx.o: unresolved symbol snd_ac97_update_bits
/lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/sound/pci/snd-via82xx.o: unresolved symbol snd_mpu401_uart_new

and in dmesg I get
IRQ routing conflict for 00:07.5, have irq 5, want irq 11
as well as several lines of
via_audio: ignoring drain playback error -11
VIA 82xx soundcard not found or device busy

however, when the volume is up really high, I can hear it slightly

I've done a few searches and noticed that others have also had this problem, but haven't found any answers...

Thanks

If you don't have the kernel source package installed, ALSA probably won't compile correctly. This may be the reason for the unresolved symbols errors that you get when you try to insmod the ALSA module. You can find the kernel source on any Slackware ftp mirror under /pub/slackware/slackware-9.0/slackware/k You can just install it as root by typing
installpkg path/to/package/kernel-source-2.4.20-noarch-5.tgz
or running pkgtool from the directory you put it in, selecting current, and saying yes when it asks if you wish to install that package.

Once this is done, if you have not done it already, give us a little more info to go on. I'd like to see the output of
lspci -v
and from a fresh boot, the output of
lsmod
With this information, we may be able to help you.
Thanks.