Can't get sound card working

[artooro]

Hi,

I'm running Ubuntu 5.0.4 and my sound card is a Crystal 4237B.
I've tried running alsaconf but it ended with a dialog which said Result and had a single OK button. Nothing else. Very cryptic.

Other than that I can't think of anything. /dev/dsp does not exist and esd won't run at all because of that.

Thanks for any help.

[burnit]

It's very strange that /dev/dsp doesn't exists...

You have to create it with the MAKEDEV script:

cd /dev && MAKEDEV audio

Then... shutdown you esd daemon, it doesn't matter now... You must be sure of:
* Kernel support about your soundcard (go to the ALSA section and put main ALSA module, including OSS emulation, and the module for your soundcard...)...

* alsa-base package should be installed, but it's not necessary for hearing sound, even if my programs doesn't recognize no soundcard without this package... (strange, isn't? Any suggestions? I use libasound2!!!).

* Turn on mixers with alsa-mixer...

* alsaconf behavior is normal (at least for me...): i notice it should not be necessary for PCI cards... but I'm not sure...

If something wrong (no sound...), you should edit your /etc/modules.conf manually, including come lines... I've done it years ago because my Debian didn't update it correctly...

If there are some errors when loading ALSA modules, post them... (you can catch them with dmesg)...

Good Luck

[artooro]

Tried using the MAKEDEV script to create /dev/dsp but did not work.
Strange indeed.

And Ubuntu 5.0.4 does not have a modules.conf. There is a file called modules in etc though but it simply contains modules to load at boot time which are:

ide-cd
ide-disk
ide-generic
lp
mousedev
psmouse

[burnit]

Very strange... but I've only used Debian distro's, so I'm not sure that files should be there... but they must exists!!!

I've checked man page of MAKEDEV, and it should create any audio devices needed...

It seems your installation is broken... But I've never used an Ubuntu, even if I mean it is a distro derived from Debian...

[artooro]

Well hopefully I'll be getting a ethernet card this month sometime and then will be able to do an official debian network install. I really don't like using CD's more than is needed.
As much as I like Ubuntu and the way it improves on Debian.

Consider this issue pending.