Sound card issue

[tom boucher]

I am running a dual boot system with XP and Mandrakelinux 10.1 It appears that Mandrake installed flawlessly except for the sound card. It indicated "failed" during the initial install and boot. When I retried it asked whether or not it is an ISA sound card. I have an ESS1869 card and I do believe it is ISA because the computer was purchased in '98. When ISA was selected I was prompted to enter either "alsaconf" or "sndconfig" at the command line. I am brand new to Linux and am not to familer. I believe I know where the command line is, but could not get this to work. Can anyone help with this?

[tom boucher]

Additional information with the sound. When I boot the system, as KDE 3.2 starts I get this message:

Sound server informational message:
Error while initializing the sound driver:
device /dev/dsp can't be opened (No such file or directory)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device.

Any help is appreciated. TOM

[tom boucher]

I went under system configuration to the sound selection and it looks like 10.1 wants to configure sound but again I get the message on a previous reply above. I think it may be down to a matter of drivers but I am not sure. To be continued...

[tom boucher]

HELP PLEASE. I researched and found that with the Ess1869 sound card you need to check ISA card during install then run sndconfig in order to get it to work. I did do this the first time I installed Mandrake 10.1. I decided to do another install, lost all of my old configurations and files, and selected ISA again. Again, it did not work. I do not know what else to do. Again, PLEASE HELP.

[jeremy1701]

Tom,

You have to run sndconfig as root. Did you get through that successfully?

Here's another resource for you to:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...cat=998&page=8

Jeremy

[tom boucher]

You mean to run it from the command line as the root user? Is that correct. If so, I have tried that and the error message that came up was "could not run that specified command". If that is not what you are talking about, could you tell me what you mean by the "root" thanks a lot.

[jeremy1701]

I ment root user, yes. Did you install ISA support and then try to run it?

Jeremy

[tom boucher]

Yes, during the install I had selected ISA and was prompted as to what I needed to enter once the system was up and running. However, at the command line when I enter the command sndconfig as the root user it only gives me the error message.

[tom boucher]

Thanks for that link posted above. I actually did a search yesterday and read that exact posting. That posting is what prompted me to try to reinstall Mandrake 10.1 in an effort to try to correct this. I had checked ISA and as we have discussed, tried to run as the root withoug success. I definately did not get a graphical interface. The system simply did not do anything.

[tom boucher]

I have also researched the alsconf command, but do not understand it too well. This posting made it appear that you simply run it, but I read further and it seems in depth and involves configuring the kernel. Here is that post:

philipacamaniac
Member

Registered: Oct 2003
Distribution: Slackware 10, Slackware-current, Slax
Posts: 49


It is very easy to get this card working. Simply run alsaconf, and the program will detect and modprobe the appropriate driver module. That's as easy as they come...


Note: this card can be found in old Compaq AP400 Professional Workstations.