[conspire] Soundconfig:

[Rick Moen]

Hi, Bill!

Quoting Bill Stoye (skiffworks at earthlink.net):

> I got and ran 'sndconfig' as you suggested, it finished
> without any errors but I must still be missing/not understanding
> something; during shutdown a message scrolls up saying: Starting ALSA
> sound driver (version none): modprobe: can't locate module snd failed. 
> 
> When I retry  sndconfig I get the following:
> 
>                  ERROR: No Sound Modules found 
>                                                                                    	   You don't seem to be running a kernel with modular       
>            sound enabled. (soundcore.o was not found in the         
>            module search path).                                     
>            To use sndconfig, you must be running a kernel with      
>            modular sound, such as the kernel shipped with Red Hat   
>            Linux or a 2.2 or greater kernel. 
> 
> Looked up the following:
> skiffworks:/home/bill# uname -r
> 2.2.20-idepci

Well, the "idepci" series of precompiled kernels are deliberately very
pared down, so it's not really surprising that sound drivers are among
the things left out.  (The idea of the "idepci" ones is that you might
need a kernel that omits support for some troublesome hardware in order
to successfully complete installation, otherwise the installer's attempt
to probe for those hardware components might freeze the installation
attempt.  The idea is that you'd replace the limited-drivers kernel
afterwards with either a more-suitable precompiled kernel or a custom
one that you compile for yourself.)

The Debian 3.0-based laptop computer in front of me has
"kernel-image-2.4.18-bf2.4".  The "boot-flavour 2.4" packages are one of
the many precompiled Debian kernels that include sound drivers.  You can
find others by looking through the available-packages catalogues (the
*Packages ones) in your /var/lib/apt/lists/ directory -- or use a GUI 
tool like aptitude, synaptic, or whatever you prefer.

You might do better with one of the _very_ standard procompiled kernels, 
like:

 kernel-image-2.4-686 (for PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/PIV machines)
 kernel-image-2.4-686-smp (for PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/PIV SMP machines)
 kernel-image-2.4-k6 (for AMD K6/K6-II/K6-III machines)
 kernel-image-2.4-k7 (for AMD K7/Athlon/Duron/Thunderbird machines)
 kernel-image-2.4-k7-smp (for AMD K7/Athlon/Duron/Thunderbird SMP machines)

Any of those can be installed via apt-get.  If you do, be very careful
to follow any special instructions you see at that time, e.g., changes
to /etc/lilo.conf .  (At the minimum, take care to leave a paragraph
in /etc/lilo.conf for your old 2.2.20-idepci kernel, so you can reboot
using it, in the event your 2.4.x one has problems.)

> I have been trying since July 28th., when I first installed Debian to
> get sound running; It seems a long way off but I think I would like to
> bring my PC to the meeting the 2nd weekend of December and elicit your
> help if I may.

Of course you're welcome to.  Should be no big problem, I expect.  Or
you might want to do "apt-get install kernel-image-2.4-686" (or whatever
version suits your CPU setup best), and try it out on your own.

> Nor can I remember how you did the sound test on your lap top, I
> neglected to note it down.

I logged in as the root user, and then run "sndconfig".  Everything else
just works with no fuss.

Sorry to hear about the problems, anyway.

-- 
Cheers,               It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
Rick Moen          It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
rick@            The hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning,
linuxmafia.com         It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.