Alsasound not working - was "Re: [mythtv-users] It half works!"

[Alex Davidson]

Well, I've tried everything I can think of without success.  Ultimately I
would just like sound to go from my capture card to my sound card
successfully but the OSS drivers don't seem to be doing it so I'm trying to
get ALSA working without the following error on boot:
Error while initializing the sound driver
device /dev/dsp can't be opened (No such device)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device.

Red Hat 9 recognizes the sounds card as a SoundBlaster Vibra 16X (CT4170)
and according to www.alsa-project.org/also-doc/ I should be using snd-sb16
but I have tried every possible setting for a SoundBlaster with no change in
the error message.

Here is my modules.conf in case someone can see something silly I'm (not)
doing.  I commented out the last 4 lines as I didn't know if they would
conflict:
alias eth0 3c59x
alias scsi_hostadapter aic7xxx
alias usb-controller usb-uhci
# ORIGINAL SOUND SETTING
#alias sound-slot-0 sb
#
#Added For Alsa
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-sb16
# module options should go here
# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
# card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
#alias char-major-81 bttv
#options bttv card=22 pll=0 radio=1 tuner=2
#post-install sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -L>/dev/null
2>&1 || :
#pre-remove sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -S>/dev/null
2>&1 || :

One thing I'm not sure on is whether I'm supposed to create a .asoundrc
file - myth docs make no mention of it.

Thanks for any pointers.

Alex

----- Original Message -----

> Alex Davidson wrote:
> > No sign of any "snd-" stuff in lsmod.
>
> So now you've narrowed the problem/solution...
>
> > Running:
> > /etc/rc.d/init.d/alsasound start
> > returned the following:
> > starting sound driver: snd-sb16
> > /lib/modules/2.4.20-9/kernel/sound/acore/snd.o: unresolved symbol
> > schedule_work
> > /lib/modules/2.4.20-9/kernel/sound/acore/snd.o: insmod
> > /lib/modules/2.4.20-9/kernel/sound/acore/snd.o failed
> > /lib/modules/2.4.20-9/kernel/sound/acore/snd.o: insmod snd-sb16 failed
> > done
>
> You'd think sb16 would be a good choice. However, I have
> two boxes from Creative Labs that say "Sound Blaster 16 PCI"
> on all six sides of the box. So is the driver for these cards
> snd-sb16? Of course not ;-). The driver is "snd-ens1371".
>
> Go to http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/ to find your
> card make and model then click "Details" to see the exact
> module name and info about configuring your card.
>
> > Would I be better off spending some hard-earned on a sound card that
will
> > work out of the box you think?  (Is there even such a thing?)
>
> In any case, you'd need to get the drivers compiled and
> installed properly. A Sound Blaster 16 (if that's what
> you have) is about as tried and true as you can get.
>
> --  bjm