Thread: Redhat 8 and Soundblaster Live!

  1. #1
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    Redhat 8 and Soundblaster Live!

    Redhat 8 has problems with the Soundblaster Live! cards. There is an elaborate process that you can go through involving a driver called emu10k1 and a bunch of commands to get it to work... which I need to do... but I'm a complete newb just trying to get my sound card to work. I tried the instructions here and the instructions here and then tried some combinations of the two since neither one worked (they're old). I did a bunch of stuff... I really don't know what I'm doing, but I've been trying for a few hours. I even somehow managed to recompile the kernel (heh, that involved hitting enter a lot and letting it use the defaults). After recompiling the kernel, the directions in the first of those two links almost worked, but then something messed up and the soundcard still doesn't work.

    I know there are a lot of people on this board who use Linux regularly... are there any of you with AIM that would be willing to spend some time to walk me through this? It's given me crap every time I've tried it on my own. Thanks in advance, my AIM is afrikanswallow.
    Away.

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    i had alot of problems with is, i still do.

    under redhat(8&9) i got it to work (easily) under oss. it sounded good. supposedly emu10k1 sounds bad, i never gotten it to work to tell.

    are you using kde? arts has some problems with the cards.

    by any chance is it a value card? thats what i have and i have stumped alot of people(real life and a couple boards).

    you might want to try a place like justlinux.

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    Yeah, it's a Value. The first link I posted was from justlinux... it didn't work.

    What is OSS? Like I said... there's a newb at work here.

    I don't think I'm using KDE, but I have it installed. I believe I'm using XWindow, but I'm really really not sure and have no idea how to tell... or switch I installed basically everything with RH 8. I'm going to attach a screen shot incase that can help you know if I'm using KDE or not.

    Gah, I'm such a noob. Maybe I should just buy a new soundcard.
    Away.

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    lol, in redhat they try to confuse you. they make gnome and kde look the same with a theme(called blue curve).

    on the console you can type in 'switchdesk kde' and 'startx' will now bring up kde with the blue curve theme. some people dont like it, but i wish gentoo had it by default.

    oss is a open source sound system. its easier to install but your supposed to pay for it, but it will work for free. you just need to restart it once in a while(unless theres a new hack i didnt hear of).

    dont worry about being a n00b, linux guys are nicer than coders.

    i was thinking about getting a new sound card to, but theres no reason. the sblives are very good cards.

    you might want to check out the oss site and install it, its very easy(almost windows like). it worked great for redhat. he sound is good.

    sorry, i forgot you posted justlinux.

    <edit>
    if you go into the control center thing it will tell you what your running and the version, if your wondering. i bet its gnome.

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    yeah, looks like GNOME.

    When I typed the KDE thing into the terminal, I got this
    Code:
    
    
    
    [blackrat@localhost blackrat]$ switchdesk kde
    Red Hat Linux switchdesk 3.9
    Copyright (C) 1999-2001 Red Hat, Inc
    Redistributable under the terms of the GNU General Public License
    Desktop now set up to run KDE.
    For system defaults, remove /home/blackrat/.Xclients
    [blackrat@localhost blackrat]$ startx
    
    
    Fatal server error:
    Server is already active for display 0
            If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock
            and start again.
    
    
    When reporting a problem related to a server crash, please send
    the full server output, not just the last messages.
    Please report problems to [email protected].
    
    [blackrat@localhost blackrat]$
    I'll look into OSS.
    Away.

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    Hmmm... I just tried installing OSS. Everything appeared to install correctly, and it detected my soundcard, but when I went to "play test sound" no sound came out :-/ Also, I think I messed *something* up when I recompiled the kernel, because there are some warning messages on boot about outdated modules or something. I'm about to use the Redhat Network to update to the latest version of the kernel... is that going to fix whatever I messed up?
    Away.

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    [blackrat@localhost blackrat]$ startx


    Fatal server error:
    Server is already active for display 0
    If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock
    and start again.
    You were trying to run X w/in an X! That's not possible. After that switchdesk thing, log out and then log in again. Well, I havent used switchdesk myself, so I'm just assuming it should work.

    As for the soundcard, luck

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    Originally posted by FloatingPoint
    You were trying to run X w/in an X! That's not possible. After that switchdesk thing, log out and then log in again. Well, I havent used switchdesk myself, so I'm just assuming it should work.

    As for the soundcard, luck
    Heh, that did it. I have KDE now... I'm assuming that there's a reason that I'm using this instead of GNOME Ah, I'll see what I can do.
    Away.

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    Your sole reason would be in xtra eye candies

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    Your sole reason would be in xtra eye candies
    more or less, yes.

    but i did get oss under redhat 8 and 9 working in kde.


    how did you recompile your kernel? you should of done:
    • make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install
      cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot


    and made the sound support a module and sblive as nothing. it should all be in the install guide.

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    I believe that when I was recompiling the kernel I was in /usr/src and typed make dep. Then it had a bunch of prompts (Y/n/?) and such, asking me a bunch of questions I didn't know the answers to, so I pushed enter. There were a ton of pages of questions, and then it told me to do something else, so I typed that in.

    make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install
    cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot

    and made the sound support a module and sblive as nothing. it should all be in the install guide.
    I'm not exactly sure what you mean. I'm downloading the most recent kernel and source right now - will I need to recompile it to get the sound to work? What, exactly, do I type to recompile the kernel correctly with the options I need? Thanks for all the help so far.
    Away.

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    when you select something in menuconfig you can make it built in (*) or as a module(M). you should check out the new docs, but i think sound should be a module. so you hit space by sound support until there is a 'M' in the ().

    dep makes the dependacies, it doesnt ask you anything. it will either work or spit out errors, normall(for me anyway) it still works.

    so you have to run 'make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install' to get something working.

    bzImage is the kernel itself. so you copy that over to your boot partition. now you can edit your /etc/lilo.conf file.

    if you dont want to play with lilo(the thing that will actually boot the kernel. the new one not the old one) you can just run 'make install' after the other commands.

    or just check out the kernel howtos. its not as bad as it sounds.

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    You lost me (again) :-/ Where/what is "menuconfig"?
    Away.

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    o sorry.

    you go into the kernel dir, /usr/src/linux-blah-blah. then you start up the 'wizard' with make menuconfig(or make xconfig if your in x).

    that where yoy set thing up.

    then you compile the kernel, with the commands in my last post.


    i remember fighting with this stuff awhile ago, you are going to screw something up! but it can be fixed (quickly) and it will make sense soon.

    theres alot of good howtos for this(the one at justlinux has a howto just for a redhat, most people like the normal way. they one i typed out).

  15. #15
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    Alright, I got into menuconfig and the sound support was set to a module. Then I typed make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install and it compiled everything successfully. What is the next step? You said I need to copy something somewhere?
    Away.

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