Dell SB Live! HELP ME!

[Blackhawk3D 0]

I am running Fedora Core 2, 2.6.8, and can't get this dang thing to work. I have search forums and googled and found numerous replies, basically you need alsa vs. 1.0.6. synaptic and yum don't have everything for it. I can't get the driver, and when I try to install the driver it says "failed dependancy, kernel-module-alsa... What do I do?? I know this soundcard is a pain but I don't have much of a choice on it. Thanks for the replies!

[danleff 0]

Is this a Dell system, or a Dell Legacy SB card on a generic system? Do you know the model number (it is on the card itself). This seems to be the root of the problem. Alsa does not like some of these Legacy cards. I had one of these and never got it to work correctly.

 

You should have alsa already installed in Core 2.

 

If you type alsamixer in a terminal window as root, do you get the mixer window? See if the volumes are set all the way up, or nearly so. If not, try increasing the volumes.

 

Another post also noted that a fix was to run alsa_init in a terminal window and the sound came up.

 

If you could post what web resources that you used to address the issue, this may also help us see what suggestions were made.

[zero0w 0]

Upgrade to ALSA 1.0.6a and use the alsa module 'snd-emu10k1x' to modprobe the soundcard, see if there's any response:

 

http://www.linuxcompatible.org/thread28166-1.html

http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php?page=emu10k1x

[Blackhawk3D 0]

I don't know how to install 1.0.6. I tried it with RPM files, but it never seems to completely install. I can't find all the parts. I don't know how to do it with the tar file, the alsa directions lost me a long time ago. I am a linux noob, I like not running a microsoft product. It feels cool . The card is the 0200 I think, the dell modified Soundblaster Live! 5.1.

[danleff 0]

zero0w, as soon as I clicked on your link, the bell went off on your post!

 

Let's see if we can get blackhawk3d some directions on how best to do this in fedora.

[Blackhawk3D 0]

Yes, please! I'm drowning in proprietary parts :x

[Blackhawk3D 0]

Yes, please! I'm drowning in proprietary parts :x

[Blackhawk3D 0]

Okay, I added more repositories to synaptic and got all but the alsa-driver-devel up to 1.0.6. They only have 1.0.5 for it?

[Blackhawk3D 0]

Okay, I am going to try a different track. I downloaded the Suse 9.2 install CD last night and I am going to try it out. I haven't saved any precious documents under linux, actually I haven't saved any. I was wanting to try Suse and Mandrake anyway

[zero0w 0]

You can compile ALSA from source:

 

http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php?page=AlsaBuild2.6

[danleff 0]

This may very well be the issue, needing to install from source. The support for this card is only in Alsa 1.06.

[OldSpiceAP 0]

Hmm - from what I know, its only supported officially in the latest version of Alsa, but I'm not sure thats true entirely. I have to same card exactly, and it worked fine in Suse 8.2 (though the microphone didn't work) and also in an old version of Vector Linux. I use Yoper Linux now, and just like SuSE it detected it in set it up flawlessly. I have never run Fedora, but I've heard good things about its Hardware support. Something I don't know about is if hardware support is a Distro thing, a kernel thing, or what. I am not sure entirely. I've never known about it, but I'd assume it just depends what versions of certain drivers these distro's come with. That said I'm surprised it didn't work in Fedora. I'd suggest compiling it from source, though thats not that easy for a newb. I don't even like doing it for alsa - it never seems to work. It needs all sorts of things installed, and as such I've had to do all sorts of things just to get it to finish - not sure why I bothered since my sound was fine - maybe it was because cedega sound was choppy and I was hopeing it would fix itself. You may want to try typeing alsaconf in a konsole. This is a guided soundcard setup utility that is handy - when SuSE didn't detect my laptops soundcard - probing all legacy IRQ's did the trick (this is a part of the utility - its easy to use - don't worry). Thats my best suggestion besides trying a different distro.

 

Good luck!

 

[danleff 0]

OldSpiceAp, you have the sb0200 model? Many have problems with it, as it is a legacy card. There are many variations of the SB Live card, dozens in fact. Not all of them are stock SB compatible with the older alsa emk10k1 driver, or for that matter the OSS driver.

[Blackhawk3D 0]

I need the k1x driver under alsa 1.0.6. I am downloading mepis right now to check it out, I was going to to with debian proper but the installer scared me off, I need to set it up as a dual boot and I don't want to screw anything up.