Newbie Linux question...

B

BlueCream

Veteran X
So I got Mandrake 10.1 running on my crap box and im trying to figure out how to get my sound working. My old shitty integrated sound on my motherboard crapped out a while back and I bought a soundblaster audigy mp3+ usb card which was working fine with windows.

Now ive been reading around various linux beginner sites and from what I gathered I have to compile my own kernel and enable snd_usb_audio drivers and update the soundblaster drivers. This is sort of out of the question for me since im just starting out with linux and I have no clue how to compile my own kernel. Ive heard from a few different people that its quite simple but from searching around and reading over the HOWTO: Kernel-Build, there is no way I can do that with alot of experience in using linux in general. I didnt think just getting sound would be such a fucking hassle and am already about to give up.

Just wondering if there is a simpler way to update drivers for the usb card. As of now ive disabled the integrated sound in the BIOS and linux is detecting the card as an "unknown hardware device". This is what shows in the hardware display:

Code: 
Identification
Description: ‎

Media class: ‎Audio|Control Device

Connection
Bus: ‎USB

Bus PCI #: ‎2

PCI device #: ‎2

Vendor ID: ‎1054

Device ID: ‎12304

Misc
Module: ‎snd-usb-audio

Any help is greatly appreciated and I will paypal 20$ to the person who gets it working within a reasonable amount of time.
 
modprobe snd-usb-audio

try that while you are root.

go to the command line and trype

su
enter password:
modprobe snd-usb-audio


Give any error messages here.
 
Reading into different linux distros Ive heard how great ubuntu driver support is from plenty of people, but I also heard mandrake is the best(free) linux distro for first timers. Ive found mandrake to be pretty newbie friendly and this is the only problem ive run into so far.

I got the NVidia drivers installed same with mouse and keyboard the usb sound is the only thing giving me trouble.
 
Code: 
Module                  Size  Used by
lp                      9548  0
parport_pc             30976  0
parport                33896  2 lp,parport_pc
sg                     33788  0
usblp                  10592  0
sd_mod                 19232  0
usb-storage            65504  0
scsi_mod              104044  3 sg,sd_mod,usb-storage
nls_iso8859-1           3680  1
isofs                  31352  1
md5                     3584  1
ipv6                  230916  10
rfcomm                 32348  0
l2cap                  19876  5 rfcomm
bluetooth              39076  4 rfcomm,l2cap
af_packet              16072  2
3c59x                  35240  0
ide-cd                 37280  1
cdrom                  37724  1 ide-cd
ohci1394               30788  0
ieee1394              292056  1 ohci1394
loop                   12520  0
snd-usb-audio          61312  0
snd-pcm                81800  1 snd-usb-audio
snd-timer              20356  1 snd-pcm
snd-page-alloc          7400  1 snd-pcm
snd-usb-lib            11136  1 snd-usb-audio
snd-rawmidi            19300  1 snd-usb-lib
snd-seq-device          6344  1 snd-rawmidi
snd                    45988  5 snd-usb-audio,snd-pcm,snd-timer,snd-rawmidi,snd-seq-device
soundcore               7008  1 snd
intel-agp              19584  1
agpgart                27752  1 intel-agp
usbkbd                  5792  0
usbmouse                4256  0
joydev                  8032  0
evdev                   7648  0
tsdev                   5824  0
ext3                  120680  2
jbd                    49080  1 ext3
usbhid                 40672  0
uhci-hcd               28496  0
usbcore               102596  10 usblp,usb-storage,snd-usb-audio,snd-usb-lib,usbkbd,usbmouse,usbhid,uhci-hcd
 
its modprobed, but it's not being used by anything. Linuxquestions.org

make sure you know exactly what your soundcard it and what version it is.

Edit* try unplugging and plugging your sound card back into the usb port now. Then lsmod again, and see if the 0 changes next to the snd-usb-module now.
 
El Smack said:
Use SUSE
Click to expand...

Don't you have to pay for it? I heard its pretty similar to mandrake in terms of how beginner friendly it is but im not looking to have to pay for something ill be changing hopefully sooner then later.
 
BlueCream said:
Don't you have to pay for it? I heard its pretty similar to mandrake in terms of how beginner friendly it is but im not looking to have to pay for something ill be changing hopefully sooner then later.
Click to expand...
Suse can be pretty big and slow at times. Ubuntu or slackware is pretty good. Slackware for learning, ubuntu for ease of use.

Edit* suse has a free version now.
 
Tried to follow the instructions at that link but I really dont have enough experience to even comprehend half of what its telling me to do. Not getting any responses on LinuxQuestions.org either.

This is so frustrating I dont know if I should just keep on trying to figure it out or give up now because if it takes this much just to install a soundcard then I dont even think ill have the time to learn everything else.
 
linux is just different man, and it isn't as advanced at windows, but it is getting there. There was a time when soundcards were a pretty big fucking deal to install in windows too.

If you thought you were getting an easy to use Desktop OS then you were sadly mistaken. If you were interested in learning, then what is your gripe? You are learning, and there aren't always simple fixes. You'll get it, you just have to stop looking for shortcuts and read, and, over time, this won't be very hard for you. Them's just the ropes. You've got the module there, so its just a matter of fiddling with it. Yeah, it's frustrating right now, but once you've learned it, its easy and you will enjoy yourself, if you're into things like modability.

I guess you have to ask yourself why you're running linux. If you just want a day to day usage OS with all the features of windows, then why aren't you running windows? If you're trying to learn a bit, hobby a bit, tweak tune and fiddle a bit, then you're gonna enjoy linux. It's wonderful once you know what you're doing, but even when you're an expert you're still probably barely capable of replicating what Windows does out of the box.

edit: of course, you're capable of doing more than what windows can as well, i don't want to make it sound like only the best linux users can just scratch the surface of what windows is.
 
Linux is way WAY better as a server os, and is comming around very fast as a desktop os. Soon enough it will be there. However, I would seriously consider trying ubuntu if you want something that just seems to work. It really is a great linux distro.
 
scarface| said:
Linux is way WAY better as a server os, and is comming around very fast as a desktop os. Soon enough it will be there. However, I would seriously consider trying ubuntu if you want something that just seems to work. It really is a great linux distro.
Click to expand...

Just wondering, if I switch over to ubuntu would it automatically detect my usb soundcard and install the drivers? Ive figured everything else out on mandrake except the sound card issue so I would be willing to change if I wont have trouble with other things like my pci videocard.
 
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