ALSA Drivers wont work with NVIDIA sound card

[cdfusion]

I am using Mandrake 10.0 and my nvidia sound card still wont work.... even though the ALSA drivers do start and have no problem starting. When however the mixer attempts to start it says there is no sound card found.

alsamixer

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device
is what it says when i try to start the mixer

[Moled]

which modules are loaded?
which kernel, alsalib etc?

[cdfusion]

Modules that are loaded are:

/sbin/lsmod
Module Size Used by
sg 38044 0
sr_mod 17060 0
nfsd 173152 8
exportfs 5920 1 nfsd
lp 12200 0
md5 3872 1
ipv6 232352 12
snd-seq-oss 31232 0
snd-seq-midi-event 7552 1 snd-seq-oss
snd-seq 51024 4 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq-midi-event
snd-pcm-oss 51812 0
snd-mixer-oss 17952 1 snd-pcm-oss
snd-intel8x0 32776 0
snd-ac97-codec 58148 1 snd-intel8x0
snd-pcm 93156 2 snd-pcm-oss,snd-intel8x0
snd-timer 24484 2 snd-seq,snd-pcm
gameport 4480 1 snd-intel8x0
snd-page-alloc 11972 2 snd-intel8x0,snd-pcm
snd-mpu401-uart 7072 1 snd-intel8x0
snd-rawmidi 23616 1 snd-mpu401-uart
snd-seq-device 8008 3 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq,snd-rawmidi
snd 52484 12 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq-midi-event,snd-seq,snd-pcm-oss,snd-mixer-oss,snd-intel8x0,snd-ac97-codec,snd-pcm,snd-timer,snd-mpu401-uart,snd-rawmidi,snd-seq-device
soundcore 9248 1 snd
af_packet 20520 2
hid 53312 0
raw 7616 1
ide-floppy 18752 0
ide-tape 34864 0
ide-cd 40548 1
cdrom 37184 2 sr_mod,ide-cd
floppy 59444 0
forcedeth 14304 0
nls_iso8859-1 3904 1
ntfs 85932 1
supermount 37876 1
ppa 12296 0
parport_pc 32832 1
imm 12360 0
scsi_mod 114744 4 sg,sr_mod,ppa,imm
parport 38952 4 lp,ppa,parport_pc,imm
ehci-hcd 24196 0
ohci-hcd 18692 0
usbcore 99132 4 hid,ehci-hcd,ohci-hcd
rtc 11576 0
ext3 110376 6
jbd 54328 1 ext3

Kernel is: 2.6.3-4mdk

I didnt install alsa so I dont know if the alsa lib is installed.

[cdfusion]

Also I would like to mention that the drivers work fine in windows, and that my machine is a Emachine T3025, also it wont let me compile the nvaudio drivers(probably because of my kernel is 2.6.4) so is there anyother drivers out there besides alsa? or is there any other way to get alasa to work?

[antus]

From the looks of the output from lsmod, your using the oss sound system. Thats why the alsa mixer wont work. Im still running kernel 2.4, and only have a nvidia gfx card, so cant help futher though.

[Kamel]

first, you need to do rmmod on the drivers which involve cards other than yours. also, you don't need to unload the oss drivers afaik. the oss drivers are likely ALSA's oss system emulation.

also, make sure that you have properly edited the alsa configuration file... if i were assuming it's in /etc/alsa.conf or something similar (sorry, i can't check with documentation because the internet nazis just blocked gentoo's website this morning).

once you get into the file, you should see snd-card-0 or something similar, after the snd-card-0 entry, add "snd-intel8x0". also, the next section down (whatever the variable is commented that has snd-card-0 after it), uncomment that.

after that, it should work.

now all you will need to do is unmute your sound. i personally prefer using the ncurses based alsamixer program. use m to toggle muting. if you get a lot of static, play around with the surround sound channel. i had to mute my surround sound channel in order to prevent static (i don't have surround sound, that was just selected by default).

on a final note, i had to put my volume to about 70% in order to keep from distortion/tearing.

also, if you still have trouble, i strongly recommend just building alsa directly into the kernel itself. all of those modules you have loaded can't be healthy.

if you need help on recompiling the kernel, let me know.