Cross-post: Need help with ALC650 sound

[cynik]

Tried posting this in hardware... didn't get any response:

I am fairly new to Gentoo (and Linux in general), so your assistance and patience is most appreciated.

I am having a bear of a time configuring my AT7’s Realtek ALC650 on-board sound. I have attempted to follow the instructions in the previous threads regarding this same subject to no avail. Here’s what I have fumbled through thusfar:

I recompiled the kernel (2.4.19) to include only “Sound Card Support”, which I assume is what everyone is referring to when they mention “soundcore support”, and OSS support (with no soundcards selected). Both are statically compiled, not modules.

/devfs is enabled and compiled to mount on boot.

I attempted to follow the Desktop Configuration Guide instructions verbatim:

Emerge media-sound/alsa-driver

Nano –w /etc/modules.d/alsa à added “alias snd-card-0 (through snd-card-7) snd-ac97_codec” under the ## ALSA portion

Nano –w /etc/devfsd.conf (my setting look identical to the Desktop Guides configuration, so I left it alone)

Rc-update add alsasound boot

Reboot à boot log returns errors such as “It is generally a bad idea to allow more than one service to start for the same module” “modprobe for snd-ac97_codec failed… no such device”

When KDE initializes, I receive the following error: “Dev/dsp cound not start. The sound server will continue using /dev/null”

Emerge media-sound/alsa-utils

When I attempt to run “amixer”, of course it fails.

So… am I missing a step somewhere. Something perhaps not explicitly covered in the Desktop Configuration Guide. Being such a newb, it appears that these sort of thing need to be spelled-out for me in detail.

I f one of you Guru’s would be so kind as to explicitly lay out the steps required to get this configuration working… I would be more that greatly appreciative.

Thanks in advance.

[therobot]

I'm not on my Gentoo box right now, so I can't tell you for sure, but I have the same sound card as you, andt I'm pretty sure that I didn't use the ac97-codec for mine. Also, I think amixer doesn't seem to exist anymore, and that's just old documentation, I believe you can use alsamixer, but once again, I can't check to confirm.

[cynik]

I appreciate the information and would be curious to know exactly how you got the dern thing working for you.

Would an incorrect driver (such as the "ac-97_codec" ) return the dev/null dsp error? Or have I missed/fumbled somewhere else in the system?

Again... I apologize for the newbish questions.

Awaiting your input.

[therobot]

I'll check it out when I get home, and let you know.

[cynik]

Were you able to determine your install process over the weekend?

[therobot]

sorry, I borked my system, and now must reinstall. hopefully I'll remember how i did it when i have to redo that part.

[cynik]

Problem solved.

Configured ALSA drivers/LIB/UTILS from source (@ ALSA)

Followed ALSA instructions (for via8233) explicitly.

Sound functioning normally.

<slaps self for not following directions sooner>