Getting sound to work with my soundblaster live

[ryan83vt]

Ok I have searched this forum and lots other places but I cant figure out what to do. I have done emerge alsa and all the other alsa stuff (like alsa-utils and alsa-tools) but I dont know where to go from there. And when I run emerge it says I have 2 config files that need updating and I know which file i'm supposed to update but I dont know what to do in that file. Can someone give me a link to this solution or something?

[Tjeerd]

By default config files are protected and need to be updated manually by root. Run [emerge --help config] for instructions, and [# etc-update] when you're ready to update those 2 files.

I've got the same problem: no sound after installing alsa (SBLive!) and poking around.
(alsa-)XMMS won't run. Amixer doesn't do a thing either. Output:
bash-2.05a# xmms

** WARNING **: snd_mixer_attach: No such device
bash-2.05a# amixer
amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such device

So it can't find my mixer. Even after [# emerge emu10k1-audigy]...
Does anyone know how I can get my SBLive to work again, and this time completely functional so that XMMS works?

[Tjeerd]

Looking at my error messages on start-up that insmod can't load the alsa modules probably means that I tried to be too smart to compile the OSS sound modules in the kernel, which blocks the loading of alsa modules???
Anyway, the errors I get still remain, even when [# /etc/init.d/alsasound start] says [Warning: alsasound has already started].

[ryan83vt]

I have read that and I dont know how that helps me. it just talks about how the portage system doesnt overwrite configuration files, and I need to know how to update a config file. I'm not getting the connection.

[EzInKy]

Sometimes a package contains a configuration file that would overwrite your previous configuration...not always a good thing if you have made changes to the defaults...

# find /etc -iname '._cfg????_*'

...tells you were these replacement files are located, so you can examine them for any changes they will make to your system. The /etc also refers to subdirectories in the /etc heirarchy.

#emerge --help config

tells us.. "When Portage installs a file into a protected directory tree like /etc, any existing files will not be overwritten. If a file of the same name already
exists, Portage will change the name of the to-be- installed file from 'foo' to '._cfg0000_foo'. If '._cfg0000_foo' already exists, this name becomes
'._cfg0001_foo', etc. In this way, existing files are not overwritten, allowing the administrator to manually merge the new config files and avoid any unexpected changes."

#man etc-update

...tells us..."etc-update is supposed to be run after merging a new package, to see if there are updates to the configuration files in /etc. If a new configuration file will override an old one, etc-update will prompt the user for a decision. etc-update will check all directories in /etc/make.global's CON-FIG_PROTECT variable.

Personally, I like to peruse these changes carefully, and will manually open each one in an editor and compare it to my current config file. If I decide the changes won't adversely affect my current settings, I then overwrite it by:

#mv ._cfg0001_foo foo

As a side note...

#man emerge

...provides useful information as to the usage of emerge itself. For more information on man, Read The Fine Manual page on man by typing...

#man man

I hope this helps B-)

[ryan83vt]

ok this is weird. I get sound when i play games and such and xmms and all but like not with something like gaim. I didnt even do anything at all!! and when i run lsmod, all i see is the nvidia driver. Even when I am playing sound. WEIRD. I have a soundblaster live 5.1