Simon,
> [Everything] is ok .. except for one important thing : the sound card.
> 1) How come there is no configuration support for sound card on
> Slackware installation script ( as opposed to Red hat or TurboLinux ) ?
> 2) Will [I] have to compile a new kernel to support my sound card
> (painful) ?
> 3) Or, should/can [I] use ISAPNPTOOLS to complete my configuration
I use slackware. When I first installed Linux ~3yr ago, I had
problems with the CDrom, and X. My past experience with compiling unix (on
a VAX) led me to believe it was a day-long, error-prone procedure, and so
I wasted a month trying to read the source code to find why my kernel was
behaving differently than I expected. I then tried to compile the kernel,
an operation that took about 3 hrs, 2.5 hr to research answers to the
menuconfig questions, and 30min to actually compile on a Pentium-133.
Since then I have replaced the kernel three times and each time recompiled
the kernel 3-5 times until it was exactly what I wanted. After the first
time researching the hardware configuraton, kernel compiling takes about 30min.
Recently, sound support has migrated to modules (dynamically loaded
components of the operating system). Your modules will appear by default
in /usr/lib/modules/<version>/devices/[sound]. Modules can be loaded
with modprobe(8) and insmod(8).
I recommend that you first see if sound is compiled but not loaded.
> /sbin/insmod sound
> cat /proc/modules
I recommend that you second, recompile your kernel. This is not
a difficult procedure if you follow the HOWTO instructions. I suggest you
use menuconfig (with its online help), save the resulting configuration file.
As you find problems or change your desires, you can reload the configuration
file, tweak it, save it, and recompile the kernel easily.
Hopefully helpful,
--
Robert Meier
FANUC Robotics North America, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Voice: 1-248-377-7469 Fax: 1-248-377-7363
