I just installed Linux as a dual boot option on a Windows machine for the very first time today. Having always done this in an environment where Linux was the only O/S the box, I found myself with a problem that I never experienced with a Linux-compatible sound card. Normally, I set 'PNP O/S' in the BIOS to 'No' when I am installing Linux by itself. If I am installing any version of Windows 95 and up (except NT 4.0), I set this to 'yes' to allow Windows to control IRQ and DMA assignments.
This first time install was once a system that was running MDK 9.0 for a couple of weeks without a problem, so I already knew that there wouldn't be a problem with any hardware. The SB AWE-64 was recognized with 'sndconfig' and I just didn't have any problems getting it to work. The new dual-boot install was with Windows XP Pro taking up the first 30 GBs of disk space (purposely formatted as an NTFS partition), and MDK 9.0 taking up the balance (about 8 GBs). Everything installed beautifully...until I got to configuring sound in MDK. When Mr. Torvald began to tell me how he pronounces 'Linux', he was clipped within a second of speaking and sound was history thereafter. No matter what manual settings I made to IRQs and DMA channels in 'sndconfig', I couldn't make it work. Then it occurred to me that this may be a PNP issue, somehow coming about by the presence of Windows on the system. Obviously, that can't be because it wasn't operating, just taking up dead space at the time on the drive. That's when I thought about the PNP setting in the BIOS... Once I told the BIOS that the O/S was not a PNP one, it set the IRQs instead of allowing the O/S to so. When I booted to MDK, 'sndconfig' configured the card properly and sound was restored throughout the land. As with all solutions, this one has to be scrutinized, have its tires kicked and maybe tested out to see if it fits your own problem. However, I have to wonder if many of us out there that are putting Linux onto a Windows computer for the first time just never think to check the BIOS to make sure that Linux gets a fair chance at making things work right. ;-) Hoped this helps someone else out there. I'd feel awful lonely knowing no one else had this problem... T
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