Silence ain’t golden
I installed the Corel Linux alongside Win 98SE, but I can’t get any sound. I ran sndconfig and the message I got was “No PCI or PnP sound card detected”. I have an Intel BX with on board Yamaha sound.
I have checked the Yamaha site, but there is no mention of Linux drivers does this mean there is no drivers available for my sound card? I have a spare PCI slot on the motherboard, could I put a card in there and use that instead?
Kevin Waters, via email
ji II There are several Yamaha audio chipsets | i 1 supported under Linux, but unless you f a»»* 1 teli us vvhich you have vve can’t be of much help. Look in the devices section of the Control Panel under Windows for this information.
Corel is based on an old kernel and softvvare base, so you might get better support by upgrading to a nevver kernel or trying the ALSA sound-driver package instead (see www.alsa-project.org)
Since your Yamaha sound chip is on-board, it’s likely that it’s an 0PL3-SA-based device. This chipset is supported both by kernel drivers and by ALSA. I don’t think it’s a PNP device, hovvever, so you it may require some manual configuration. You may find it simpler just to go and buy a PCI soundcard and plug it in a spare slot Yes, it vvill vvork, and PCI cards are generally a breeze to get vvorking. I recommend anything in the Soundblaster PCI range. The older models should be available pretty cheaply by now and they’re ali well supported by Linux.