2007/3/15, Ken Heard <ken@heard.name>:
I have always known that sound was available on Linux. When I first
used Linux RH8 with KDE in a P4 box, I did not have sound on
installation in July 2003. At the time it was all I could do to get
working what I really needed; sound was not a priority. I did not
really miss it because I still had a laptop with Win98 which I could and
did use on the rare occasions when I would want sound.
Early in 2006 when Sarge was released I installed it with KDE on that P4
box, but sound was still not operational. I still had that laptop to
use for those rare sound occasions.
In January 2007 I installed Etch with KDE on that laptop, but still have
no sound. Now however I have no Win98 to fall back on. As I will be
away from home for the entire month of March I would like sound but
still do not have it.
I have in the past three days tried to do two things which require
sound: play an audio CD and listen to a telecast. It the former case I
tried to use KDE's noatun and in the latter Icedove with Kaffeine
installed. In both cases, the only result I got when I hit the play or
start button was the KDE crash handler showing information I did not
understand.
Other than the foregoing I don't know what else to say. I am truly in a
position where that is the best I can do to describe my results when I
try to use sound. Put another way, I do not know what questions to ask.
The only thing I can think of is that I am missing one or more packages,
but which? I do not even know what packages are necessary for sound. I
would appreciate if one or more of the experts out there could give me
some clues as to what I should be looking for.
You miss alsa* packages, they are the only thing you need.
Just have a look to discover output to investigate if your laptop ships a somewhat "strange" soundcard model.
For complex tasks you may want to install jack audio server too.
raffaele