> My sound card os one of those generic VIA AC97 onboard cards, on a > Shuttle AK32 board w/Athlon 1.1. I searched the archives of this > list and there were many issues and posts with that card, and worse > yet, it seems to be a fairly generic description.
Yes, this little beast has been the subject of much discussion. I myself fell victim to its wiles when I brought my new computer home in March. It's really not that complicated. All you'll need to do is install an alsa package that matches your kernel. Actually, the 2.4.19 and above kernels are supposed to support this card out of the box, but I haven't tried it yet. After installing an alsa package, you'll want to run the alsa configurator (I think it's called alsacfg or something like that). Unfortunately, automatic detection and configuration of peripheral devices like soundcards and joysticks is much more advanced in the "commercial" distributions. But these are usually just frills on most peoples boxes, and the problems get solved eventually. If you're dependent on regularly being able to process a lot of audio, then by all means, use the distro that's right for you. Also, there's nothing really wrong with Mandrake (except that it uses RPMs). I used to love RPMs, until I started using apt. That RPM stuff is for monkeys. It's (usually) not much more difficult to just build from source. Having said that, I haven't used Mandrake in a long time (around 3 years) and I'm sure things have changed. I installed a RH 7.3 box a while ago and I was SUPREMELY impressed with the ease and smoothness of the installation. Everything (including my cdrw) just worked(!). It's just been my experience, however, is that RPM-based distros are more concerned with system installation than system maintenance (which you will probably be doing for much longer). It sounds like you're on the right path. I remember when I first started I was probably making a new installation about every couple of months or so, until I figured out that's not how you fix things on a Unix box. ;-) Whatever you decide to do, have fun with it. If you choose Mandrake, we wish you well. If you need some help with Debian, well, you know where to come. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen W. Juranich [EMAIL PROTECTED] Electrical Engineering http://students.washington.edu/sjuranic University of Washington http://ssli.ee.washington.edu/ssli -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
