L_Tiger Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 My sound card is a Realtek ALC861 integrated chip. I tried installing some Linux sound driver package I found but it won't detect my sound device. I also downloaded the huge ALSA driver source code and tried (and tried, and tried...) to compile it but there are so many errors during the compiling I don't think I will see the end of it. Did anyone here have a similar problem with BT or any Slackware based distro? I will post screenshots of my failed attempts later if it helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawksprite Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Have you tried the backtrack 4 beta? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Realtek sound cards gives me problems even in windows(Came with VIsta, but XP wouldnt work properly with the default XP drivers), so I totally bypass onboard sound in the bios and use a seperate Creative Sound Blaster card just because of the problems I have had with Realtek in the past. I don't think the card ever worked for me in Backtrack either(before I switch to the creative card). One thing you might try is update the kernel to one that has the newer open sound card drivers, which is supposed to work with most any card, but I never had much luck updated the kernel in back track. Always bricked my BT installs and had to revert to the original. Scroll down to 3.3 (Sound cards): http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Sound-HOWTO/x96.html These are cards you will probably want to stick with when using Backtrack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L_Tiger Posted May 24, 2009 Author Share Posted May 24, 2009 Thanks for the advice but I probably should have mentioned that I am using a Toshiba notebook ( I've had so many blue screens using windows...) so a seperate sound card is not really an option here (not saying it's impossible, but probably needlessly complicated). I tried installing Mandriva before and I don't remember any problem at all, so it's definitely a problem on Backtrack's side. As for updating the kernel, mine is the Linux-2.6.21.5 and I'm pretty sure it already has the open sound card drivers, but I guess it's worth a shot. I'd prefer to keep it as a last resort solution though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L_Tiger Posted May 24, 2009 Author Share Posted May 24, 2009 Ok so I downloaded the latest release of the alsa driver and this time I can't even properly configure it! I tried following these instructions: Step-by-step ALSA install My sound support soundcore module is turned on, but when I try to configure the package I get this: ./configure --with-kernel=/usr/src/linux-2.6.21.5 --with-cards=hda-intel --with-sequencer=yes The file /usr/src/linux-2.6.21.5/include/linux/version.h does not exist. Please install the package with full kernel sources for your distribution or use --with-kernel=dir option to specify another directory with kernel sources (default is /lib/modules/2.6.21.5/source). I never had this file, and highly doubt that I need it to compile a sound driver. In any case, I don't know where to find it nor how to proceed to the "make" step. It just tells me to run the configure script (again). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Ok so I downloaded the latest release of the alsa driver and this time I can't even properly configure it! I tried following these instructions: Step-by-step ALSA install My sound support soundcore module is turned on, but when I try to configure the package I get this: ./configure --with-kernel=/usr/src/linux-2.6.21.5 --with-cards=hda-intel --with-sequencer=yes The file /usr/src/linux-2.6.21.5/include/linux/version.h does not exist. Please install the package with full kernel sources for your distribution or use --with-kernel=dir option to specify another directory with kernel sources (default is /lib/modules/2.6.21.5/source). I never had this file, and highly doubt that I need it to compile a sound driver. In any case, I don't know where to find it nor how to proceed to the "make" step. It just tells me to run the configure script (again). Backtrack doesn't include all the src files from what I remember. I've tried compiling things like vmware tools and they wouldn't work, so I assume there are files missing on BackTracks side to begin with. Probably to reduce size of the download and fit on one cd, but thats just my guess. Is there somethign specific you need int he BT distro? Maybe find a distro who has working sound card drivers and just install the tools you need in that distro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L_Tiger Posted May 24, 2009 Author Share Posted May 24, 2009 Actually I downloaded the Linux 2.6.21.5 kernel source files myself from the linux archives. Initially, /usr/src was completely empty and I was getting a ton of "file not found" errors from there so I unpacked the source files into it and added the with-kernel=dir option to the configure script. The configuration process got a little further that way but still won't complete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBP Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 open term type alsamixer and hit enter then make sure all the volumes are turned up and unmuted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L_Tiger Posted May 30, 2009 Author Share Posted May 30, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBP Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 there might be more if you press across all the way ;) but having alsamixer have preset settings usually suggests your drivers are installed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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