Ess onboard not working if configuration is saved

I have an Ess Audiodrive 1869 onboard. When I boot with default settings, it is not recognised.
Im a complete noob on linux, never used it before. My friend said Knoppix would be easy. It was.
Then I searched the forums, and found out about alsaconf. It worked the first time, found my card, configured it right and everything was as wonderful as with windows. Then, I saved my config to floppy, thinking i wouldnt need to use alsaconf everytime i wanted to listen to music. When i rebooted, it started the sound server, but whined about not finding the sound card. I tried alsaconf again, it found my card, but in the end of it, Enjoy part, said no such card, even thou it had found it less than a minute ago. Another try, and now it finds no isa/legacy cards at all.


My Question: Why does alsaconf not work after loading previous (alsa)configuration?????
this should be fixed..

Hi there
At boot you need to type knoppix floppyconfig
This is a cheatcode to run your floppy, as a result, the sound config is implemented and any KDE setup including your last bookmarks on Firefox saved too.
Cheatcodes are at boot by pressing F2 or F3 and here

i meant that after configuring alsa, i save my config to floppy and after reboot load it from floppy using the knoppix floppyconfig code, then sound does not work and alsaconf either

After booting with default settings in the KDE Control Center > Sound System check "Enable the sound system", test sound and apply. And config to floppy again.

Hope this helps

sorry, no, i had already done that before i first saved my configuration.
I want to know why sound works after configuring alsa, and enabling sound system, but after saving config (and loading it during reboot) no more sound and alsaconf neither works......

Hey there
My suggestion would be just to first setup with nothing at boot, configure alsaconf only and setup alsamixer and alsactl store on the terminal then save your sound only, reboot and check out the sound with KDE sound system. .You don't really need to use alsaconf more than once.
If you have a second floppy around then make copies as you increase your config. The floppy has limited space available.

BTW, If you do use alsaconf then turn off everything (e.g. browsers, xmms, kafine) before configuration

nothing else was running when i used alsaconf.

hey, remember i'm new to linux, what's alsactl and what do you mean with storing on terminal?
and do you mean to not enable sound sys before reboot?

Oops, sorry
Use alsaconf only and configure to floppy. Then reboot During the booting process the soundcard will not be recognized but go ahead and proceed to KDE and test sound and kmixer if you need it.
The kmixer (the icon below) sould be on (no red slash across the icon).

Most of the computer hardware are designed for Microsoft in mind. Most manufactors will not even give any Linux info. It's and uphill battle.

BTW, do you like to work in the DOS prompt? If not then you will not like the Terminal.
By now you've done some serches on the Terminal. If you don't like it then you will not like Linux. It's also call Konsole, Command Line Interface(CLI).

I finally realized what you meant. Still no sound. And I do like dos, mostly because it starts fast, works fast and fits to a floppy. Here's what i did, in case it helps:
boot with default settings (except for nopcmcia and nofirewire to speed it up)
alsaconf with yes to isa/legacy and only my card checked (es 18xx). it found and configured it.
then Konsole:
su
alsactl -help
alsactl store
exit

then saved config to floppy and reboot with floppyconfig option. No recognition during reboot, as you said.
Then control center -> sound-> enable sound system and test sound.

"Error: cannot open /dev/dsp/ no such device using default null output device"
and no sound... then i tried kmixer and it had a red cross over it and said no mixer found.
Is this all because Micro$oft and onboard not-standard card?

BTW, I think the scifi-style "initiating shutdown sequence" sounds really cool...
One of the reasons why I want to have sound in knoppix..

doesn't anyone know how to fix this?
It's really weard to have sound working when configured, and then save config, reboot loading it, and
no sound anymore and not able to config again....

One thing you can check is to look in the Bios and turn off the Plug and Play if it is possible.
If that doesn't work try the cheatcodes and turn off pnp.
knoppix pnpbios=off

how will that effect? bios does recognize my sound card. Ill try however.

yep, tried. couldn't turn it off from bios, so I used the code.
It sped up the booting, who knows why, but still no sound.

I found something that might be a bug: when I first boot with default settings, and set
local area, keymap and timezone to Finnish (gmt +2) and save config,
then reboot with floppyconfig, the keymap is finnish, so is local area, but the time has shifted 5 hours forward.....
i think it's because knoppix is in usa time for default, and when it loads my time zone, moves the clock ahead
5 hours.. also found a solution for that. if the very first cheat code is lang=fi, then the time does not shift.
8) but it get's annoying to type it everytime. So, could any one of you fix it so, that knoppix first checks the time zone from config, and if it does not exist, then uses default time zone?

:wink: every linux seems to have problems with my sound card... but I recently started using Geexbox mediacenter, it neither recognizes my card. But in it's forums, there was a solution in big letters, so somebody else must have this sound prob too. In Geexbox i had only to remove a comment so it loads snd-es18xx isapnp=0 in the modules, and sound works every time :D

Hey there
I found out that your hotplug (firewire) should not be turned off cause it is some how tied with the sound config.

BTW, one way to speed up the boot is to have a swap partition on your HDD if you can. However, you need to plan a partition about twice your computer's RAM. As a result, the boot process will scan and find the swap file.

Timezone
Check out the clock (Adjust Date and Time) and enter password
(If you don't have one)
at console use at root
# passwd
and make a password and confirm

scroll down to Helsinki Europe/FI and apply and ok
double check the date, time and zone on the console with
# date
and save to floppy

Sorry, but you seem to sometimes tell me to do something i already did. (except for the no nofirewire. I'll try it, thanks for being so patient with me..)

I had already set the time zone to Helsinki, before saving config.

I think it is a bug, when booting only with floppyconfig option,
the time is exactly 5 hours ahead AND the time zone is still Helsinki.

And my boot is fast enough, i just wondered why pnpbios=off sped it up.

hm. I booted with knoppix nopcmcia lang=fi floppyconfig.
:( No sound. Removing the nofirewire had no effect.
Then i got an idea, how about the code that gets my sound card working in Geexbox?
went to konsole and typed modprobe snd-es18xx isapnp=0
and whatdoyouknow, sound works perfectly and that code also enabled the KDE sound server.

In Geexbox, I got rid of typing that everytime by putting that line in modules file. That ain't possible in Knoppix, is it?
So, even thou it works that way, I'd still love to have a solution which gets it working automaticly in bootup.

Here's a quick rewind, in case it helps.
1. Boot with default settings
2. sudo alsaconf (here sound starts working)
3. alsactl store
4. enable KDE sound sys and test sound. Ok.
5. Save configuration to floppy (all boxes checked)
6. Boot with floppyconfig option (no sound anymore)
7. alsaconf (with lots o' errors like no legacy cards found)
8. like 4, but when trying to test sound, error: Can't open /dev/dsp/ no such file or directory, using default null output device

and after this, the geexbox code gets sound working again.

have you checked the console with
lspci
to see if your sound card is still there to config ?
it may have jumped out of the bios for some reason
or stopped for no reason

I dont think listing pci-devices would help, because
ess audiodrive 1869 is an ISA-card.
And it works in Win 98se with no problems.