# System doesn't recognize sound card

## ohadbasan

Hi!

I've been trying to install my onboard nvidia ac97 sound card on gentoo with no success!! ( i followed the gentoo wiki guide)

I tried loading the modules into the kernel. i tried loading them as modules (and modprobe gives me a weird snd_intel8x0: unkown symbol

sort of message...

right now eveyrthing is compiled in the kernel.

my card appears in lspci as nvidia corporation ck804 ac9 audio controller

cat /proc/asound/cards give me a "no soundcards" message and of couse - alsaconfig won't recognize my card...

does anyone have an idea?

it's driving me insane.

it's a 2.6.20-r8 gentoo-sources kernel

and a dfi lanparty ultra-d board

thank you

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## Keruskerfuerst

I think the kernel modules for the sound card are not configured correctly.

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## ohadbasan

I'm 100% sure i chose the right module

it's an nvidia ac97.

what did i do wrong?

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## mudrii

did you try to install SATA drivers outside kernel ?

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## ohadbasan

SATA? i didn't try installing them outside the kernel (won't it make a problem loading the operating system?)

how does sata relate to the sound card

anyways, i had some progress

someone here in the forum suggested to compile sound card support and alsa into the kernel, and to compile the specific sound card support outside the kernel (as a module)

that's what i did cat /proc/asounds/cards

still says "no soundcards found"

BUT - this time, alsaconf does find the card...

but when it tried to install it - i get lots of "unkown symbol in module" sort of messages.

Thank you

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## Keruskerfuerst

Try to recompile and reinstall the kernel.

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## PaulBredbury

 *ohadbasan wrote:*   

> snd_intel8x0: unkown symbol

 

Are you using the in-kernel sound modules, or alsa-driver? Anyway, compile the kernel and its modules properly:

```
cd /usr/src/linux

make clean bzImage modules modules_install
```

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## ohadbasan

regarding your question PaulBredbury - I'm using the in-kernel modules.

i tried to re-compile the kernel as you instructed, didn't work.

Still same messages... :\

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## nick_already_taken

 *ohadbasan wrote:*   

> regarding your question PaulBredbury - I'm using the in-kernel modules.
> 
> i tried to re-compile the kernel as you instructed, didn't work.
> 
> Still same messages... :\

 

My advice for you is to boot with the latest  gentoo live cd 

Then carefully watch which modules are loaded during startup. Then configure your kernel accordingly.

If you have problems to find which kernel config option belongs to which module, try "/" after you have run

```
make menuconfig
```

 to search the kernel configuration for the module names.

That should help yourself to resolve this issue.

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## ohadbasan

Hi, 

The livecd loads lots of things i don't need like usb-sound.

but i tried... and it still doesn't work

one thing that i noticed is that when alsaconf tries to load the modules

i get an "ivalid module" on two modules. snd.ko and sounndcore.ko

on the rest of the modules i get an "unkown symbol" module.

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## mudrii

 *ohadbasan wrote:*   

> SATA? i didn't try installing them outside the kernel (won't it make a problem loading the operating system?)
> 
> how does sata relate to the sound card
> 
> anyways, i had some progress
> ...

 

Sorry I meant Alsa I do not know what I thought when I typed  :Sad: 

Add The problem with module could be the wrong modules compiled into the kernel

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## nick_already_taken

I can only recommend to built all the modules, that the live cd loads, if you don't know where to start.

The live cd does not load modules (IMHO) it does not need.

In my case I have onboard sound. Now look what "lshw" says:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
>               *-usb
> 
>                    description: Audio device
> ...

 

If I would hold on the opinion that I don't have "snd_usb_audio" I wouldn't have sound running today.

Besides of that please read:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml

This one might also help:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_DFI_LANPARTY_UT_nF4_SLI-D

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## ohadbasan

I followed the modules one by one from the livecd and yet - no success.

could something be wrong with the modules?

this error - invalid module format which i get when trying to load snd.ko and soundcore.ko

seems odd to me...

p.s.

I noticed two weird messages in dmesg: snd: export duplicate symbol snd_add_device_sysfs

and

souncore: export duplicate symbol unregister_sound_dsp

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## nick_already_taken

I also would like to know the output of

```
uname -a
```

and

```
ls -l /usr/src
```

Please follow these steps. As your answers are a bit short, I am not 100% sure if you followed the documentation I posted before.

```

cd /usr/src/linux

copy .config $HOME (to backup your kernel configuration)

make mrproper (to clean your kernel source directory properly)

copy $HOME/.config .

make && make modules_install

```

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## PaulBredbury

 *ohadbasan wrote:*   

> invalid module format

 

See thread. Compile the kernel & modules properly, make the new kernel live, reboot into the kernel.

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## ohadbasan

Hi

Uname -a :

Linux localhost 2.6.20-gentoo-r8 #1 SMP Fri May 11 18:01:35 Local time zone must be set--see zic  x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

ls -l /usr/src

total 4

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   22 May 11 19:41 linux -> linux-2.6.20-gentoo-r8

drwxr-xr-x 20 root root 4096 May 24 12:49 linux-2.6.20-gentoo-r8

I tried to compile exactly as you showed here.

no success

perhaps I'm doing it wrong? I go according to the gentoo handbook.

just compile and copy the bzImage to the /boot directory just as they show in the handbook.

thanks for your patience guys.

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## energyman76b

 *nick_already_taken wrote:*   

> I also would like to know the output of
> 
> ```
> uname -a
> ```
> ...

 

you forgot make menuconfig

and the && is not needed.

Better:

cp .config /usr/src/linux

make oldconfig

make menuconfig

controll everything.

make all modules_install install

have grub.conf point to vmlinuz and vmlinuz.old

boot and be happy.

btw, I would like to see the config.

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## ohadbasan

modules mistake

thanks ALOT for your help and patience guys.

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