the way the output for lsmod works is...

{name of module} {size of module in memory} {number of uses and the dependencies}

so, when you see...

snd_ac97_codec 98336 1 snd_nm256

that means the snd_ac97_codec module is being used by snd_nm256. so, there is no error in loading the modules for your sound card.

you did have some errors in your dmesg output.

[ 93.754472] nm256: no ac97 is found!
[ 93.754493] force the driver to load by passing in the module parameter
[ 93.754505] force_ac97=1
[ 93.754514] or try sb16 or cs423x drivers instead.
[ 93.884870] cs: IO port probe 0x100-0x3af: excluding 0x130-0x137 0x220-0x22f 0x300-0x307 0x388-0x38f
[ 93.886099] cs: IO port probe 0x3e0-0x4ff: clean.
[ 93.886691] cs: IO port probe 0x820-0x8ff: clean.
[ 93.887407] cs: IO port probe 0xc00-0xcf7: clean.
[ 93.888404] cs: IO port probe 0xa00-0xaff: clean.
[ 93.891562] cs: IO port probe 0x100-0x3af: excluding 0x130-0x137 0x220-0x22f 0x300-0x307 0x388-0x38f
[ 93.892798] cs: IO port probe 0x3e0-0x4ff: clean.
[ 93.893381] cs: IO port probe 0x820-0x8ff: clean.
[ 93.893905] cs: IO port probe 0xc00-0xcf7: clean.
[ 93.894911] cs: IO port probe 0xa00-0xaff: clean.
[ 93.895590] cs: memory probe 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff:4>PnP manual resources are invalid, using auto config
[ 93.959538] opl3sa2: can't grab port 0x0
[ 94.011854] pnp: Device 00:12 disabled.
[ 94.012032] snd-opl3sa2-pnpbios: probe of 00:12 failed with error -16
[ 94.012283] Yamaha OPL3-SA soundcard not found or device busy
[ 94.166120] clean.

now, in case you dont see the problem, lsmod states that the modules loaded and are running, yet in dmesg, they arent being detected.

is this onboard sound? if so, do you have it enabled in the BIOS?

if you are using onboard sound, it should be 'on' in the BIOS.

when you boot back into linux, try running...

alsaconf

and see if that can detect it.

1. This is what I have in the onboard directory:
KbdWindow.py layouts run-onboard.pyc settings.glade utils.py
KbdWindow.pyc onboard2.svg run-settings.py settings.gladep utils.pyc
Keyboard.py onboard.svg run-settings.pyc settings.py
Keyboard.pyc Pane.py scripts settings.pyc
Key.py Pane.pyc settings-dialog.py sok.py
Key.pyc run-onboard.py settings-dialog.pyc sok.pyc


2. I went to the alsa directory:

ahro@ahro-laptop:/usr/share/alsa$ dir
alsa.conf cards pcm sndo-mixer.alisp speaker-test

I looked at the alsa.conf file:

defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.pcm.subdevice -1
defaults.pcm.nonblock 1
defaults.pcm.ipc_key 5678293
defaults.pcm.ipc_gid audio
defaults.pcm.ipc_perm 0660
defaults.pcm.dmix_max_periods 0
defaults.pcm.dmix_rate 48000
defaults.pcm.dmix_format S16_LE
defaults.pcm.front.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.front.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.rear.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.rear.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.center_lfe.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.center_lfe.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.side.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.side.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.surround40.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.surround40.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.surround41.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.surround41.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.surround50.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.surround50.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.surround51.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.surround51.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.surround71.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.surround71.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.iec958.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.iec958.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.modem.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.modem.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.rawmidi.card 0
defaults.rawmidi.device 0
defaults.rawmidi.subdevice -1
defaults.hwdep.card 0
defaults.hwdep.device 0
defaults.timer.class 2
defaults.timer.sclass 0
defaults.timer.card 0
defaults.timer.device 0

3. I looked at the cards directory. My snd_nm256 does not seem to be there:
ahro@ahro-laptop:/usr/share/alsa$ cd cards
ahro@ahro-laptop:/usr/share/alsa/cards$ dir
AACI.conf CA0106.conf HDA-Intel.conf SI7018
aliases.alisp CMI8338.conf ICE1712.conf SI7018.conf
aliases.conf CMI8338-SWIEC.conf ICE1724.conf TRID4DWAVENX.conf
ATIIXP.conf CMI8738-MC6.conf ICH4.conf VIA686A.conf
ATIIXP-MODEM.conf CMI8738-MC8.conf ICH.conf VIA8233A.conf
ATIIXP-SPDMA.conf CS46xx.conf ICH-MODEM.conf VIA8233.conf
AU8810.conf EMU10K1.conf Maestro3.conf VIA8237.conf
AU8820.conf EMU10K1X.conf NFORCE.conf VX222.conf
AU8830.conf ENS1370.conf PC-Speaker.conf VXPocket440.conf
Audigy2.conf ENS1371.conf PMac.conf VXPocket.conf
Audigy.conf ES1968.conf PMacToonie.conf YMF744.conf
Aureon51.conf FM801.conf RME9636.conf
Aureon71.conf GUS.conf RME9652.conf

What else should I do?

Thanks for your patience.

dont think i forgot about you. i just got an inspiron 3500 yesterday and am experiencing the same problem in slackware-10.2. once i get it working, ill let you know what i did.

You are very brave. Thank you. I was also very busy and did not get back to my Ispiron. Look forward to your finds. Best.

i think i fixed it, unfortunately, i didnt have any music to try it out with, so i dont know if this fixed it or not. try at your own risk.

(as root)

alsaconf

probe legacy

ok

alsamixer

and then everything came up like its supposed to. but, like i said, i didnt have any audio to try it out with. i did try running 'aplay > /sbin/urandom' but i didnt hear the static, so im starting to believe that didnt work, but i wont know until i actually get something legit to play.

Thank you. I do not understand what you mean by (as root). I am not very conversant in UNIX. Each time I run alsaconf from my account prompt, I get

ahro@ahro-laptop:~$ alsaconf
bash: alsaconf: command not found

ahro@ahro-laptop:~$ dir
aadebug amixer Desktop lspci-nv procinterrupts
aadebugresult Andre Examples MyPDA sndstat
alsamixer asoundrc getconf\ gstreamer MyPDA1
ahro@ahro-laptop:~$ alsamixer

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device

Please let me know.

Again, thank you for your help and patience.

root is the administrative account. since linux is a multi-user operating system, the account you always log into is a user account. in order to run any root level commands, you need to switch to root. if you are using ubuntu, this feature is disabled by default and requires you to use the 'sudo' command (bad security risk, which is a reason why i dislike ubuntu). so, for you to run those commands, put 'sudo' in front of everything. like this...

sudo alsaconf

sudo alsactl store

etc.

if you are using anything other than ubuntu, then you would just type 'su' and then the terminal will be dropped to root level.

also, it seems that you need to specify the full path to alsaconf.

locate alsaconf | less

that will display every reference to alsaconf in the file structure. the executable will usually reside in the one of the following.

/bin
/sbin
/usr/bin
/usr/sbin
/usr/local/bin
/usr/local/sbin

so, look for the path that has alsaconf and run that with 'sudo' in front of it.

Thank you. This is valuable information to me. I found alsactl. Yet, I could not find alsaconf in any of the directory you named. In fact my /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/sbin do not list any content.

Elsewhere, I have located alsa-base and alsa-source files. Could these help?

Again thank you for all your help.

no they wont.

try running that locate command like this...

locate alsaconf | less

and use the arrow keys to scroll up and down the list.

I did:
ahro@ahro-laptop:~$ locate alsaconf | less






















(END)

That is all I get. Same result with sudo locate. I am lost!!

Thanks for your help.

sorry for the delayed responce.

if alsaconf isnt showing up, then it means you dont have it installed.

launch Synaptic Package Manager and do a search for "alsa" and reinstall the packages.

Someone on this board gave us the answer to this issue. I am sorry I lost track of his/her name to thank him/her. It solve the problem on my Inspiron 3500.

1. Create a new file containing the following code:

blacklist snd-opl3sa2
alias snd-nm256 snd-sb8
alias snd-card-0 snd-sb8
options snd-card-0 index=0
options snd-sb8 irq=5 port=0x220 dma8=1
install snd-sb8 /sbin/modprobe snd_seq; /sbin/modprobe snd_opl3_synth; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-sb8 && /usr/sbin/alsactl restore >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
remove snd-sb8 { /usr/sbin/alsactl store >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-sb8

2. Save this file under any name in your home directory.

3. Copy that file to the folder /etc/modprobe.d

3. Reboot.

Et voilà ! You have sound.

P.S. In order to add a file or to make any change to the /etc/modprobe.d folder
You need to have RW permissions. If you are a new bee like me, lookup the Chmod command in any UNIX beginners book. Good luck.