Sound on Linux?

I have always known that sound was available on Linux. When I first used Linux RH8 with KDE in a P4 box, I did not have sound on installation in July 2003. At the time it was all I could do to get working what I really needed; sound was not a priority. I did not really miss it because I still had a laptop with Win98 which I could and did use on the rare occasions when I would want sound.

Early in 2006 when Sarge was released I installed it with KDE on that P4 box, but sound was still not operational. I still had that laptop to use for those rare sound occasions.

In January 2007 I installed Etch with KDE on that laptop, but still have no sound. Now however I have no Win98 to fall back on. As I will be away from home for the entire month of March I would like sound but still do not have it.

I have in the past three days tried to do two things which require sound: play an audio CD and listen to a telecast. It the former case I tried to use KDE's noatun and in the latter Icedove with Kaffeine installed. In both cases, the only result I got when I hit the play or start button was the KDE crash handler showing information I did not understand.

Other than the foregoing I don't know what else to say. I am truly in a position where that is the best I can do to describe my results when I try to use sound. Put another way, I do not know what questions to ask.

The only thing I can think of is that I am missing one or more packages, but which? I do not even know what packages are necessary for sound. I would appreciate if one or more of the experts out there could give me some clues as to what I should be looking for.


Regards,

Ken Heard


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