If it were me, I'd go out and buy a Soundblaster and be done with it!

The SoundMax is using an AD1980 or AD198x chipset.
 
You can easily get full support if you install the ALSA drivers.
 
The ALSA drivers are the next-gen sound drivers for Linux
and they are the default sound driver for 2.6 kernels.
 
I'm guessing you are using 2.4 with Fedora Core 1, so
your best choice is to go to
 
http//yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=656 (alsa-driver)
http//yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=669 (alsa-lib)
http//yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=672 (alsa-utils)
 
Download the RPMs provided and install them (rpm -ivh),
then run alsaconf (or alsaconfig, can't remember).
 
Mine works nicely like that.

Sorry, but I'm extremely new to linux...
I have downloaded the firt thing, the alsa driver, correctly I believe. Do I download the rest of them? And once they are all downloaded, what do I do to install them? You said to install them (rpm -ivh) then run alsaconfig, do I do this in text mode or is there a command line somewhere to use? Last question-I know that you can get into text mode by pressing alt+ctrl F1, is there a way to get back into graphical mode after that?

1) Yes you need to download all of them.
 
Here are direct links to the RPM files
 
ALSA driver
http//ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/fedora/linux/1/alsa-driver/alsa-driver-1.0.2-1.fr.i386.rpm
 
ALSA lib
http//ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/fedora/linux/1/alsa-lib/alsa-lib-1.0.2-2.fr.i386.rpm
 
ALSA utils
http//ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/fedora/linux/1/alsa-utils/alsa-utils-1.0.2-1.fr.i386.rpm
 
ALSA kernel module
Now this is not very simple, you have to go to this page
http//yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=656
See the long list of kernel-module-alsa files? You need
one of them. But you need to choose the correct one
for your CPU. So if you use an Intel Pentium3/4 you
need to get the file that has "i686" in it, if you use
an Athlon then you need to get the file that has "athlon"
in it. Once you know which CPU you have, you also
need to figure out which KERNEL version you have
installed. If you just installed fedora, and haven't
updated your installation with up2date then you
are using the default kernel which is version '2115'.
 
So, if you use an athlon, and a 2115 kernel you'd get the filekernel-module-alsa-1.0.2-1.fr_2.4.22_1.2115.nptl.athlon.rpm
 
 
2) Once you've downloaded these files you need to drop
into command-line. Or as we say in unix, drop to the shell.
 
3) Now chance into the 'root' user. The root user is the
administrator who has access to install/uninstall system
wide stuff or to make system changes. You can change
into root by running "su -" and typing the password as
asked.
 
4) Now as root, go to the directory you downloaded the
RPM files and run "rpm -ivh *.rpm". That should do it.
 
5) Next, you will need to run "alsaconf", but i may
be mistaken here. Check with alsa-project.org.
 
Have phun.

Hi Haggard,
if you went in text mode with CTRL ALT F1 then you can resume the X session using ALT F7.
I'm having same audio problems with a new ASUS A7V600 (Soundmax chipset) and RedHat 9.

The instructions above are for Fedora Core 1.
 
btw, Fedora Core 2 test1 is using 2.6.x kernels, so
ALSA is used by default. Sound works here out-of-the-box.

Thanks a lot, Sehh !!
 
After a week downloading and installing different alsa stuff, unsuccessfully, you gave us the right set of files to use (posted here, Feb 13th).
 
Now my Asus P4S-X (AD1980 chip) is giving me the sound properly, under Fedora Linux.
 
I had already used the (pink) Mic jack to hear the sound, but it never seemed to be a real solution to me.
 
Thanks again !!
 
PS: I promiss I won’t EVER buy any other Asus piece of hardware. It’s support service is simply pathetic. ;(
 
-Cadiz-

No problem, glad to be of help.
 
Asus makes great hardware, i've used many boards
including a dual athlon from Asus. Hardware-wise they
are superb.
 
Yes their support is crap, but then again, everyone's
support is crap. I dont think you'll get anything better
from other board manufacturers.

I one of these newbies trying to find his way from M$ Win and I'm having the same trouble with my Mandrake setup. SoundMAX works in windoze but is not detected in Mandrake. If I follow the instructions you have so clearly provided above will my box blow up?
 
;(

I dont think my instructions will help you since i'm
talking about Fedore Core 1 Linux, and not mandrake.

I have a lot to learn.
 
Core differences...
 
I'll keep searchin'
 
Thanks for the response though!
 
...All I need to know I learned from reading taglines

motorbelly, there should be Mandrake versions of those rpms. They may be included with your Mdk cds. Go into the Mandrake Control Center to install packages, and type in alsa in the search window and see what happens..

Hi guys...
 
I am a newbie to the linux world and been trying to install Red Hat 9.0 . I have difficulty getting the sound to work. I am running a AMD Athlon XP 2400+ and a Asus A7V8X-MX mainboard. I tried to do the whole process but unable to. I got this error msg for one of them:
 
warning: alsa-lib-1.0.2-2.fr.src.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID e42d547b
error: cannot create %sourcedir /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES
 
warning: alsa-utils-1.0.2-1.fr.src.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID e42d547b
error: cannot create %sourcedir /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES
 
 
Can anyone help me please ???

Try running a sound program as root. If you get sound that way then it is likely a permission problem.

Yes i did run as root

It will run as root? Then it should be a matter of fixing permissions. I would first check /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES and see about the permissions. As root go:
 
nautilus --no-desktop [enter]
 
And find /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES. Check the permissions on SOURCES and see if it's root/root 755. If not, make is so, then try as regular user again.

By the way, did you by chance try to install asla-libs & alsa- utils or is this the first time you've seen anything about alsa is with these two error messages?

I read the above advice about fedora core 1 and soundmax audio.
I am installing core 1 also, but kernel update is now 2199, and
there are no kernel modules at freshrpms for alsa drivers with
that kernel update. So does that mean I have to take the sources and build it myself? Also, I noticed that the current driver is now 1.0.5, but the libs and utils are 1.0.4. Shouldn't these be the same versions?
-- Thanks