Even though I am by no means an expert on sound in Linux, I would like to give some feedback all the same. I hope it will be of some use, to give you an idea of what a general novice might need prompting to try to do.
Sound output worked right away using Release candidate one. However, I was not able to get ViaVoice Dictation for Linux to operate (the version that was included with power packs 7.2 and 8.0, using the Sun JRE instead of the IBM JRE), because it was not able to detect recorded sound through the main application. Strangely, it was able to record some kind of speech using its audio setup wizard, even that the main application would not work. Even more strangely, sound output from the audio setup wizard sounded like something short, nasty, and full of static. I'm running a Sound Blaster live. This is the relevant output of lspci: 00:11.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 03) So I figured the solution was to start draksound and see what choices it would present. It mentioned that there was a choice between Alsa and OSS drivers. However, it presented two choices in the drop down box: audigy() and emu10k1(). It didn't mention anything in these choices about Alsa or OSS, which I found confusing. When I tried to select emu10k1, I noticed on the command line output that the existing mixer could not be shut down, because another process was using it (it turned out to be the Gnome mixer). It seemed to be indicating that Alsa's mixer was running. So I logged out of gnome, hit ctrl-alt-f1, and logged in as root. I ran draksound from the command line, chose the second option, logged out, hit ctrl-alt-f7, and logged back into Gnome. I assume it must have loaded a different driver, because ViaVoice Dictation for Linux now works (luckily for me). Perhaps there is a bug with recording under Alsa, or else ViaVoice Dictation is just not compatible with it. Anyway, sound now works for what I need it to do. I'm a bit concerned that draksound needs a warning of some sort to say that maybe it should be run when not the user is logged into a gui and that all applications using sound shout not be running (and perhaps explain how to do that for a newbie). I hope this has been of minor assistance in making the version of Mandrake the best yet! Thanks very much. Damon
