> 1) "unload all existing soundcard drivers, including soundcore?" (if this
> step requires compiling the kernel, i am going to need really detailed
> instructions because i would not even know where to begin :-) , if not,
> what else do i have to do?)
Usually sound card drivers a loaded as modules. Modules are pieces of kernel
code that can be dynamically added or removed from the running kernel. If
you type the command 'lsmod', it will show you a list of the currently
loaded modules. Most likely you will see soundcore, soundlow, sound, sb, and
probably a few others. To unload the modules you use the command 'rmmod
<module>' where <module> is the name of the module that you want to unload
(get those from the lsmod). One thing to note is that some modules require
that other modules be loaded in order to be able to run. The dependencies
are listed on the right-hand side of the list. If you unload the three
modules I mentioned above, and all of the dependant modules, you will have
unloaded the existing soundcard drivers.
> 2) "remove all old soundcard
> references from /etc/conf.modules" (if this is the sound card i had during
> the install of linux do i have to perform this step, if so how?)
use an editor such as pico, emacs, vi, etc. to edit the file
/etc/conf.modules (you have to be root to do this). You will see lines that
define the parameters for the soundcard modules. Before you edit the file,
make a backup of it. Then go into the file and comment out the references to
the soundcard drivers that you already removed (in fact you might want to do
this first).
>3) "know if my kernel is compiled with version information?"
This one I'm not sure about as far as Linux Mandrake goes, but usually the
kernel is compiled with version information turned on. It refers to the
modules being marked with what version of the kernel source they were
compiled from.
Hope this helps....
-Ben
