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Yay, finally got sounds working on my PC.

Maybe it was a bit ambitious running Linux on a fancy Shuttle SD11G5, but I’m finally winning the war.

1. Fail to get Debian to install because Serial ATA isn’t supported by the installer, and the bleeding edge installer doesn’t work.
2. Second attempt, try to install using debootstrap from a Knoppix CD. Still difficult to get a sufficiently modern kernel working.
3. Give up and use Mepis, which is great but I don’t get any sound.
4. Find out that despite having a Creative sound chip in the SD11G5, it doesn’t have the ac97 part so the default Alsa ca_0106 driver didn’t work. Need to upgrade to Alsa 1.0.11.rc3
5. Yadda, yadda get the kernel source and compile Alsa.
6. Wonder why the new module doesn’t get installed properly.
7. Discover the magic file /etc/modules/paths and add the location of Alsa to that
8. update-modules
9. Reboot
10. Uncheck the IEC958 checkbox in the mixer and turn up the volume
11. Listen to Eric Dolphy! 🙂

Hope that saves at least one person the pain I’ve just been through!

I guess this means I’m a total geek now.

I am not a singlespeeder. I ride a singlespeed mountain bike, and it’s with 1 part irony and 1 part stubborness that I try to reject the stereotype. Havining said that,

• Beard – check
• Taste for single malt whisky – check
• Muddy bike with one gear – check
• Subscription to The Outcast – check
• Conventional non-conformist – yeah, probably

Oh well, at least I now have a place to vent my drivel.