Member Avatar for jleach45

Hi,
I installed RH 8.0. It didn't detect my sound card which is a SB16. After installation I ran sndconfig, had no such fil or command. So I installed it since it wan't installed and it gave me the same error when I installed it. I ran the command at root. What gives? Thanks. :cry:

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Dani AI

Generated

A short, practical summary that fills the gap in the thread: the symptom shown by (the binary present under /sbin but “not found” when invoked by name, and working when run from /sbin) most commonly comes from an environment / PATH difference rather than a missing file. That is consistent with the earlier suggestions from (use a root login/tty) and (use a root login shell). Two other, rarer causes are: the file is a dynamically linked executable with missing libraries, or it was built for a different CPU architecture — both diagnoseable with the commands below.

Quick diagnostics (run from a shell that has sufficient privileges):

echo "$PATH"
which sndconfig
ls -l /sbin/sndconfig
file /sbin/sndconfig
ldd /sbin/sndconfig

Interpreting results: if /sbin is missing from PATH, invoke the program with its absolute path (for example /sbin/sndconfig) or use a login/root environment so standard system directories are on PATH. If file shows a script, check its shebang line; if ldd reports “not found” entries, install the missing shared libraries. If file shows a different architecture, the executable won’t run on that machine.

If sndconfig runs but the SB16 still doesn’t produce sound: check kernel messages and device nodes, confirm driver modules, and verify BIOS IRQ/DMA settings (legacy boards often need those correct). Useful checks:

dmesg | egrep -i "sound|snd|alsa|oss|sb"
lsmod | egrep -i "snd|sound|oss"
cat /proc/asound/cards   # if ALSA present
ls -l /dev/dsp /dev/snd 2>/dev/null

Notes: historical Red Hat releases shipped a mix of OSS/ALSA tools; if the helper runs but no driver is loaded, look for package/tools matching the system’s sound stack and consult the distro’s sound documentation. This bridges the practical fix seen by with the environment advice from and , and gives concrete checks for later posters such as and to follow.

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All 13 Replies

Member Avatar for Dani

How did you install it? As an RPM package? What if you type rpm -q sndconfig ??

Member Avatar for jleach45

Hey CSCGAL,
It gives ne the following: sndconfig-0.69-1
Yes I installed it as a package. :cry:

Member Avatar for jleach45

I found the file in /sbin, but when I click it it has file not found. :cry:

Member Avatar for Dani

And you have tried logging in as root and just typing in "sndconfig" ? Not doing an su but actually logging in in a new tty?

Member Avatar for jleach45

I always don the "su: to log on as root. How can I do the other way? :)

Member Avatar for Dani

Basically, when you first login, login as root instead of your normal user. I think you'll have access to sndconfig that way. By default, you have 6 teletype terminals (ttys) to work with. You can access them with ctrl+alt+F1 through ctrl+alt+F6. You can also switch back and forth through them. When you first load your machine, it will be set to the first tty. You can login as your normal user here. Then type ctrl+alt+F2 and login as root in the 2nd tty. I'm almost postive sndconfig will work for you.

Member Avatar for jleach45

Hi cscgal,
Once I'm in tty, how can I boot to the desktop from there? I tried sndconfig from there and it didn't work so I cd /sbin then ./sndconfig and it worked....Joe:lol:

Member Avatar for Dani

Type startx :) F1-F6 control 6 terminals. F7-F12 control 6 X sessions.

Member Avatar for movielad

As a tip: I find that when working as a normal user and then have to run a series of priviledged commands, I do:

su -

which means that when you become root you'll inherit the root environment (including all environment variables such as the path, and so on). This makes it much easier to run programs such as sndconfig or ifconfig, for example.

Regards,

Martyn

Member Avatar for benakins

please how do get to the tty?
how do i get my sound working?
how do i use the command(s)?

this is my first time of working on linux

Member Avatar for John A

>please how do get to the tty?
Open up a terminal application if you're in a graphical environment. For example, Konsole.

>how do i get my sound working?
Install the drivers for your soundcard.

>how do i use the command(s)?
What commands?

In other words, until you provide
- the distro and version you're using
- the soundcard in your computer
there's no way to help you.

Member Avatar for jbennet

The OP was from 2004!

Dont hijack peoples threads benakins!

Member Avatar for benakins

thanks for your reply.
have try to install the sound driver but it was not running and i think is because is not compartible with linux OS; my motherboard is a pc chips board & i used the driver that comes with it.

i mean the command sndconfig

please can you send me the format of how i wii use the tty with sndconfig.

thanks have a wonderfil day

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