No sound with RH 7.1

[Floppyman]

Hi all,

I just installed RH 7.1 on my laptop (a CTX Ezbook 700). Everything went fine except that I have no sound. Do I have to download special drivers for the onboard sound my notebook uses? If not, can anyone tell me how to get the sound working on my laptop? I'm still pretty new at linux, but I'm willing to learn. Thanks in Advance.

[MaXimum SMOKE]

Log in as root. Open a text console window. Type in sndconfig and hit the enter key. (Hope) This command should bring up the configuration menu. If you are lucky there will be a driver for your hardware. Newer notebooks and laptops aren't always good candidates. As the newer OS versions are rolled out, more hardware is supported. As of today, RH 7.3 should have been rolled out. Or at least that is what I've been told. Unsupported cards can often be handled by drivers from ALSA. I personally did not find this a fun experience, however. Kind of more like plugging in an entire sound system. http://www.alsa-project.org/

[Floppyman]

Thanks for the help, everything is working fine now. I guess the sound on my laptop wasn't plug and play so the setup never found. Using sndconfig helped enable it though. Thanks again.

I have another question: How do you make a shortcut for a program on the desktop? Thanks again.

[MaXimum SMOKE]

Using KDE desktop? Linux like OSes are case sensative, so
Application, APPLICATION, and application are 3 different things, So note what you want to link to. If it is a root installed common command, example say you installed aol instant messenger as root, and you want a desktop Icon on your regular desktop... Ok open a console window (shell).
[floppyman@Localhost]$ Type the first letter or 2 you think it is like ai then hit the tab key. Up pops the results of all commands you have available to you starting with ai . Ok, there's aim (must be it) Right click on the desktop choose create new ---> link to application. Up pops a handy dialog box with a gear looking icon in it. Name the link whatever you want, to replace the default "Link to application".
Get the tab that says execute. Fill in what the os calls the ap, in this case "aim". Click O.K. (By the way you can see the browse button on this page in case this thing is in your home directory, or whatever and not in the command path). There are other options in these tabs, but for this case, we've got it. For what it's worth There is a book called Learning RED HAT LINUX 2nd edition, (O'REILLY (R)) by Bill McCarty, that covers up to 7.2 I thought this thing looks really sweet. Hmmm.... 2cds.

[MaXimum SMOKE]

Hmmm remind me not to post here using windows and IE. I had a duplicate post, that the sys wouldn't let me delete, so this 'edit' is as close as I can get

[Floppyman]

Thanks again, that did the trick. I'm using GNOME instead of KDE, but the procedure is similar. Right click on the desktop then new and then choose launcher. You fill in the info, under name I put licq (what I was trying to link to), under command I just put licq, and under and under type I chose application. Works like a charm. Thanks again.

P.S. I have Learning Red Hat Linux (first edition),great book, with tons of info.

[Floppyman]

Hi again,

I guess have another question. I looked in my user directory /home/myusername/ and saw a file called core. What is this? Can it be deleted? Thanks again for all the help. Thanks again for your help.

[MaXimum SMOKE]

In the old days of main frames. You got to work with punch cards, card readers and old clunky line printers. If you wrote some code that the compiler or interpreter could not resolve, You used to get what was called a 'core dump'. Several pages of mostly gibberish characters. The computer's equivilent of a dump of memory. Same deal here. If you open that file with a text editor, you may be able to pick up on a few words you understand. I del those files. Memory serves me, under Gnome, the icon looks kind of like a bomb.

[Floppyman]

Thanks again for the help. I ran into another question, which really is just a minor thing. On the desktop my icons' text is in black and the background in gray. Would you know where I would have to go change the text and background color of icons? Is it in the GNOME control center somewhere? Maybe I'm just not seeing it. Thanks again.

[MaXimum SMOKE]

I'd thoroughly check the Gnome configuration toolbox down on the main panel. Should be relatively close to the main menu ('foot') start button. Just a personal pref, but I've always prefered KDE. Altering just the shade of an icon, may not be an available option. I've never tried it. But then again I don't use a laptop either.

[Floppyman]

Thanks again, I'll do that. Just out of curiousity, why do you prefer KDE over GNOME?

[MaXimum SMOKE]

Look and Feel, I guess. I always liked the 'single click' to open things approach. Today I'm working off of a box running KDE 3. (The OS was the Beta released before RedHat 7.3) Actually you can configure the amount of "Eye -Candy" on this version to meet how fast of a processor, that you have. I also preferred the applications themselves, such as Kword, the control panel and other apps. A lot of people install both KDE and Gnome (as long as they have the space), try them both, and see what they like. It used to be a hassle swapping back and forth, but since the login manager, now gives you a choice at log in, you can sort of try 'em both and compare. BTW, ever try the Opera web browser for Linux? Real nice.

[Floppyman]

Hi again,

No haven't tried Opera, but internet surfing as a whole seems to be a little faster even with Netscape 4.7x. Can you download the latest version of the KDE/GNOME desktop and then install in your distro, or would you have to do anything else?

Also I have another question. Say I downloaded the latest version of a program and it's not a .rpm file, i.e. I have to compile it myself etc. How do I uninstall the older version of the program, before I install the new one? Or, how do you uninstall a program in general? Thanks.

[MaXimum SMOKE]

I never really tried desktop upgrade. If you could get it as an OEM upgrade for the OS, ie like a Redhat, or Mandrake or what have you version... It may be O.K. http://www.kde.org/documentation/faq/install.html
There is the KDE FAQ page. Here is Gnome's http://www.gnome.org/start/ Personally, considering all to complete this, I'm not so sure I'd care to try. I'm on dialup. Also in an interface like this, tweaking the permissions, and file dependencies, could get tricky, if you couldn't get an OEM install for your version. Mandrake, R.H., SUSE, all seem to be developing and releasing OS versions at a pretty fast clip. If I wanted to stay on the 'bleeding edge' so to speak, I'd try some of the Beta linux versions.
Uninstalling .rpm s using a graphical program like kpackage is right in the kpackage program. The rest of the of the things... Compiling is only needed for source files. Most regular applications, the Binaries are available. Just run the install program. Uninstalling a non rpm file.... This varies. Some programs offer an uninstall or modify script ie Open Office. Some programs only install to 1 directory, Generally It's not as big a deal to uninstall as it is with an OS that has all kinds of interdependant libraries, and resources