[Alsa-user] /dev/sequencer no such device, but audio plays ok?

[Richard S. <ric...@vi...>]

I've installed the alsa drivers and can play and record sound ok, but 
/dev/sequencer cannot be opened - I get the ENODEV no such device error.

I have a Realtek ALC650 audio on motherboard and RedHat 8.0 (which 
misconfigures the audio in
/etc/modules.conf as
alias sound-slot-0 via82cxxx_audio, a known bug). From the Realtek 
website I was directed to use the alsa drivers and to set my 
/etc/modules.conf  with

alias char-major-116 snd
options snd major=116 cards_limit=1
#--- Via8233  -------------------------------
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
options snd-via82xx index=0 id="Via8233"
#-----------------------------------------------
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
#=================================
 
looking at snddevices it will have created /dev/sequencer with these values
mknod -m 666 /dev/sequencer c 14   1
but here I lose the trail - is there a fundamental problem here - am I 
talking to some missing hardware?

I configured built and installed (the driver with --with-sequencer=yes)
alsa-driver-0.9.0rc5
alsa-lib-0.9.0rc6
alsa-utils-0.9.0rc6

and ran snddevices

from config.log of alsa-driver
$ ./configure --with-sequencer=yes --with-debug=detect
#define CONFIG_SND_VERSION "0.9.0rc5"

$cat junk /dev/sequencer
cat: /dev/sequencer: No such device


#/sbin/lspci -v -v
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233 AC97 
Audio Controller (rev 50)
        Subsystem: Micro-star International Co Ltd: Unknown device 4720
        Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- 
ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- 
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Interrupt: pin C routed to IRQ 11
        Region 0: I/O ports at dc00 [size=256]
        Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA 
PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

Any insights would be much appreciated, as Rosegarden refuses to run at 
all unless it can talk to /dev/sequencer.

Richard Shann