[Alsa-user] Alsa flakey with my system - any suggestions?

[Duncan T. <dun...@ve...>]

I continue to get inconsistent sound operation on my system :-(

Sometimes it works - sometimes it doesn't.  

Sound card is correctly detected by the system-config-soundcard tool, as
an Ensoniq ES1371 AudioPCI-97, module snd_ens1371.

Error messages are inconsistent, but this time on boot I got (as
reported by dmesg):

codec write timeout at 0xd814 [0x40000000]
es1371: codec read timeout at 0xd814 [0x40000000]
es1371: codec read timeout at 0xd814 [0x40000000]
es1371: codec read timeout at 0xd814 [0x40000000]
codec write timeout at 0xd814 [0x40000000]
es1371: codec read timeout at 0xd814 [0x40000000]
es1371: codec read timeout at 0xd814 [0x40000000]
es1371: codec read timeout at 0xd814 [0x40000000]
es1371: codec read timeout at 0xd814 [0x40000000]
...repeats

I also got (from /var/log/messages):
Oct 31 20:22:48 localhost modprobe: FATAL: Error running install command
for sound_slot_1

Here are the modules I have loaded (from lsmod):

Module                  Size  Used by
snd_pcm_oss            40740  0
snd_mixer_oss          13824  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_ens1371            17120  0
snd_rawmidi            17184  1 snd_ens1371
snd_seq_device          6152  1 snd_rawmidi
snd_pcm                68872  2 snd_pcm_oss,snd_ens1371
snd_page_alloc          7940  1 snd_pcm
snd_timer              17156  1 snd_pcm
snd_ac97_codec         50436  1 snd_ens1371
gameport                3328  1 snd_ens1371
snd                    38372  8
snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_ens1371,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_ac97_codec
soundcore               6112  1 snd

I don't have a modules.conf file, but here's the relevant stuff from
modprobe -c (which I don't really know how to read):
alias char-major-116-* snd
alias sound-service-*-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-*-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-*-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-*-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-*-12 snd-pcm-oss
  
install sound-slot-* /sbin/modprobe
snd-card-${MODPROBE_MODULE##sound[_-]slot[_-]}
                                                                                Any suggestions?  Maybe I've got flakey hardware?  

Someone earlier suggested putting a "/sbin/modprobe snd_pcm" in
/etc/rc.local.  This doesn't seem like a good idea, because:

a) entering the command manually doesn't fix the problem
b) seems like I shouldn't have to manually specify modules; they 
should be set up by the soundcard detection utility, and if I 
manually specify them, it will break if, for instance, I install a new
soundcard
c) something really funky is going on when the system sometimes works
and sometimes doesn't - I'd really like to get to the bottom of it

Understanding Linux modules - how they get configured and loaded, what
they do, etc. - has always been a bit of a mystery to me, and I suspect
I'm not alone in this.  I guess I'm going to have to do some reading,
but it sure would be nice if the sound system would just work!  Can
anyone provide a quick explanation of how sound modules are configured? 

Thanks,

Duncan