thats it! i'm up and running!

i also had to start jack with jackstart -R -d alsa -d hw:0 -r 44100 -p 1024 & jackd didn't seem to work

and start pd from root with -jack -rt

thank you all so much for your help.

rob www.robcanning.utvinternet.com

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i ran alsaconf again and now and everything seems a lot healthier the hdsploader works (the red Host light is now off) as does hdspconf and hdspmixer

this is a good sign. but, on my machine with alsa 9.8 I have to load the firmaware with 'hdsploader' and reboot once more to get sound output. loading the firmware seems to set the card up for playing, but won't actually make any sounds until you reboot the machine. afaik, this should be fixed in future versions.

and, you only need to do the 'hdsploader' and reboot trick when you unplug the power to the external hdsp device. the firmware should remain loaded until you unplug the hdsp external device.

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so everything looks fine but when i start pd it hangs for about 20 seconds and then outputs the following errors, then quits.

Try "pd -jack" to start it with audio directed to the Jack server. It is using the default which is ALSA, and ALSA is not available because it is being used by Jack :-)

I don't think pd >= 37 works with alsa. best is to start jackd and then do 'pd -jack' as you say.

-gust.