Why does integrated sound not work on my Intel ICH7-based motherboard under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3?

Beginning with the ICH7 chipset, motherboards based on an Intel chipset have required the ALSA driver for their integrated sound cards to function. The ALSA driver was never integrated into the 2.4 kernel, which Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (RHEL3) is based on, due to security issues. Those issues were worked out in the 2.6 kernel, which RHEL4 and newer are based on, so Red Hat decided to ship ALSA from RHEL4 onwards. You will need to use RHEL4 or newer if you want a Red Hat supported solution for integrated sound on an ICH7 or newer motherboard.

Some of Red Hat's hardware partners provide a RHEL3 ALSA driver directly to users, but all support for that driver comes from the partner. Please contact your hardware vendor for further assistance if you require sound support on an ICH7-based or newer motherboard under RHEL3.