Infrastructure Software

Dear Experts,

I'm trying to install the latest Oracle Redhat 5.
64 bit. On a certified Asus motherboard.
It will be a dual boot windows/Linux machine.

And I'm having an awful time with the sound card for my new server.
(It will be used for learning, at home. It's important to
have sound for some instructional videos that I will also watch.)

Other installs, sound has installed and worked fine.
I believe it's partially because the sound came directly off
the motherboard in those cases.

But with this new server, it came with a sound card, no onboard.
The sound card works with windows. But not with Linux.
I've been swapping three sound cards in and out, trying to get
one to work. Each has some partial success, but none meet all
of the requirements (below).

What is really frustrating is that I want the sound to go
to the green headphone jack on the front of the computer case.

To do this, there is a cable that connects the sound card, to
the front of the chassis.

The existing sound card that I have, has a connector for this.
It is an "HD audio", or an AC 97 connector. There two rows of
five pins, with one pin blocked up, so that the connector is
inserted in the correct manner. The cord is hard wired to the case.

You can see some images of the pins and the cords here:

http://support.creative.com/kb/showarticle.aspx?sid=14133
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94769
http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/Intel2/4001152/4001152mvr20.shtml
http://www.e4allupgraders.info/dir1/ecase/support/front_panel_support.shtml
http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=27289176


You would figure that whether the connector existed or not would be a standard
feature that would be listed for sound cards. But it's rare to find it listed anywhere.
When I went to the computer store, I had to open all the boxes to see if it
was there or not!!!! Manufacturers, this is not that difficult!!


At this point, after a couple of days of struggle, I just want to buy a
simple sound card that works right out of the box.


Here are the requirements:
- gets instantly recognized by Linux (Oracle Redhat 5) 64 bit, and plays sound
with the standard Linux drivers. I believe I have all of the drivers installed,
because a few cards do play with them automatically. During installation, I
installed Every package available.

- no installation of special Linux drivers required.

- the other big requirment is that the card have output to an HD Audio,
or AC 97 connector, and will play music through the headphone jack.

(Believe it or not, I have one card that works fine out the back,
but won't work through the HD Audio. But it works fine in Windows)

- will also work with Windows 64 bit.


Does anyone have any good sound card recommendations that will meet all these requirements?

Thanks a lot!