I am currently running ubuntu 5.04 with the linux kernel 2.6.10 and i'm trying to configure my creative audigy 2 zs card to work with alsa

i found my card in the hardware list on alsa's site, and followed the instructions, and couldnt get any of it to work.

also after asking a few others about it, i was told to try alsaconf, which i was given a command not found error

and finally, i tried /dev/sndstat which gave me a permission denied error(and i ran it as root)

thanks in advance for the help.

same problem about /dev/sndstat here

I'm still part n00b, so please accept this with at least a couple of grains of salt.
I had similar problems with sound on Mandrake 10.0 and 10.1; the command alsaconf not found. But it's almost always the case that this means it's only optionally installed. I had (intentionally or otherwise) told Mandrake to not install it.
But it's still available to me from the original installation disks, or from the alsa site (http://www.alsa-project.org/).
Try installing it from your distribution, then, as root (that is, su - ) just type alsaconf at the command line in the console. I found it to be pretty straight-forward from this point to configure alsa from their options.

From here, you may find that you still don't have sound. Users mostly have to then find out how to configure their system to turn it on.
(Mandrake has a clearly marked way to do this; just click on the kicker, configuration -> system -> KDE -> sound (I think; doing this from memory), and make sure that it's turned on (in Mandrake, a button labeled "enable sound").

There's probably a button to test it right there too.
Good luck.

i thought i had installed alsa using the debian apt-get, but given your similar situation, i might have missed it, thanks i'll try that and reply if it works or not.

Yeah, still mostly n00b!
Sorry, Nodren - I left out a step. After you get alsaconfig working for you (you want to make sure that it's found your sound card correctly), then type alsamixer at the command line. This one doesn't need root privledge. Check to make sure that the master sound level and the speaker aren't muted!
I didn't have that problem, but some do, I understand.

well heres what i ended up doing, following your advice i went and downloaded the alsa drivers right off there website.

using the info from the sound card list, i followed the directions exactly and installed just as they told me to(altho the alsa utils didnt compile)

either way, they told me they'd mute my speakers, so after i compiled everything and modprobe'd it i used the kde mixer(which had all the same channels as the alsa mixer) and unmuted everything, bang worked!

thanks again for your help, dont count yourself out cause us newbies can help each other right?