When I ran lspci -v it said I had an Esoniq 5880 AudioPCI ( it was a Creative
Sound Blaster PCI under Winblows) sound card that I stupidly forgot to install during
Setup.
When I ran modconf i tried installing the module es1370, but it said:

es1370: version v0.35 time 11:53:03 Apr 20 2002
/lib/modules/2.2.20/misc/es1370.o: init_module: Device or resource busy
Hint: insmod errors can be caused by...
/lib/modules/2.2.20/misc/es1370.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.2.20/misc/es1370.o failed
/lib/modules/2.2.20/misc/es1370.o: insmod es1370 failed

Installation failed.

So then I tried using the sb Sound Blaster compatible module, but the exact same
message (replacing es1370 with sb of course) appears.

Even when I tried uninstalling modules I never heard of (eg sunrpc) it said the device
was busy (it would also help me if u could tell me what sunrpc is/does???)

Im at my wits end here, Ive tried everything, even compiling a kernel v2.6.7, but that
doesn't work, because when I made the modules it kept saying all these things were
undefined. When I tried booting with it, it said it was missing the root= parameter, even
though I specified root=/dev/hda3 in lilo.conf, so I have to stick with 2.2.20. And I
can't reinstall either, because I use network install but have already used 440MB/1GB
of downloads for the month as of 7/08. (I installed Debian Woody stable version with
KDE on the 4th
so I am a newbie at actually using Linux, but I have spent weeks reading about it
beforehand)
I dont know what else to do. Can anyone HELP me???

Thank you to anyone who answers...

Well the bandwith cap sucks but if you want to go to www.apt-get.org and search on the package module-init-tools and get a line for a backport built for Woody to put into your /etc/apt/sources.list and install the package you should be able to compile a 2.6 kernel while still running Woody and be able to boot it. You should make sure that you compile support into (not as a module) for the file system(s) you use and the chipset on your motherboard. You will also want to mkdir /sys as root and put this in your /etc/fstab for the sysfs that is used in 2.6.x.

And in case you have not run across it a guide to compiling a kernel the Debian way.

http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net/system/kernel-pkg.html

Well, thanks HappyTux but I was mainly looking for help about installing my sound card
driver, not about compiling a new kernel (although I'll try it anyways). Tks again, though.
I dont get the part about making the /sys dir. What do I do after that? U didnt really make
it that clear to me.

You do not really have to do anything after making the directory and putting the line in your /etc/fstab the system will mount the new sysfs that is used using the new module-init-tools and whichever related packages are needed to be installed get installed. I know you would prefer to get it working on the 2.2.20 kernel you are running but I think it is way to old and that is why you are getting the errors loading the module so if you still have the Woody install CD's (if this is how you installed) you should be able to install a 2.4.?? kernel from them if you have them in your sources list this my help get it going. And you can always just start modprobing the modules in the /lib/module/2.2.20.??/kernel/sound/pci/ and if one loads without errors then try and see if the sound works and make sure that you are a member of the audio group use the groups command to find out if you are not then adduser user_name audio as root logout and back in for the change to take effect.