I try using aplay to play .wav and .ogg files and i don't hear a thing nor do i get any error messages.

for example if you do
$aplay /usr/share/sounds/gaim/send.wav

i get a new line, no error messages or 'playing such and such file'. I might think it was looping but top shows it using no CPU time. i have to use ctrl+c or ctrl+alt+z to kill it. is this a device config problem maybe?

i can play things just fine with the Music Player in Gnome (i guess that is a rhythmbox derivative) and the CD player program works fine. I can even use them both at once.

I'm running Ubuntu Hoary, aplay version 1.0.8

Thanks for any help

you HAVE un-muted the volumes right ???
By Default, all alsa channels are muted.

run alsa-config, un-mute the main channels with the M key, and use the arrow keys to adjust volumes.

alsa-config is not on my comp, i tried it just to double check

i used the volume control in Gnome and set the Alsa device that showed up with all the volumes unmuted. I still got the same behavior.

I usually like to have at very least, the following alsa packages installed.

alsa-driver
alsa-libs
alsa-utils

alsa-mixer is part of alsa-utils.