If I run TiMidity from the console and pick run a file and then click on a midi file, timidity will play the file. But, if I pick load a number of midi files into Kmid, it will play them but without sound. I am using open source SUSE Linux version 10.0. I run in Gnome. Please give me some assistance. Do I need to install some other programs related to Alsa to make it work? Sound in other programs works fine, like Totem, CD Players etc. Only having problems with KMID. Yes, I did install the latest version. Thanks in advance.

You don't have a midi synth on your system or it was not detected. Many systems these days (you probably have AC97 chipset audio built in to the motherboard or something. Yeah, your lack of details is turning me into a psychic.) have no midi capability other than possibly an external port that you can maybe hook up to an external keyboard. (pause for breath)

OK so what? You can simulate having real midi hardware by installing a synth daemon in software. Timidity++ does this. (Windows has something similar that installs and consumes resources without your knowledge or perimission...)

man timidity

Right, manuals are boring, aren't they?

You probably want something like this in your startup script. On fedora this is /etc/rc.local but no experience with Suse 10 so consult with your esteemed colleagues for that OS... Where was I? Maybe you want to put in there something like this:

# MIDI Synth
esd &
killall -9 esd &
timidity -iA -B2,8 -Os -EFreverb=0 &

The bold parts may not be necessary. If it works without, leave it out!

Now go to your soundcard setup panel and select one of the Timidity devices as midi output device. Voila! To be vocative, the vibrational vermin have been vindicated, Vern!

Midi files will now play in kmid, rosegarden, loop, flex or whatever, at a cost of some CPU cycles to "simulate" the non-existant midi hardware.

Only one process can access /dev/dsp so you need a process like esd's that can accept multiple audio streams and send it as one to /dev/dsp. If a process is already accessing /dev/dsp, no other process can, or perhaps are only sent to a 'access queue '.