Alright i have only been using linux a few days and everything is great but installing drivers...
im trying to get audio to work

I use Debian (the net download one where you install the small image and it opens "base-config" to download the packages you want"), Kernel 2.6.8-2-386, Intel 4 processor.

alright i download and extract the ac97 and i run ./configure as root on the ac97 audio driver and it has a few kernel problems which i fixed after download the kernel source, headers, etc from the Synaptic Package Manager. after i did that the ./configure worked.

ok so i go on to give the make command i just get entering / leaveing directory and the error after the entering and leaveing directory stops.

make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/donald/Drivers/audio/alsa-driver-1.0.9rc4a'
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/source SUBDIRS=/home/donald/Drivers/audio/alsa-driver-1.0.9rc4a O=/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/build modules
make: *** /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/source: No such file or directory. Stop.
make: *** [compile] Error 2
debian:/home/donald/Drivers/audio/alsa-driver-1.0.9rc4a#

though the "/lib/modules/2.6.7-2-386/source" is there, its just a shortcut and the link is broken.
heres the link it leads to "/home/horms/tmp/debian-kernel-test/kernel-image-2.6.8-i386/kernel-image-2.6.8-i386-2.6.8/install-386"
just by looking at it i duno what i would download to make that directory...
am i configureing / installing the kernel wrong , need to download something, and or bug in the driver? Thanks in advance if anyone can figure this one out.

btw if you need more info on the pc im using look for medion 1777 desktop on google. (didnt change any of the stock hardware yet)

kernel 2.6.x already support ALSA sound, you can configure you sound card model on 2.6.x, after that when the linux was loaded the module of sound card will load automatically.

Alright thanks ill try recomplieing it

/lib/modules/"kernel version" should just be a symlink to the kernel source which is in /usr/src. Probably you have a linux symlink to the actual directory in there so you can easily fix it with this command:

ln -s /usr/src/linux /lib/modules/"kernel version"