No sound in sarge 2.6.8-686, even /dev/dsp does not exist.

Just switched to debian from slackware because I'm too lazy to manage the packages myself. Now everything is set up except the sound.
I have an on-board sound card but it's disabled in BIOS. The pci card is a soundblaster live. It works in slackware using alsa. Now when I try xmms it will say no /dev/dsp, and ls /dev/dsp* returns no such file or directory. I know this card should use the emul10k1 module, and lsmod showed this module is loaded. But how come I don't even have a /dev/dsp?
I tried sndconfig but apt-get said it's obsolete;
I installed alsautils but alsaconf can't find my card;
I'm in the audio group, groups showed I'm in the following groups:
dialout cdrom floppy sudo audio dip video plugdev users

Any suggestions?

result of lspci

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 02)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82865G/PE/P PCI to AGP Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #1 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #2 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #3 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #4 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c2)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Bridge (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) Ultra ATA 100 Storage Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801EB (ICH5) Serial ATA 150 Storage Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV25 [GeForce4 Ti 4200] (rev a3)
0000:02:01.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs [SB Live! Value] EMU10k1X
0000:02:01.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs [SB Live! Value] Input device controller
0000:02:02.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8180L 802.11b MAC (rev 20)

result of lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by
nls_cp936             126432  2
ntfs                  101940  2
iptable_mangle          2880  0
ipt_MASQUERADE          3968  0
iptable_nat            25228  1 ipt_MASQUERADE
ipt_TOS                 2528  0
ip_conntrack_irc       71440  0
nls_iso8859_1           4032  1
nls_cp437               5696  1
vfat                   14656  1
fat                    46784  1 vfat
isofs                  37240  0
udf                    93956  0
ipv6                  264612  8
af_packet              22600  4
ndiswrapper           115220  0
ipt_state               2080  36
ipt_REJECT              7008  4
ipt_limit               2528  6
ipt_LOG                 6560  6
ip_conntrack_ftp       72272  0
ip_conntrack           35368  5 ipt_MASQUERADE,iptable_nat,ip_conntrack_irc,ipt_state,ip_conntrack_ftp
iptable_filter          2880  1
ip_tables              18464  9 iptable_mangle,ipt_MASQUERADE,iptable_nat,ipt_TOS,ipt_state,ipt_REJECT,ipt_limit,ipt_LOG,iptable_filter
hw_random               5460  0
pci_hotplug            34640  0
intel_mch_agp          10608  0
intel_agp              22816  1
agpgart                34696  2 intel_mch_agp,intel_agp
rtc                    12760  0
pcspkr                  3592  0
floppy                 61200  0
parport_pc             36900  0
parport                41832  1 parport_pc
ehci_hcd               32004  0
joydev                  9984  0
evdev                   9600  0
mousedev               10476  1
sd_mod                 21696  2
tsdev                   7392  0
usb_storage            69152  1
usbhid                 32192  0
uhci_hcd               33136  0
usbcore               119012  7 ndiswrapper,ehci_hcd,usb_storage,usbhid,uhci_hcd
snd_emu10k1            98920  0
snd_rawmidi            25156  1 snd_emu10k1
snd_pcm                98728  1 snd_emu10k1
snd_timer              25668  1 snd_pcm
snd_seq_device          8200  2 snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi
snd_ac97_codec         70020  1 snd_emu10k1
snd_page_alloc         11752  2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_util_mem            4576  1 snd_emu10k1
snd_hwdep               9412  1 snd_emu10k1
snd                    57156  8 snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_seq_device,snd_ac97_codec,snd_util_mem,snd_hwdep
soundcore              10336  1 snd
ata_piix                8164  0
libata                 41700  1 ata_piix
scsi_mod              125196  3 sd_mod,usb_storage,libata
capability              4520  0
commoncap               7232  1 capability
ide_cd                 42656  1
cdrom                  40732  1 ide_cd
reiserfs              247760  2
ide_generic             1408  0
ide_disk               19296  7
piix                   13440  1
ide_core              139908  5 usb_storage,ide_cd,ide_generic,ide_disk,piix
unix                   28692  501
font                    8320  0
vesafb                  6656  0
cfbcopyarea             3840  1 vesafb
cfbimgblt               3040  1 vesafb
cfbfillrect             3776  1 vesafb

I think you need to run a script called snddevices. That created /dev/dsp for me. I only use the debian packages so apt knows I have them but I compile ALSA from source cause that's a lot easier.

I found script snddevices in package sound/alsa-base. Are you suggesting that I run snddevices and then alsaconf and alsamixer?
Will alsa conflict with OSS? I don't even know how to find out whether I'm using OSS or not.

There's a package that makes ALSA and OSS work together so you can use ALSA to run OSS programs. I think it's calles alsa-oss. Run the snddevices script and check if it created /dev/dsp. If it did I don't think you have to run the other programs but you might just to check if there' s nothing in there which could prevent it from working right. My alsaconf still can't find my onboard audio so don't worry if it can't find yours.

U should try to conflgure the device by configuring the device by
sndconfig

then check if u installed the ALSA or OSS if installed configure them

oh, this is such a newbie-problem and i probably shouldn't even waste your time with it but: how do I run the snddevices script?

oh, this is such a newbie-problem and i probably shouldn't even waste your time with it but: how do I run the snddevices script?

Originally posted by darkleaf There's a package that makes ALSA and OSS work together so you can use ALSA to run OSS programs. I think it's calles alsa-oss. Run the snddevices script and check if it created /dev/dsp. If it did I don't think you have to run the other programs but you might just to check if there' s nothing in there which could prevent it from working right. My alsaconf still can't find my onboard audio so don't worry if it can't find yours.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll be too busy today and tomorrow. Will try snddevices and report back.
I don't want to use the onboard audio, that's why I have it disabled in BIOS.

Originally posted by amateen U should try to conflgure the device by configuring the device by sndconfig then check if u installed the ALSA or OSS if installed configure them

I can't get sndconfig installed. apt-get install sndconfig said sndconfig is obsolete and can not be installed.

Originally posted by TaNeK oh, this is such a newbie-problem and i probably shouldn't even waste your time with it but: how do I run the snddevices script?

I haven't tried snddevices yet but if it's a script you should be able to run it in two ways:
1. make it executable and then execute it
chmod +x snddevices (if it's already executable you don't need this step)
./snddevices
2. use the source command
source snddevices

yeah, that's as far as I could think too, but it says no such file or dir, and I have no clue where this snddevices may be, searching for it does nothing. Really miss having sound . Last time, all I did was apt-getting all alsa-packages I could find, run alsaconf, and it worked

That's strange if you have installed all the alsa packages, snddevices should be in package alsa-base.

I'm listening mp3 now.

The problem is because my soundblaster live is a DELL OEM one, so emul10k1x should be used instead of emul10k1. I went to alsa website and followed their instructions, then my sound card came out as a charm. I played sometime on alsamixer. So many options, and I don't even know what they are, master, master mono, PCM, and so on.

Glad you fixed it. For increased performance you should have XMMS use its ALSA output plugin instead of the OSS.

Master is just that, the master volume. It acts just like master does on winblows
PCM is the program coltroled volume. When you adjust the XMMS volume it adjusts the PCM volume. That is all i got ;-)