i compiled a new kernel and installed alsa seperatly using all the right commands and it worked for that session but once i restarted the computer the sound stopped working like i never installed alsa

use alsamixer to set the volumes as you wish and unmute master and pcm and then
issue ' alsactl store ' to save your settings.

alsamixer doesnt even work it says that it cant find the device so i know its not the sound ... its more like i never installed alsa.... how do i set it up the /etc/modules.conf i dont understand the alsa site says to copy and paste to the bottom of the modules.conf file can someone post theirs?this is kernel 2.6.3

this is what i added to mine and it had nothing in it before:

# ALSA portion
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-cmipci
# module options should go here

# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

# card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

if you used external modules to load alsa with did you rebuild your kernel after installing alsa ... if so that removed your alsa modules and you will have to reinstall.

your modules.conf looks correct.

did you run /etc/rc.d/rc.alsa when you booted? try ". /etc/rc.d/rc.alsa" <--i havent used alsa in awhile and forget if you need the start option or not. If it gives a message about usage start|restart|stop, then try ". /etc/rc.d/rc.alsa start"

btw you might have more luck if you posted a better title to the topic, so that the people with good ALSA knowledge would've spotted it instead of perhaps ignoring it now

cg