i wasn't angry aus9, just a bit frustrated at going around in circles on this problem. there are configuration and package management differences between slackware and debian that aren't trivial. i have a raspberry pi running debian, so i am aware of what some of them are. the differences in package management are often what directories things get put into, and where their libraries and config files are.

slac-in-the-box, i will try your suggestion, as it looks like that is probably what is needed....

slac-in-the-box.... do i have to recompile the kernel drivers as well?

after following some of aus9's suggestions it seems i have lost more alsa funtionality... such as getting "audio output failed" errors when more than one application is open that uses audio that i didn't get before

A step in the right direction....
 

in slackware the instance of /etc/asound.state is actually a symbolic link to /var/lib/alsa/asound.state. when i looked at asound.state, i found it still listed SIS7012 as the driver... so i went to /var/lib/alsa, and renamed asound.state to asound.state.old, and did:
and the new asound.state now lists Intel as the driver

this fixes part of the problem. i still don't get capture from PCM