I FIXED IT! here's what turns out to be the problem:
I changed /etc/inittab to make it so I can boot right into the graphical interface. Only problem is that if I change id:3:initdefault: to id:4:initdefault, it makes the sound not work for whatever reason. What I did was just change it back to id:3, and now the sound works again. Sure I have to start up the graphical interface manually, but at least the sound works. But thanks for helping me anyways, I appreciate it!

EDIT: I just tried something else from doing research into this inittab thing. All I had to do was add my username to /etc/group under the audio group and BOOM! everything works under runlevel 4! Yes, my problem was as simple as that. So if anyone happens to have this same problem when trying to run at level 4, don't over complicate it, the solution may be as simple as this =)

For the record, this is because in runlevel 3 the user is implicitly added to the audio group through /etc/logins.defs, which is inherited when you startx. In runlevel 4, login.defs doesn't apply (since you login through a GUI display manager) and your user is not a member of the audio group in X. When you create a user using `adduser`, it asks you which groups you want your user to be in, and suggests pressing the up arrow to list the standard groups.

If your user was not a member of the audio group it is likely that it is not a member of some other important groups, so you may wish to add the user to the other standard groups as well to prevent other issues.

replacing username with your username, obviously.

2 members found this post helpful.

Thanks T3slider, good to know!