I installed gnome 2.10 in knoppix 3.8. Every thing was smooth but the sound. The sound drivers are already loaded:

i810_audio 36884 0
ac97_codec 20108 1 i810_audio
snd_intel8x0 30400 1
snd_ac97_codec 68088 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_pcm 77828 3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer 23684 1 snd_pcm
snd 46308 6 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 11104 3 i810_audio,snd
snd_page_alloc 11268 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm

aumix is working.

knoppix@box:~$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [ICH5 ]: ICH4 - Intel ICH5
Intel ICH5 with ALC850 at 0xfa801000, irq 17
k

When I play a wave file in totam, i see the program working but no sound output. When I try to play file in command line:
knoppix@box:~$ play /home/knoppix/pop.wav
playing /home/knoppix/pop.wav
sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': Device or resource busy

so I killed the process using the sound device:
knoppix@box:~$ fuser -k /dev/dsp
/dev/dsp: 12729

Now, playing the file:
knoppix@box:~$ play /home/knoppix/pop.wav
playing /home/knoppix/pop.wav
knoppix@box:~$

But no sound.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Have you checked "alsamixer" in terminal? I remember that once I used to have a similar problem, except that in my case it was as simple as right-clicking on the Volume control (on the GNOME desktop), selecting "Volume Control" and turning the Master Volume up! HIH,

J_K9

Yes, I had the same problem with the same solution. The difference was that I launched Gnome-alsamixer instead.
This 'bug' occurs in Gentoo when you compile the kernel modules instead of the external ones. Don't know what caused this on other distros.

Thanks for help. Here is what I got:
knoppix@box:~$ alsamixer
bash: alsamixer: command not found
knoppix@box:~$ gnome-alsamixer

(gnome-alsamixer:5760): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme directory scalable/emblems of theme Flat-Blue has no size field


(gnome_segv:5771): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme directory scalable/emblems of theme Flat-Blue has no size field

knoppix@box:~$

Any suggestion?

Thank a lot for help. I got it working now. I installed the missing alsa-base package and used alsamixer.