I was never able to get my via8233 sound to work with the kernel driver. Only the CD sound would work but not anything else. Today I somehow came across a mailing list post talking about how it is supported in the 2.4.21 pre-patches. I couldnt get pre-7 compiled but pre-6 worked and bam..sound is working with kernel drivers.

My question is why is the kernel drivers so much superior to alsa?? I honestly thought my speakers were blown out. With the kernel drivers sounds crystal clear compared to alsa. I thought that was alsa's specialty??

thanks

for most cards, alsa works better.
you're just using one that doesn't for you.