Ok, been trying to sort this out by myself for two days now, and although I know a lot more know about this now, I have definitely confused myself :S

I'm trying to get sound working on my computer. I have an ASUS mobo with onboard sound.
It uses the AC97 codec, which I have managed to locate, download and install. I also have installed alsa on my system.
There are some instructions from ASUS on how to install the codec, including some lines for the modules.config file
# ALSA native device support
alias char-major-116 snd
options snd major=116 cards_limit=1
alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0

# OSS/Free setup
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0
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
post-install sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -L >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
pre-remove sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -S >/dev/null 2>&1 || :

# ALSA native device support
alias char-major-116 snd
options snd major=116 cards_limit=1
alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0

# OSS/Free setup
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0
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
post-install sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -L >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
pre-remove sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -S >/dev/null 2>&1 || :

If I put these in, and restart my computer, a whole bunch of adi and snd modules get loaded (which I think is good)
but then if I try to configure ALSA (alsaconfig) I can't find anything in the menu to match my sound device.
And the lines above get wiped from the modules.config file.

I followed the instructions on the asus/ad97 and alsa installs, and gone over them again.
Is there a chain here a can follow (ie. chip through proocols to sound coming out)?
Am I getting the order wrong?

Also, when I try alsamixer, I get an error msg :
alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for fault: No such file or directory

Please help, I am new to Linux (I'm on Debian btw), and I would really like some tunes as I explore and play.

Here's my lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 2570 (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 2571 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24d2 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24d4 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24d7 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24de (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24dd (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82820 820 (Camino 2) Chipset PCI (rev c2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24d0 (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24db (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24d3 (rev 02)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24d5 (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 0253 (rev a3)
02:03.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80)
02:04.0 RAID bus controller: Promise Technology, Inc.: Unknown device 3373 (rev 02)
02:05.0 Ethernet controller: Galileo Technology Ltd.: Unknown device 4320 (rev 13)

Here's my lsmod (without the extra sound modules that seem to have been removed by alsa config)

Module Size Used by Tainted: P
ppp_deflate 38944 0 (autoclean)
bsd_comp 3936 0 (autoclean)
ppp_async 6464 1 (autoclean)
ppp_generic 18728 3 (autoclean) [ppp_deflate bsd_comp ppp_async]
slhc 4432 0 (autoclean) [ppp_generic]
nvidia 1965504 6 (autoclean)
parport_pc 25704 1 (autoclean)
lp 6912 0 (autoclean)
parport 21728 1 (autoclean) [parport_pc lp]
printer 5632 0
hid 18816 0 (unused)
sound 52876 0 (unused)
soundcore 3236 2 [sound]
mousedev 3776 1
usbmouse 1760 0 (unused)
keybdev 1664 0 (unused)
usbkbd 2848 0 (unused)
input 3072 0 [hid mousedev usbmouse keybdev usbkbd]
usb-uhci 20708 0 (unused)
usbcore 48032 1 [printer hid usbmouse usbkbd usb-uhci]

I am struggling with the same problem too. Had been looking for helps several days in this forum. Someone recommended to me to use download the latest alsa driver, version 1.0.4 from http://alsa-project.org
I hope this would be able to help you... =)