I hope this is the correct forum for this post; I guess it doesn't fit elsewhere. I was getting error:

Cannot load /dev/dsp (permission denied)
Will continue running sound through null device

Then I added normal user to groups 'audio' and 'sound'. The error stopped appearing at KDE startup, but I still don't have sound as normal user (but I do as root).

Permissions on /dev/dsp are
crw-rw----

As far as I know, these are correct. GUIDs do not conflict. I am stumped after searching google, linuxquestions.org and justlinux.com

Also, I can't open any apps related to multimedia (noatun, kaboodle, etc.). I get "KDEinit could not launch '[application]'." I can open only KsCD, but I can't play CD (although prefs point to correct CD-rom device). I am using Debian Woody on KDE 3.1.2

This is strange, but I have sound now. I still can't open Kaboodle or Noatun, but I installed XMMS and I have sounds as user and root. Maybe Noatun and Kaboodle just weren't installed correctly? Oh well, I don't use them. I prefer XMMS.