OK, here are my problems:
I have a 56K US Robotics Performance Pro Modem which is controller-based. Since it's a hardware modem, Linux should be detecting it fine and it is. However, whenever I try to use it, it says that the modem is busy. I ran cat /proc/pci and I noticed that my network card (which I don't use but can't take out) has the same IRQ as my modem. Could this be the cause of the problem? If so, what can I do to fix it?

My second problem is that I don't have any sound. I was using Mandrake yesterday and it worked perfectly. I installed Slackware this morning and I tried to play a Music CD but I couldn't hear anything. I don't really care about the sound as much because I am just trying to learn Linux and sound is not that important, but if someone can think of what might be wrong with it and an easy way to fix it, then I would be grateful.

My third problem is:
I created an account for myself so I wouldn't have to login using root everytime. However, my CD player wouldn't work because I didn't have permission to access /dev/cdrom. It only worked when I logged in as root. How can I change the permissions?

If you don't have the answers to all three problems, that's OK. My main priority right now is getting my modem to work. I just need someone to help me out because I've been stumped on this for 4 days now. Oh, and be gentle, that's the same amount of days I've been using Linux.

:-)

Thanks in advance.

cdroms/sound: typically distributions use a special group for audio stuff ancd the cdrom that indicate who gets to use the sound and cdrom. Try adding your users to that group in /etc/group, if slackware does this (if not, you'll have to either give everyone permission to read and write to the devices, or better, create a group yourself. You must logoff and log back if you add new groups or add your user to a group in /etc/group.

Other sound stuff: Make sure you install a mixer program like aumix. Check all the channels as pcm and cdaudio are typically seperate, and can be muted seperately.

Modem: what device are you using for the modem? You should probably double check the settings, use setserial on your device to see what IRQ and ioport its set to use (and to set it to the proper ones)

I am using /dev/modem for the modem. The installation program for Slackware asked what port the modem was on so it could create a link to /dev/modem and since Windows said that it was on COM 3, I selected /dev/ttyS2. Can I use setserial to change the IRQ? Would changing the IRQ create problems?