Back again.

O.K., I decided after getting my Aureal Vortex2 pci card to work and FlashPlayer running in Mozilla with a couple of other plug-ins working, that I should run the RH update2 RPM updater and get the full set of available updates, including the newer stable kernel 2.4.20-20.8 That is when the problems began, again .

The updater seemed to work correctly and the installs ran without errors (reported) but now the sound "module" isn't recognized/installed and the Moz plug-ins have disappeared! (When booting from the new kernel...).

If I boot the older kernel (2.4.18-14) I have a working sound card (kudzu runs a configurator on boot...) but the Moz plug-ins are still missing. I've been all over the LQ forums but can't figure this out. The following are few results of things I tried and checked out. Please suggest what I need to do to get my sound card running under the new kernel.

Running 2.4.20-20.8
Output of the lsmod routine:

[root@Inteva sbin]# /sbin/lsmod
Module Size Used by Not tainted
ide-cd 35808 0 (autoclean)
cdrom 33728 0 (autoclean) [ide-cd]
sound 74196 0 (autoclean) (unused)
soundcore 6500 2 (autoclean) [sound]
tdfx 38304 1
agpgart 48160 0 (unused)
parport_pc 19044 1 (autoclean)
lp 8996 0 (autoclean)
parport 37152 1 (autoclean) [parport_pc lp]
autofs 13332 0 (autoclean) (unused)
eepro100 22772 1
mii 3976 0 [eepro100]
iptable_filter 2412 0 (autoclean) (unused)
ip_tables 15096 1 [iptable_filter]
nls_iso8859-1 3516 3 (autoclean)
nls_cp437 5148 3 (autoclean)
vfat 13100 3 (autoclean)
fat 38776 0 (autoclean) [vfat]
mousedev 5588 1
keybdev 2976 0 (unused)
hid 22340 0 (unused)
input 5920 0 [mousedev keybdev hid]
usb-uhci 26412 0 (unused)
usbcore 78944 1 [hid usb-uhci]
ext3 70880 2
jbd 51988 2 [ext3]
[root@Inteva sbin]#

This is the /etc/modules.conf file:

alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
alias eth0 eepro100
alias usb-controller usb-uhci
alias char-major-14 sound
alias sound-slot-0 au8830
alias synth0 au8830
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 || :

Running 2.4.18-14 Kernel:

[root@Inteva sbin]# /sbin/lsmod
Module Size Used by Tainted: P
ide-cd 33608 0 (autoclean)
cdrom 33696 0 (autoclean) [ide-cd]
au8830 195296 0 (autoclean)
sound 74388 0 (autoclean) (unused)
soundcore 6532 7 (autoclean) [au8830 sound]
tdfx 38880 1
agpgart 43072 0 (unused)
parport_pc 19108 1 (autoclean)
lp 8996 0 (autoclean)
parport 37152 1 (autoclean) [parport_pc lp]
autofs 13348 0 (autoclean) (unused)
eepro100 22264 1
iptable_filter 2412 0 (autoclean) (unused)
ip_tables 14936 1 [iptable_filter]
nls_iso8859-1 3516 3 (autoclean)
nls_cp437 5116 3 (autoclean)
vfat 13084 3 (autoclean)
fat 38712 0 (autoclean) [vfat]
mousedev 5524 1
keybdev 2976 0 (unused)
hid 22244 0 (unused)
input 5888 0 [mousedev keybdev hid]
usb-uhci 26188 0 (unused)
usbcore 77024 1 [hid usb-uhci]
ext3 70368 2
jbd 52212 2 [ext3]
[root@Inteva sbin]#

in need of HELP!!!

O.K. I've done a lot more research but am not convinced I know what to do next. The ALSA drivers are a possibility but the ALSA site says my card (Aureal Vortex2 AU8830) isn't supported and redirect to the open source CVS site. I don't have any experience compling anything yet and have no good (current) references. That site doesn't give specifics for RH so I still am lost. Does anyone out there know where I can go to get instructions on exactly how to do what I need to get my sound back?
I tried to just re-install the package I have from Jay's Solutions but when i ask it to 'make' , I get an error *** make no rule to make target 'lib/modules/2.4.18-14/drivers/build/linux/version.h' .
Checking this out I wonder why it has my old kernel listed, and when I investigate if the 'target' exists in either kernel, the tree can be found in the new kernel (except for the kernel # of course...) but it isn't possible in the old kernel...? How did it install in the old kernel in the first place? Is it possible just to modify the "makefile" so this will work? I'm really lost here, please someone at least try to help. NOOBIE!!! TR

Apparently this is a stupid thing to ask, so I will end this post tomorrow and try a new approch later.