i have ESD running, how do i shut it down???
i think KDE uses arts or something for sound.

Goto Menu > control center > Sound and multimedia > sound system. Click on the Hardware tab and unselect ESD and choose ALSA. Assuming alsa is installed and working correctly. Then try to run alsamixer from a conole, if it starts up in console unmute the first few tabs by hitting the letter m and hit esc.

damn, i still get a crash, for some weird reason, i do get to hear some sounds on kde, like the initial sound thing... EDS is running at the same time alsa is running. if i do 'ps -c ESD' i get PID TTY TIME CMD. so, is there a way to manually shut EDS down?

(no debugging symbols found)...Using host libthread_db library "/lib/libthread_db.so.1".
(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...0x40559497 in waitpid () from /lib/libpthread.so.0
#0 0x40559497 in waitpid () from /lib/libpthread.so.0
#1 0x08065b1d in virtual thunk to Arts::SampleStorageEntry_skel::~SampleStorageEntry_skel() ()
#2 0x00001c7c in ?? ()
#3 0x00000000 in ?? ()
#4 0x00000000 in ?? ()
#5 0x404211ba in Arts::ObjectManager::create () from /opt/kde/lib/libmcop.so.1
#6 0x40557be5 in pthread_barrierattr_setpshared () from /lib/libpthread.so.0
#7 0x00000000 in ?? ()
#8 0x00000000 in ?? ()
#9 0x0000002b in ?? ()
#10 0x0000002b in ?? ()
#11 0x08052aa0 in ?? ()
#12 0xbfffcdd0 in ?? ()
#13 0xbfffcd58 in ?? ()
#14 0xbfffcd40 in ?? ()
#15 0x400c47e4 in ?? () from /opt/kde/lib/libkmedia2_idl.so.1
#16 0x00000001 in ?? ()
#17 0x00000001 in ?? ()
#18 0x00000000 in ?? ()
#19 0x0000000e in ?? ()
#20 0x00000004 in ?? ()
#21 0x400a0a48 in Arts::PlayObject_base::_create ()
from /opt/kde/lib/libkmedia2_idl.so.1

Do ps -e and find the process ID for ESD then do kill "ID number" like " kill 1027" but when you change it in KDE its supposed to swith over to alsa.

im starting to really hate KDE... arts is the application that keeps crashing, i got out of X and went to the console and played an mp3 with amp... it worked.

i can't seem to find ESD as a process, maybe because KDE hides it as a lot of the KDinit processes, all with the same name. im really thinking about another desktop environment, is gnome better?

Not really, Its just a preference thing. I cannot say that getting sound to work will be any easier in Gnome. Have you installed alsa and configured it?

everything's cool, i just don't load up stuff with KDE on it.

still, i am running kde, just not running its usual progs.

thanx for all the help.