I created a package for ALSA using checkinstall, but after I formatted my hard drive, reinstalled linux and then reinstalled my ALSA driver, I could not run alsamixer as a normal user. I discovered that the permissions of my /dev/snd directory were changed. In order to run alsamixer, I have to have 777 permissions. I changed the permissions but my changes do not last through a reboot. As soon as I restart the computer, my permissions are changed back to something else (I cannot remember the exact value, but the value excludes normal users). Why are my permissions changing?

Everything in /dev are devices, which get re-installed when you reboot your machine.
So, I suppose this re-install changes the permissions back to the default.
Maybe you can change the startup to include a chmod? Or maybe you can check if you can set the
default permissions for your ALSA related device files?

Something very strange is happening. First it would not let me permanently change the permissions, then I typed chmod 777 snd and the file was accessible. I restarted the computer and the file was still accessible even though the permissions had changed!? The is really strange. If I'm sounding like a I didn't read your post, I did. This behavior is so strange. I guess if I run into trouble I can add a chmod command to my init scripts. But why did it suddenly start to work? I'm gonna reinstall slackware for the 5567th time just to figure out what I did. This is too strange. Thx.