I am faced with problem. My system config is as follows.

AMD Duron 1.2 GHz,256 MB DDR SD RAM, nForce MB with integrated audio and graphics.

I am running RedHat Linux 9.0 (Kernel 2.4.x). I was not able to use my motorola sm56 internal modem. So I recompiled my kernel with ppp support and now I could use my modem. But I can't get my soundcard working. It worked before the recompile. Now when I run alsamixer it says it can't find the default device and snd_ctl_open failed message is displayed. Can you send me some info on this

hmmm, did you compile in sound card support? when you compile you have to make sure to select the proper kernel driver, it must be there somewhere if it worked the first time. to better help you it would be better if you posted the output of the 'lspci' command