I succesfully upgraded from 2.4.26 to 2.6.7, compiling a new kernel.

sound worked perfectly after reboot. however, I had messed up printer port options, and could noot access my parrellel port. so i loaded my config file, added parrallel port support, recompiled, and rebooted. printer now works great, but I've lost sound. running alsaconf again, I get some sort of message about snd module not being found, despite the fact that I've carefully looked at the sound compile options. loading a previous kernel returns sound. I'm using an ISA soundblaster 16.

suggestions?

Try downloading alsa-driver from http://www.alsa-project.org/ and compiling it, should work ok.

Kernel 2.6.7 has ALSA built in. Follow these steps
0) Compile your kernel as outlined below
1) install the following pacakges from the Slackware CD
alsa-lib-1.0.5.tar.bz2
alsa-oss-1.0.5.tar.bz2
alsa-utils-1.0.5.tar.bz2

Use installpkg

2) chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.alsa

3) Reboot after you edit lilo.conf to reflect new kernel built in step 1

I don't think I am forgetting anything.

Belos is a copy of my 2.6.7 kernel config with just sound stuff. You will want to change your sound card driver but everything else should remain the same.
#
# Sound
#
CONFIG_SOUND=m

#
# Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
#
CONFIG_SND=m
CONFIG_SND_TIMER=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM=m
CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=m
# CONFIG_SND_SEQ_DUMMY is not set
CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y
CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER_OSS=y
# CONFIG_SND_RTCTIMER is not set
# CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PRINTK is not set
# CONFIG_SND_DEBUG is not set

#
# Generic devices
#
CONFIG_SND_MPU401_UART=m
# CONFIG_SND_DUMMY is not set
# CONFIG_SND_VIRMIDI is not set
# CONFIG_SND_MTPAV is not set
# CONFIG_SND_SERIAL_U16550 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_MPU401 is not set

#
# PCI devices
#
CONFIG_SND_AC97_CODEC=m
# CONFIG_SND_ALI5451 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ATIIXP is not set
# CONFIG_SND_AU8810 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_AU8820 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_AU8830 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_AZT3328 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_BT87X is not set
# CONFIG_SND_CS46XX is not set
# CONFIG_SND_CS4281 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_EMU10K1 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_KORG1212 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_MIXART is not set
# CONFIG_SND_NM256 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_RME32 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_RME96 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_RME9652 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDSP is not set
# CONFIG_SND_TRIDENT is not set
# CONFIG_SND_YMFPCI is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ALS4000 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_CMIPCI is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ENS1370 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ENS1371 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ES1938 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ES1968 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_MAESTRO3 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_FM801 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ICE1712 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ICE1724 is not set
CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0=m
# CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0M is not set
# CONFIG_SND_SONICVIBES is not set
# CONFIG_SND_VIA82XX is not set
# CONFIG_SND_VX222 is not set