Trying to launch kmix, I get a bouncing icon for a few seconds, the
kmix icon appears briefly in the task manager, then disappears.
If I attempt to launch kmix from a terminal as in
I get message about the process number, but
no visible interface.

My audio is at a very low level and would like to improve
that.

Thanks

Have you run alsaconf?
If you have, run alsamixer as root, unmute where necessary, set your levels, then run alsactl store.

No. Should I run alsaconf before the following?
And should I run it as root?
thanks

Yes, run all those commands, alsaconf first, as root.

Good news:
Sound level is good now,

but kmix still does not load.

In the meantime, I'm putting together a script to replay your
instructions.
thanks

This is exactly the problem I'm having. I'm fairly new to linux, how do I find these programs and run them?

Are you running Slackware?
The commands alsaconf, alsamixer, and alsactl store are run in the terminal. This is the standard method for configuring sound in Slackware.
If you open a terminal and type those commands they will be run. The 'alsaconf' and 'alsactl store' commands should be run as root. The alsamixer can be run anytime as a regular user. Typing:
man alsaconf
man alsamixer
man alsactl
will give you the manual for those commands so you can read up on them. The kmix is a graphical tool that is part of the KDE desktop environment.
If you are not running Slackware, then your distro may have other tools for configuring sound. The alsamixer and alsactl commands are pretty much universal in linux though.

And welcome to the LQ forums!!!