Now this sounds like a permissions problem, but I've tried all sorts of things and its still not working.

I'm running slackware current and use the 2.6 kernel(so I also have the 2.6 version of alsa-driver installed) I use the snd-emu10k1 module, which loads just fine. modprobe.conf is setup correctly and I also have my user in the audio group. Still I can't get any sound. Xmms plays fine, just no sound. Almost like its muted, which its not, unless alsamixer is lying to me.

I log in as root and it plays fine. So I check the permissions on the /dev/sound/* devices and they are 0662 So I go into the udev rules and change it to 0666 and reboot. Still no sound.

I found this out there and tried it but only got errors
"options snd snd_major=116 snd_cards_limit=1 snd_device_mode=0666 snd_device_gid=17 snd_device_uid=0"

I ran mpg123 to see if I got any errors and nothing, it plays, just no sound. Whats going on?

I know you've already checked it, but it really does sound like an alsaconf goof-up. Did you run 'alsactl -store' after setting it? Take a look at it as a regular user then take another look as root and see what's different -- sometimes it'll not be muted, but just be turned down very low for some reason, et cetera.

If it plays OK from root, there's no ALSA or sound driver problem. Do you have an 'audio' group?

haha I got it working but I still don't understand why it wasn't working in the first place. I ran alsaconf and it must have rewrote some config somewhere and now my sound works great. Weird. I do have to mention this happened when I upgraded the kernel and alsa-driver from 2.6.12.2 to 2.6.14.6(and now 2.6.15.3)

Thanks for the help

Oh and yea I do have an audio group

In linux privs are checked at three levels: owner, owner group, others. 662 means 6 for owner, 6 for owner group, 2 for others. I can't remember what does 6 and 2 mean, perhaps 6 is -rx and 2 is -r- but 'm not sure. Beeing in audio group (witch is group of audio devices) makes you able to play sound.