I have been able to get sound to work in every other distro i have tried except this one.
First I had to install the kernel source because for some reason slack9 decided not to include it. Then I just did a fresh install of the new slackware9. I tried installing 3 different ALSA drivers. Although they install properly and i can run alsamixer, i still get the standard error in when kde starts:

Sound server informational message:
Error while initializing the sound driver:
can't set requested samplingrate (requested rate 44100, got rate 32000)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device.

What the did slackware do to cause such a problem in this version.

Also, I ran the make uninstall scripts for all three components(driver, lib, util) and still after rebooting the alsa modules are still loaded (snd-via8233, snd-pcm,snd-timer, snd-ac97-codec, snd)
I also removed all edits to config files etc.

First, after uninstalling how do these modules still exist?
Second, why are they loading if i didnt tell them to?

A few things to check:
did you specify the card in ./configure with the switch --with-cards= ?

do a "modprobe snd-via8233" and see if that has any errors

finally, try putting via8233 on its own line in /etc/hotplug/blacklist (this will keep slack 9 from auto installing the card with its own drivers and let ALSA take charge) and then reboot to flush the drivers...

as stupid as this may seem, it's what happened to me: in alsamixer, make sure you've unmuted the things. note: this is not the same as turning the volume up, the MM shouldn't be over the Master and PCM sliders.

also check these to see if you have all the installation down:
SlackFAQ -- ALSA .9
and the official ALSA site's help:
ALSA via82xx details

Yes I did specify the card --with-cards=via8233 for the 0.9.0rc1 drivers and --with-cards=via82xx for the newest drivers (0.9.3 i believe)

lsmod revieals that snd-via8233 is already loaded but nevertheless 'modprobe snd-via8233' gives no errors.

I will try your third suggestion and get back to you.

I have unmuted etc. Keep in mind the problem is that when I load KDE I still get the error that comes up before you install any drivers at all. It is not as if every thing is fine but I just don't get sound. That is not the case. Here is the error on KDE boot:

Sound server informational message:
Error while initializing the sound driver:
can't set requested samplingrate (requested rate 44100, got rate 32000)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device.

/etc/hotplug/blacklist seems to be a blank file.
I do not know where the modules are loaded from at bootup, When i uninstalled (make uninstall) each of the alsa packages then rebooted lsmod revealed that all of the alsa modules were still loaded. Where did alsa put this config and why wasnt it removed when i ran make uninstall?

hmmm. no hotplug blacklist...was there a hotplug directory already? This shouldn't matter now however, because if it was a hotplug problem modprobe would give you weird errors.

anyway, just FYI, the device drivers are loaded before you get into KDE, as for where, I'm not entirely sure. And finally as for that ALSA make uninstall thing...no clue again (sorry), but you really should reinstall to get that module back in again.

I do have another two ?s

you have turned off aRts? (control panel->sound&multimedia->sound system)
^this is the big one...it sounds like your sound server problem is aRts

you did run ./snddevices (after driver install)
you did add those lines to your rc.M file? (mentioned in the two links above?) <-- edit: modules.conf, not rc.M (I was editing rc.M as I posted)

Sorry if it sounds like I think your an idiot, I don't, but I know I make incredibly stupid mistakes when doing this stuff (like messing with a perfectly good ALSA installation for three days only to realize the sound was still muted...)

No no by all means dont worry about treating me like and idiot.

I did reainstall afterwards, basically i only uninstalled to see if the modules would stop loading automatically. As for now, i have not added ANY lines to any config files because i was trying to figure out where they got loaded from.
It seems like I dont need to add any lines. The lines are only there so that the modules will autoload at bootup, correct? And my modules are autoloading, although i don't know how or from where.

I did try putting the lines from the alsa install directions page into conf.modules and rc.modules, however, neither worked.

I did not turn of arts.

I did run ./snddevices

In slack you use /etc/modules.conf (you do in slack 8.1 anyway).

You put the commands in one, or the other not both. I hate alsa, since its a bugger to install. I only recently got it installed.

Its probable that the modules have been put with all the other kernel modules, and then kmod is loading them when it needs to because something is trying to access sound. It shouldn't be able to if you remove entries from /etc/modules.conf but you never know........

Alex

Well i have no idea how they are getting loaded then because i removed all entries into any of the config files and yet after rebooting the modules are already loaded (before i try to use sound).

is there something i can run to try sound before i load KDE so i can narrow down if its kde or if its the alsa drivers.?

actually, you can play sound from the console with aplay <wav file> if you're trying to test ALSA... (note, that is aplay, not a typo). And those lines to put in modules need to stay there, they set up aliases for apps to use them (in case you deleted when they didn't work)

Ok so should i put those lines in /etc/modules.conf or /etc/rc.d/rc.modules ??

i put
# ALSA portion
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
# module options should go here

# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

# card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

I still get the same error when i start kde but when i use aplay i now get the snow sound (like on tv).
Im not sure if it is because i am playing the wav wrong or if the sound is messed up.

You might find a little clarification and added information useful.

The modules that are being loaded now are not being loaded by any ALSA configuration files. They are being loaded by hotplug. The only problem with this is that hotplug may not load all the modules you need for everything to do with sound. You have a few options available.

You can blacklist all the ALSA modules that are being loaded in hotplug and load the modules according to the ALSA configuration such as you would find instructions for at the ALSA site.

You can blacklist the ALSA modules and use the OSS module for your sound card that comes with the kernel, if one exists.

You can let hotplug continue to load the ALSA modules and load the extra things that you need manually either from rc.modules or rc.local. The other modules you need are the ones for OSS emulation: snd-mixer-oss, snd-seq-oss, snd-pcm-oss. To do this you could just add a modprobe line for each module in one of these files. (I suppose it would also be possible to let hotplug load the modules it loads and then set up aliases to load the other modules on demand, the same way that all the modules are loaded if you set it up according to the ALSA instructions).

Even after manually loading all of the modules i still only get white noise in aplay and an error message by arts when i start kde.

As far as configure it goes I have no idea what hotplug is autoloading and when i looked through the scripts i didnt see any references to what looked like sound modules.

I already tried black listing "via8233" it didnt seem to do anything. When you say to black list all of them do you mean the ones listed on the alsa page? (snd-via82xx; snd-pcm-oss; snd-mixer-oss; snd-seq-oss) When I blacklist them should i blacklist via82xx or snd-via82xx?

I am going to try to look for boot errors now, if i can find the log.

I guess i just don't see what the huge problem is here. In 8.1 i installed the alsa drivers and that was it.

When i start slackware i am pretty sure that there is an error being thrown when it tries to load the lines that i put in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules ::
# ALSA portion
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
# module options should go here

# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

# card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

I can't figure out what it is saying because it is not logging it in /var/log/messages
Where would these things be loged?

ok it works in kde. i still get white noise in aplay i guess its not reading the wav correctly.
I dont know why it works though. I am still getting the errors on boot about the alias lines in rc.d/rc.modules but above those lines i also put ::
modprobe snd-via82xx
modprobe snd-pcm-oss
modprobe snd-seq-oss
modprobe snd-mixer-oss

I figured it was getting the error at boot time because the modules werent loaded when it was trying to alias them.

If I can figure out where it logs those errors, I would like to eliminate them also.

Thx for the help everyone.