Alsa sound devices on Debian

[sweetser at TheWorld.com (Doug Sweetser)]

Hello:

I am trying to get ALSA started at boot time, but see this message:

    Setting up ALSA...done (not loaded).

which is also generated if I start it by hand (/etc/init.d/alsa
start).  By the way, that line I see in during boot does not appear to
be in dmesg.  Where is it filed away?

Poking around /etc, I can see that there is an autosave set:

   alsactl_store_on_shutdown="always autosave"

Since this is a custom kernel, I may have messed things up there, but
it looks like I left things as modules:

#
# Sound
#
CONFIG_SOUND=m

#
# Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
#
CONFIG_SND=m
CONFIG_SND_TIMER=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM=m
CONFIG_SND_HWDEP=m
CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQ_DUMMY=m
CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y
CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_RTCTIMER=m

lsmod shows no drivers installed.  There are no sound devices in /dev,
so I create them as root with 

# /usr/share/alsa-base/snddevices
Creating /dev/mixer?... done
Creating /dev/sequencer... done
Creating /dev/midi0?... done
Creating /dev/dsp?... done
Creating /dev/audio?... done
Creating /dev/sndstat... done
Creating /dev/music... done
Creating /dev/dmmidi?... done
Creating /dev/dmfm?... done
Creating /dev/amixer?... done
Creating /dev/adsp?... done
Creating /dev/amidi?... done
Creating /dev/admmidi?... done
create symbolic link `/dev/mixer' to `/dev/mixer0'
create symbolic link `/dev/midi' to `/dev/midi00'
create symbolic link `/dev/dsp' to `/dev/dsp0'
create symbolic link `/dev/audio' to `/dev/audio0'
create symbolic link `/dev/sequencer2' to `/dev/music'
create symbolic link `/dev/adsp' to `/dev/adsp0'
create symbolic link `/dev/amidi' to `/dev/amidi0'
Creating /dev/snd/control?... done
Creating /dev/snd/seq... done
Creating /dev/snd/timer... done
Creating /dev/snd/hw??... done
Creating /dev/snd/midi??... done
Creating /dev/snd/pcm??p... done
Creating /dev/snd/pcm??c... done
ALSA loader devices
Creating /dev/aload?... done
Creating /dev/aloadSEQ... done

There still are no sound modules, but if I run kmix, they all appear:

# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
snd_mpu401              7760  1
snd_via82xx            29604  1
snd_ac97_codec         69572  1 snd_via82xx
snd_pcm_oss            54312  0
snd_mixer_oss          19904  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                97480  2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer              25540  1 snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc         11720  2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
gameport                4736  1 snd_via82xx
snd_mpu401_uart         8000  2 snd_mpu401,snd_via82xx
snd_rawmidi            25380  1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device          8264  1 snd_rawmidi
snd                    57380  14 snd_mpu401,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
soundcore              10400  1 snd

Now I can restart alsa

#  /etc/init.d/alsa restart
Shutting down ALSA...done.
Setting up ALSA...done.

I test with festival, and sound is working.  Rebooting will leave me
with no sound devices.

doug