Technomage wrote:
> 
> ok,
> its starting to go from minor inconvenience to major problem.
> Everytime I attempt to start KDE as non-root user (regular user)
> it loads fine right up to starting the sound driver, then it all goes
> wrong.
> first the sound gets jumpy then the box just freezes. no way to do
> anything
> except hard reset and pick up the pieces.
> 
> Below is an excerpt from dmesg about a sound card quirk (could this be
> it?):
> 
> *****************
> Activating ISA DMA hang workarounds.
> isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
> isapnp: Calling quirk for 01:00
> isapnp: SB audio device quirk - increasing port range
> isapnp: Card 'Creative ViBRA16C PnP'
> ******************
> 
> I am not sure if this has any bearing on the problem.
> I a at my whits end here. the only time KDE will
> work without fault is as root.

If the sound works properly with you running as root... This sounds like
a permissions problem. Try changing 
the file permissions on /dev/audio, /dev/dsp, /dev/mixer to allow world
read and write as a test. These device files are sometimes owned by
group audio so making yourself (user, not root) a member of group audio
may fix things and allow you to run ok with the original permission
settings.
-- 
Kevin O'Connor

She can kill all your files;
She can freeze with a frown.
And a wave of her hand brings the whole system down.
And she works on her code until ten after three.
She lives like a bat but she's always a hacker to me.
                -- Apologies to Billy Joel