A queer problem:

The sound in X doesnt get enabled until I go to sound card detection and
play test sound...

i.e. I start X, start Xmms, it starts playing but there's no sound. Then I
open soundcard detection, until I click the play test sound button there's
no sound. As soon as I click it, it remains depressed and the Xmms sound
starts off. when I stop xmms, then the test sound plays... after which
sound is enabled including the shut-down sound.

This brings up another question: my sound card is detected as intel audio
etc... which is correct. In WinXP, multiple sounds (e.g. sound from xmms
and test sound) can play concurrently and appear as mixed sound. But in
linux, unless I stop a song, other sounds (say yahoo messenger message
notifications) dont play. and when I stop it, ALL queued sounds play one
after the other (e.g. from yahoo I get a waterfall of notifier sounds.)

Any solutions to any of these problems?
--Vaibhav