ALSA

• Figure out what drivers the sound card uses
• lspci -v | grep -i audio
• 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
• Check http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/ for the module
• Manufacturer: Intel
• Driver: hda-intel
• Update kernel for alsa: genkernel --menuconfig all
• Device Drivers -> Sound
  
• Unchanged: <*> Sound card support
• Unchanged: < > Open Sound System
• Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
• <*> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
• Sequencer support
• OSS Mixer API
• OSS PCM (digital audio) API
• PCI devices
• Intel HD Audio
• Wait for genkernel to recompile everything
  
• Install the ALSA Utilities: emerge alsa-utils
• Configure the sound card
• alsaconf
• select the hda-intel soundcard
• say yes to modify /etc/modules.d/alsa
• Add the alsa initscript to the boot runlevel: rc-update add alsasound boot
• Make sure that SAVE_ON_STOP is set to yes in /etc/conf.d/alsasound
• Add users to the audio group: gpasswd -a audio
• Test ALSA
• alsamixer
• no such device; reload /dev entries: killall udevd; udevdstart
• alsamixer
• no such device
• reboot 2x
  
• alsamixer
• Install links: emerge links
• Install xmms: emerge xmms

It works. It actually works! Karin sounds great in Linux... :)