ALSA Woes

If you have alsa configured correctly {sudo alsaconfig no error} you are using oss. Make sure that nothing is using the sounds card (XMMS).
Explicitly create the device files
mknod -m 777 /dev/dsp c 14 3
mknod -m 777 /dev/mixer c 14 0
Make sure xmms
- using alsa
- NOT software mixer

to reload
sudo alsa reload