Newbie, please help: RH8.0 and no sound on Hoontech Digital XG (Yamaha YMF-754)

Dear Linus experts!

I recently decided to trash my Windows 2000 Server installation in favour of
Linux. And I must say, that I really understand why you are so excited about
Linux (or Unix in general)! It's just such a good feeling to have this kind
of power at your fingertips - at almost no cost! The cost is, of course, the
quite steep learning curve being a newbie on this field.

OK, to the point now. Since I use my server as an advanced jukebox (Apache,
PHP, MySQL), it worries me that I cannot get my soundcard to work! I've
spent countless hours on the net trying to figure out how to do it, but so
far with absolutely no success.

I really, really need help on this one, I'm simply stuck!

I don't exactly know what information to provide, but having read about
similar problems, I hope this will help:

I compiled and installed 0.9.0rc7 alsa driver, utils, libs and tools, as
described on www.alsa.org:

$ ./configure --with-cards=ymfpci --with-sequencer=yes
$ make
$ make install
$ ./snddevices
$ chmod a+rw /dev/dsp /dev/mixer /dev/sequencer /dev/midi
$ modprobe snd-ymfpci
$ modprobe snd-pcm-oss
$ modprobe snd-mixer-oss
$ modprobe snd-seq-oss


When I run /sbin/sndconfig I get the following error:

The following error occurred running the modprobe program:

lib/modules/2.4.18-24.8.0/kernel/drivers/sound/ymfpci.o: init_module: No
such device
/lib/modules/2.4.18-24.8.0/kernel/drivers/sound/ymfpci.o: insmod
/lib/modules/2.4.18-24.8.0/kernel/drivers/sound/ymfpci.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.18-24.8.0/kernel/drivers/sound/ymfpci.o: insmod
sound-slot-0 failed

This error comes when sndconfig tries to play the sample sound. It
identifies the card alright.

Other output:

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [YMF754         ]: YMF754 - Yamaha DS-XG PCI (YMF754)
                     Yamaha DS-XG PCI (YMF754) at 0xd8a10000, irq 5

$ /sbin/modinfo soundcore
filename:    /lib/modules/2.4.18-24.8.0/kernel/drivers/sound/soundcore.o
description: "Core sound module"
author:      "Alan Cox"
license:     "GPL"

$ cat /etc/modules.conf
alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
alias eth0 tulip
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
post-install sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -L >/dev/null
2>&1 || :
pre-remove sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -S >/dev/null
2>&1
|| :
alias usb-controller usb-uhci
# ALSA portion
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-ymfpci
# module options should go here
# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
# Card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

$ ls /proc/asound/card0
ac97#0      id     oss_mixer  pcm0p  pcm2p  ymfpci
ac97#0regs  midi0  pcm0c      pcm1p  pcm3c

$ cat /var/log/messages
[snip]
Mar  3 12:07:47 odin kernel: PCI: Probing PCI hardware
Mar  3 12:07:47 odin kernel: PCI: Using IRQ router PIIX [8086/7110] at
00:07.0
Mar  3 12:07:47 odin kernel: Limiting direct PCI/PCI transfers.
Mar  3 12:07:47 odin kernel: isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
Mar  3 12:07:47 odin kernel: isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Mar  3 12:07:47 odin kernel: speakup:  initialized device: /dev/synth, node
(MAJOR 10, MINOR 25)
[snip]
Mar  3 12:08:43 odin kernel: PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:09.0
[snip]

---

A final question: What should I do to have the soundcard work at startup?

Any help will be very much appreciated, thank you
Joachim (Denmark)