KDE4 sound

Hi,

I was experiencing sound-problems with KDE4, so I installed Gnome. There
I have less problems. I installed opensuse again with KDE4 because I
liked KDE(3) more.
I have a multi-boot setup now : my old 10.2, and 11.2 KDE and 11.2
Gnome, so I can try both KDE and Gnome. OS 11.2 is 64-bit.

In Gnome I can setup sound so my 4 speakers are used. How can I do this
in KDE4 ? Alsa's speaker-test -c4 works fine in Gnome. If I try this
with KDE, I only have 2 speakers. Where is Gnome storing that info ?

In Gnome I can play audio-CD's, in KDE4 I'm having problems. I have 2
DVD-drives. With one I can play an audio-CD with Kaffeine, the other
gives an error : cannot find plugin for MRL [cdda:/]. I don't like
kaffeine to play audio-CD's. I prefer amarok, but there it's impossible
to play a CD, just like it's impossible to play a CD with KsCD.
I can play mp3 with amarok though.

One advantage I have with KDE4 : I can play DVD's with Kaffeine. In
Gnome I can't with the "standard" video-player (don't remember the name
now).

Is there some opensuse website where I can read how to fix my problems ?
Or is KDE4 so broken for audio ?
Do I need to install something to play audio-CD's ? I know in the past I
had to install those codecs, I read somewhere that this wasn't needed
anymore. Is this right ?
Anyone can point me in the right direction ?
TIA.

Regards,

Koenraad Lelong.