[ale] Debian sound part II

[Jay Loden]

ok, I posted earlier about having sound issues on my laptop, Well, I tried 
some things mentioned here, and suddenly, sound returned sort of out of 
nowhere.  Today, I restarted, and it was gone...again. 

I am at my total wits end, when i try to start artsd, I get: 

###################################
[root at tpad dev]# artsd -f
Error while initializing the sound driver:
device /dev/dsp can't be opened (No such device)

The sound server will continue, using the null output device.
####################################

I honestly just can't think of what else to check, and I can't stand that this 
problem keeps kicking my butt.  When I run alsaconf it detects the card fine, 
and lspci lists it as 

0000:00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: ALi Corporation M5451 PCI AC-Link 
Controller Audio Device (rev 01)

which is exactly what alsaconf detects.  Furthermore, the module ali5451 is 
listed as being loaded in lsmod. 

I really want to get this fixed, I would really appreciate any help!

-Jay