Sound works in Knoppix but not in Debian

[Linux-noob]

Hi,

 

I have a Maestro-3 Allegro-1 ESS1988 soundcard which works great in Knoppix.

However in Debian I keep getting "sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': No such device" whenever it attempts to play sound.

 

So, I do a sndconfig and the following comes up:

 

"You don't seem to be running a kernel with modular sound enabled. (soundcore.o was not found in the

module search path). To use sndconfig, you must be running a kernel with modular sound, such as the kernel shipped with Red Hat Linux or a 2.2 or greater kernel."

 

When I do a "locate sound.o" I get the following:

/lib/modules/2.4.18-bf2.4/kernel/drivers/sound/sound.o

/usr/src/linux-2.6.5/sound/core/sound.o

/usr/src/linux-2.6.5/sound/core/.sound.o.cmd

 

I've recompiled the kernel for module support as well as sound (ALSA) support but still it doesn't work. I don't know what to do... please help!!!