Soundmodem ++

I'm a new ham and have gotten interested in packet and other 'digital' modes. I've been looking for howto's and I have to say that the ones I've found for ax25 are positively ancient as with respect to linux. (2001) It's gotto have changed since then. And connecting a soundcard to a radio is almost incomprehencible. And I'm not an electronics boob. Is there a place that has some new documentation, like within the last year for configuring AX25 for APRS and packet and ... Do people use the soundmodem package or multimon package. Multimon looks interesting but I've found absolutely no documentation for it and how to actually use it?

Sorry if this looks like a rant, and I suppose it is, but I've spent about 3 months flondering around and it's getting annoying. Any pointers would be appreciated.