Sound stopped working with kernels > 2.6.15

[Michael Thaler <michael.thaler@physik.tu-muenchen.de>]

Hello,

my sound stopped working with kernels > 2.6.12. Everything is fine with 
kernels <= 2.6.12.

I am using alsa. The modules are loaded properly:

# lsmod | grep snd
snd_intel8x0           30748  4
snd_ac97_codec         83232  1 snd_intel8x0
snd_ac97_bus            2432  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss            47264  0
snd_mixer_oss          17408  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                81540  5 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc         10376  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
snd_seq_midi            8736  0
snd_rawmidi            24096  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event      7040  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                49040  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              23684  4 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device          8332  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd                    52580  13 
snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore              10336  1 snd

When I log in into WindowMaker after rebooting and start xmms, sound works 
perfectly. But as soon as I start KDE, sound stops working. Even after 
logging out from KDE and chosing wmaker, sound doesn't work anymore.

Reloading the sound modules with

/etc/init.d/alsa force-reload fixes the problem. However, I tried to reload 
the modules while booting, before I actually log into KDE and this does not 
help. That is definitely a KDE related problem. Does somebody have a clue how 
this could be fixed?

Greetings,
Michael