Help needed with Alsa

[James Dunn <james@4thharmonic.com>]

Hi,

I'm still having trouble with getting Alsa to work. I am using 
gnome/debian on an iBook G3 900mhz 640MB RAM computer.
Basically, whenever I boot up, I get this error when clicking on the 
volume icon:

"The volume control did not find any elements and/or devices to control. 
This means either that you don't have the right GStreamer plugins 
installed, or that you don't have a sound card configured.
You can remove the volume control from the panel by right-clicking the 
speaker icon on the panel and selecting "Remove From Panel" from the menu."

and then this:

"No volume control GStreamer plugins and/or devices found."

I have run Alsaconf, selecting the powermac card, and answering YES to 
editing the files /etc/modprobe.d/sound and /etc/modprobe.conf and this 
gives me sound. But the volume icon still has a red cross next to it 
unless I logout and then back in again.
However, I have to do all this everytime I boot - how can I save these 
settings permanently?

Many thanks for any help...

James

PS: The volume icon has now disappeared from the system 
tray/notification area - I can only put it back to the panel, not the 
system tray. How can I reinstate it to the system tray?