using the prebuilt 2.2.18 kernel package, sound on a Via 82c686a chipset sounds fine. Previous to 2.2.18, I was using ALSA - I removed it when 2.2.18 added PCI 82c686 support. With 2.4.0-pre8 through 11 the sound has clicks and pops. Can anyone suggest how to go about finding the problem without involving ALSA? I'm not sure where to begin to look on this one.