[vox-tech] alsa configuration

[Nick Schmalenberger]

list,
My distribution is Debian. I found a page on the ALSA website for my
sound chip with some lines to go in my /etc/modules.conf:
# ALSA portion
        alias char-major-116 snd
        alias snd-card-0 snd-es1938
	# module options should go here

        # OSS/Free portion
        alias char-major-14 soundcore
        alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
	
	# card #1
	alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
	alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
	alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
	alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
	alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
Apparently with Debian they are supposed to be put into
/etc/modutils/file and then the update-modules utility is used to insert
them into /etc/modules.conf. I also have two files about sound
in /etc/modprobe.d/ , ./alsa-base and ./sound:

gwaihir2:/etc/modprobe.d# cat ./alsa-base 
install snd-pcm /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-pcm &&
/sbin/modprobe snd-pcm-oss
install snd-mixer /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-mixer &&
/sbin/modprobe snd-mixer-oss
install snd-seq /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-seq &&
/sbin/modprobe snd-seq-oss

gwaihir2:/etc/modprobe.d# cat ./sound 
alias snd-card-0 snd-es1938
alias sound-slot-0 snd-es1938

.
When I run alsaconf, it says it has detected my card and is going to
rewrite /etc/modprobe.d/sound , but then there is a message on stderr
saying: "/usr/sbin/alsactl: save_state:1061: No soundcards found...". I
am sort of confused about the differences between /etc/modprobe.d/ and
/etc/modutils/ . Are they just different ways that different distros do
the same thing and I have some combination of both? I imagine that that
could be causing my problem. If so, what is the solution? Thanks.
Nick