FWIW, I have just upgraded to kernel 2.6.7 (vanilla tree with Ruby patches). I'm still using OSS drivers, couldn't get ALSA to work...
>"During the previous startup, KNotify crashed while instantiating > KNotify. Do you want to try again or disable aRts sound output?" I'm not seeing these problems with 2.6 anymore. If I boot back in 2.4, they are still there however. Best, Kjetil