(Linux) Soundcard on works when root?

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Im just 'coming to terms' with Linux, so please be patient!

When Im logged in as root, everything works fine. If i log in as a standard user, a number of things dont wanna play ball, most significant of which is the fact that my soundcard doesn't work!
If i try to play a song through xmms i get the error:

** WARNING **: oss_open(): Failed to open audio device (/dev/dsp): No such file or directory

Ive added the user to the audio group, but dont know what else to investigate or do. can anyon help?

thanks
 
I have no familiarity with Backtrack whatsoever, however OSS is a PoS as far as sound servers go, so I would try changing your Sound Server to ALSA or ESD in your XMMS preferences and then make sure that this new sound server is set up to use your sound card.

EDIT: The option you are looking for in your XMMS setup is "Output Plugin"
 
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Thanks, I went and changed it to ALSA but its made no difference. It seems to play a track but there's nothing coming out of my speakers. lol
I even changed the default sound system in the KDE control panel to ALSA rather than auto detect, but that didn't help either :(
 
Brilliant! Thanks.
Changed permissions giving everyone read permissions (only had write beforehand! ???) but it didn't work. Rebooted and its working! (So much for not having to reboot in Linux - at least Windows tells you you need to reboot! lol)

Thanks again for the help!
 
Ah, good to see it was something straightforward then :)

Just as an extra note, checking my permissions for /dev/dsp the correct permissions should be 660, with it being owned by root and assigned to the audio group.
 
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