After a week of googling and reading I still can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.
I can't get sound to work and I can use some guidence.

I just can't help the feeling I'm missing something stupid.

I did a standard machine install witn no desktop enviornment. Installed xorg and fluxbox. This machine is intended to be a mythtv box.

Any guidence would be appreciated.

Hardware;

Intel SHG2 mobo dual p4 xeon 2 ghz
Creative SB live

lspci output;
$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Broadcom CMIC-WS Host Bridge (GC-LE chipset) (rev 13)
00:00.1 Host bridge: Broadcom CMIC-WS Host Bridge (GC-LE chipset)
00:00.2 Host bridge: Broadcom CMIC-LE
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL (rev 27)
00:04.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
00:04.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 07)
00:08.0 Network controller: Techsan Electronics Co Ltd B2C2 FlexCopII DVB chip / Technisat SkyStar2 DVB card (rev 02)
00:0f.0 ISA bridge: Broadcom CSB5 South Bridge (rev 93)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: Broadcom CSB5 IDE Controller (rev 93)
00:0f.2 USB Controller: Broadcom OSB4/CSB5 OHCI USB Controller (rev 05)
00:0f.3 Host bridge: Broadcom CSB5 LPC bridge
00:11.0 Host bridge: Broadcom CIOB-X2 PCI-X I/O Bridge (rev 03)
00:11.2 Host bridge: Broadcom CIOB-X2 PCI-X I/O Bridge (rev 03)
01:04.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82544GC Gigabit Ethernet Controller (LOM) (rev 02)
01:09.0 RAID bus controller: 3ware Inc 7xxx/8xxx-series PATA/SATA-RAID (rev 01)
02:09.0 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AIC-7899P U160/m (rev 01)
02:09.1 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AIC-7899P U160/m (rev 01)

lsmod output;
5764 0
button 7568 0
processor 29768 1 thermal
ac 6148 0
battery 10628 0
ipv6 229280 22
jfs 159980 1
dm_snapshot 16544 0
dm_mirror 20176 0
loop 16008 0
snd_emu10k1_synth 7936 0
snd_emux_synth 31744 1 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_seq_virmidi 7936 1 snd_emux_synth
snd_seq_midi_emul 6912 1 snd_emux_synth
snd_seq_dummy 4868 0
snd_seq_oss 29696 0
snd_seq_midi 9120 0
snd_seq_midi_event 8064 3 snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 46672 9 snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_midi_
mul,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
st 35612 0
tsdev 8512 0
snd_emu10k1 103616 1 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_rawmidi 23456 3 snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_midi,snd_emu10k1
snd_ac97_codec 84000 1 snd_emu10k1
snd_ac97_bus 3328 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss 39456 0
snd_mixer_oss 16128 1 snd_pcm_oss
b2c2_flexcop_pci 9240 0
snd_pcm 69508 3 snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
b2c2_flexcop 26124 1 b2c2_flexcop_pci
snd_seq_device 8844 8 snd_emu10k1_synth,snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_dum
y,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi
mt352 7300 1 b2c2_flexcop
mt312 8324 1 b2c2_flexcop
bcm3510 10116 1 b2c2_flexcop
dvb_pll 15236 1 b2c2_flexcop
stv0299 10760 1 b2c2_flexcop
dvb_core 72616 2 b2c2_flexcop,stv0299
snd_timer 21892 3 snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 10632 2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
i2c_piix4 9100 0
stv0297 7936 1 b2c2_flexcop
nxt200x 13188 1 b2c2_flexcop
firmware_class 10624 3 b2c2_flexcop,bcm3510,nxt200x
ohci_hcd 19204 0
sworks_agp 10144 0
usbcore 113668 2 ohci_hcd
snd_util_mem 5632 2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
parport_pc 33188 1
lgdt330x 8732 1 b2c2_flexcop
aic7xxx 152148 0
e1000 109376 0
floppy 54244 0
parport 34248 3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
agpgart 30920 1 sworks_agp
rtc 13364 0
scsi_transport_spi 23296 1 aic7xxx
i2c_core 20608 10 b2c2_flexcop,mt352,mt312,bcm3510,dvb_pll,st
0299,i2c_piix4,stv0297,nxt200x,lgdt330x
snd_hwdep 9860 2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
pcspkr 4096 0
emu10k1_gp 4864 0
gameport 15624 2 emu10k1_gp
serio_raw 7684 0
psmouse 35976 0
sd_mod 19968 2
ext3 120072 4
jbd 53288 1 ext3
mbcache 9348 1 ext3
dm_mod 51224 11 dm_snapshot,dm_mirror
ide_disk 15872 3
generic 6020 0 [permanent]
serverworks 9352 0 [permanent]
evdev 10112 0
$

Total stupidity on my part.
the problem was in the speakers.