Sorry for multiple posts, but I forgot to mention that xmms works well with the oss output plugin. I'm a little confused, because I didn't compile oss into the kernel. I guess xmms is actually using alsa-oss emulation. But how could it work, if alsa itself does not work?
--Hong -- I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know. -- Mark Twain