Total linux noobie need a bit of advice

hello ive just installed linux suse 7.1 on my laptop and have configued all my graohics and it is working fine exept i cant get any sound to work. i have found the driver in the soundcard - KDE Control Module but it says an error occured during installation when i press next to configues? the driver is ESS AudioDrive ES 18XX i am a total newb and may not understand coplcated stuff please can you give me an answer in noob language

thank you

No, you'll never learn how to really use your computer if you're babied - so we're going to throw into the deep end head first.

What error did you get? Also, did you try getting a different driver for your card? What is the card?

Silly question: esd is running isn't it (use 'top' to check for a process called 'esd'). If not, go to the terminal and type 'esd &' to start it (in the background), then see if sound works.

I would recompile my kernel to put native support for it. Why don't you check lsmod to see if the module is loaded. If you know the module name then modprobe it. Also if you try to listen to stuff and you don't get an error or sound, then you need to start up your mixer as it defaults to 0 sound level.