No Audio again

[clickit]

This is an update to a post from last summer.
I have no sound and am getting a "/dev/dsp: Invalid argument" error when running:
cat /usr/share/apps/kolf/sounds/blackhole.wav > /dev/dsp
The wave file exists. The user is a member of audio group. The user can run mplayer and plays audio and video off of TV feed. There the audio is setup as:
"adevice=hw.1,0:alsa=on:audiorate=44100:amode=0:fo rceaudio" and -ao is alsa,oss,
I re-ran alsaconf and validated no muting with alsamixer -c2. Card 2 is V8235.
Timidity is also giving up error: c:1008 snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
Can't open pcm device 'default'.
Couldn't open ALSA pcm device (`s')
Using root as user gives same results for above.
Any help ?
I noted that cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound gives:
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
alias sound-slot-0 snd-via82xx

and cat /proc/asound/cards gives:
0 [camera ]: USB-Audio - USB camera
USB camera at usb-0000:00:10.3-1.3, full speed
1 [Bt878 ]: Bt87x - Brooktree Bt878
Brooktree Bt878 at 0xdddff000, irq 10
2 [V8235 ]: VIA8233 - VIA 8235
VIA 8235 with ALC650F at 0xe000, irq 5
Isn't this contradictory cardwise?