Nothing works as a user

[fannymites]

After installing both Knoppix and Kanotix to hard drive, I'm finding with both of them I struggle to get anything working when logged in as a user.
I'm getting identical problems in both -
No sound effect/sound scheme but music players work.
When trying to connect to the internet via my dial-up modem, I either get a message saying unable to open modem or it be starts and gets as far as initializing but then it just freezes.
When trying to run Firefox or Thunderbird they are asking me to create a new profile (even though I have copied one across from a previous install) but when I try to create them it says I don't have write access to my home folder.
On both Kanotix and Knoppix, I'm using the user created during the (Debian style) install and on both everything works perfectly when logged in as root.
I've tried creating new users but I can't seem to do anything at all then.
I'm really at the end of my tether with this. If I can't get it sorted soon I'm just going to have to delete the user accounts and run as root all the time.

[EDIT] Apologies, although it does mention my modem, I actually meant to post this in the general forum.

[Harry Kuhman]

This post was moved, based on the first two words in the post.

[CrashedAgain]

After installing both Knoppix and Kanotix to hard drive, I'm finding with both of them I struggle to get anything working when logged in as a user.
I'm getting identical problems in both -
No sound effect/sound scheme but music players work.
When trying to connect to the internet via my dial-up modem, I either get a message saying unable to open modem or it be starts and gets as far as initializing but then it just freezes.
When trying to run Firefox or Thunderbird they are asking me to create a new profile (even though I have copied one across from a previous install) but when I try to create them it says I don't have write access to my home folder.
On both Kanotix and Knoppix, I'm using the user created during the (Debian style) install and on both everything works perfectly when logged in as root.
I've tried creating new users but I can't seem to do anything at all then.
I'm really at the end of my tether with this. If I can't get it sorted soon I'm just going to have to delete the user accounts and run as root all the time.

[EDIT] Apologies, although it does mention my modem, I actually meant to post this in the general forum.

Sound: In Knoppix see this: http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14604

Kanotix is easier, I think the knotifyrc file is already OK. For both, you may have to run kmix & turn the volume up.

Modem: Knoppix: I use kppp, once I have the modem found & configured, I have not had any problem, just do the account setup in kppp. I have a winmodem, kanotix already has ltmodem installed, just run 'detect-modem.sh'. For knoppix, you will have to install ltmodem if you have a winmodem.

To log in as different user with Knoppix style install, see this: http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12324&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=10

The write access problem may be that if you copied configuration files from another install, perhaps the config file permissions are still set for that other install (different user names?).

[fannymites]

Thanks for that, sound is now working and I can write to my home folder. After much faffing around, most things are running smoothly but I'm still having trouble with my modem - I now have access to it and it starts up but at the very last minute it disconnects. Can anyone think of any reason for this? As I said earlier, it works fine as root so it has to be something I need to do as user to allow me to connect but I don't know what.