Why no system sound as user...only root

You might want to try the Kanotix forum as well.
Can you get any sound as user? Try: play /usr/share/sounds/startup.ogg
Did you do what gruntbuggly said?
Try running alsamixer and kmix and cranking up the volume.

Have you tried this procedure:

Testing: try to open /usr/share/sounds/startup.ogg using xmms. If it works, your sound card setup & user permissions should be OK. If xmms tries to start, then freezes & won't shutdown properly & won't restart on next attempt, probably the arts daemon is interfering with it. Do step 4 below then retry.

To set up sound notifications in KDE:

1.In KDE controlcenter->enable sounds;turn on system notifications.

2.Then go to /home/user/.KDE/share/config/knotifyrc (hidden file folder...set konqueror to view hidden files) and set all three entries to true.

You should now have event sounds but maybe not sounds from websites (if using konqueror as a browser). So,

3. Go to configure konqueror->plugins->plugins; then enable 'pipe plugin sounds through arts'

You should now have sounds from websites.

4. You will also need the xmms-arts plugin to prevent the arts daemon from interfereing with xmms: Apt-get install xmms-arts, then in xmms->options->preferences set output plugin to aRTs instead of OSS.

root@rrfish:/home/rrfish72# play /usr/share/sounds/startup.ogg
playing /usr/share/sounds/startup.ogg

I can hear that. I also did what grunt said.

Card config from the info center says:

Dummy 1

Audio Devices:
0: Dummy PCM (duplex)

Synth Devices: Not enabled
Midi Devices: Not enabled
Mixers: Not enabled