It's not difficult to get sound events working without using an external player all the time.
See this link.
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13366

I hope somebody responds about autofs not working, I have the same problem...about half the time also. Usually if it doesn't work it will after you reboot, sometimes only needing to restartx ('end session only').

Quote Originally Posted by bob58
What does ALSA do in relation to SOUND? I forgot!
ALSA is the current version of linux kernel sound support...default sound support in 2.6 kernel. It replaces OSS which was the original kernel sound support used up to now.
aRTS is not an alternative to ALSA, it is a sound server, enabling more than one device to use the sound driver. Without it an application will hog the system sound. There is a Gnome equivalent but I forget what it's called.
I read this in a magazine so it must be at least as correct as what the tabloids report about movie stars.