I did indeed try the modules from Meelman's archive, but they are incompatible. The one from SuSE will probably meet the same fate. According to the article Dave Bechtel cited (I've been working from that article for over a week now) and the alsa website, alsa uses the kernel header symbols, so as to replace the compiled-in sound module from the kernel. Without the kernel header files, none of this is going anywhere.

Since no one wants to discuss the kernel-headers package, I'll have to assume no one knows, or no one is interested in this issue. I'm just a an idiot user, anyway, so what differece does it make?

Thanks for trying.