FYI. I noticed what I believe was a flaw in my post above, I think I should have said 'Booted Knoppix 4.0 DVD using "knoppix alsa=emu10k1" ' instead of 'Booted Knoppix 4.0 DVD using "knoppix alsa=emu10k" ' . However I have tried it both ways and also booted knoppix without specifying any entry for alsa (ie I just pressed enter and let Knoppix run its normal boot process.) All 3 methods seemed to work, so I think we can strike that step.
This means that the real fixer for my problem was using the alsaconf (and then alsamixer.) This means Cuddles was "more right" than I realized!
Thanks again Cuddles.

Growlor