i'd suggest try external usb/serial 56k modems. however i don't know which ones are knoppix-compatible. i also have a winmodem on my home pc and knoppix 4.02 detects it, but cannot write the .conf file (forgot which .conf it is). i installed knoppix on another partition, but still the same problem. i hope someone can give us some inspiration about this. about the soundcard, my pci soundcard works fine for most linux distros (except solaris).