I have a Dell 4550 with the i810 audio and this is detected properly by knoppix but apparently it fails to load. Here is the output of lspci -v and the relevant sections of dmesg on bootup:
------dmesg section-----
Intel 810 + AC97 Audio, version 0.21, 20:19:20 Dec 10 2002
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:1f.5 to 64
i810: Intel ICH4 found at IO 0xdc40 and 0xd800, IRQ 17
i810_audio: Audio Controller supports 6 channels.
i810_audio: Primary codec not ready.
-----/dmesg section-------
-----lspci -v -------------
knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 2560 (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 0142
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 2561 (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, fast devsel, latency 64
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64
Memory behind bridge: fc000000-fdffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: e8000000-f7ffffff

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24c2 (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 0142
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
I/O ports at ff80 [size=32]

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24c4 (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 0142
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
I/O ports at ff60 [size=32]

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24c7 (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 0142
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
I/O ports at ff40 [size=32]

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24cd (rev 01) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 0142
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 23
Memory at fe300800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BA/CA PCI Bridge (rev 81) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 0000e000-0000efff
Memory behind bridge: fe100000-fe2fffff

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24c0 (rev 01)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DB ICH4 IDE (rev 01) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 0142
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
I/O ports at <unassigned> [size=8]
I/O ports at <unassigned> [size=4]
I/O ports at <unassigned> [size=8]
I/O ports at <unassigned> [size=4]
I/O ports at ffa0 [size=16]
Memory at 20000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1K]

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24c3 (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 0142
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 17
I/O ports at dc80 [size=32]

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24c5 (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 0142
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
I/O ports at dc40 [size=64]
Memory at fe300400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
Memory at fe300000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV25 [GeForce4 Ti4200] (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 0132
Flags: 66Mhz, medium devsel, IRQ 16
Memory at fc000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Memory at eff80000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=512K]
Expansion ROM at 80000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

02:02.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Lucent Microelectronics FW323 (rev 04) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Pinnacle Systems Inc.: Unknown device 000e
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
Memory at fe1ff000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 1039 (rev 81)
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 0142
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 20
Memory at fe1fe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
I/O ports at ecc0 [size=64]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

02:0c.0 Network controller: AIRONET Wireless Communications PC4800 (rev 01)
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 17
Memory at fe1fdc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128]
I/O ports at ec00 [size=128]
I/O ports at e8c0 [size=64]
=------

Please forward any ideas on what I can try to get this working.

thanks,
Jim