Trouble with xawtv configuration when logged in as user

[turbines]

When I I configure my tuner card and then my channels from the knoppix menu as root and then open xawtv from the multimedia mneu everything is as it should be. When i do the same thing logged as user, after entering the root password, xawtv plays ok after the intial channel configuration but after I close it and try to start xawtv again from the user multimedia menu there is only one channel and the settings have reset to PAL and European cable.

Is there something other than xawtvr available?

Knoppix is installed to my hard drive.
Hauppauge WinTV card
n'vidia chipset
Athlon XP 2400
512 MB DDR

[turbines]

It all works fine when I log in as root but....

if i am logged in as Knoppix User and try to select xawtv from the multimedia>video menu I have no channels. If I click on the Knoppix> configure TV card enter a root password and select my Hauppauge card and NTSC xawtv starts and all of the channels are already configured. I have to start that way each time. When I try to start it from the multimedia>video.xawtv all I get is one channel and it's in the PAL mode with eu-cable set

I thought since it all works properly when I am logged in as root that getting it to work properly in the user mode would be easy. Not so for this noob.

woeisme.......HELP PLease!