sound problems with Linux

[revolution at knowledgeworks.plus.com]

Hello folks

At one stage in an application, I play some speeches from famous 
politicians (believe me, it is funnier than it sounds...)  However, I have 
run into several problems with this whilst testing this on Linux. 

I've tested on two of the Live cds that work with my sound card 
(LindowsOS4 and Knoppix 3.3), so the problems should be easier for others 
to replicate.  I've tested with both a .au file that is embedded in the 
stack, and a .wav file that is played in a player.  Whilst the results are 
flawless on Windows 2000, Windows XP, and OS X, on both versions of Linux 
there is some problem.

a) Knoppix 3.3 - On Knoppix the audio clip speech is distorted, yet if I 
play the same clip on that machine using the Linux 'audacity' sound file 
player the sound is fine, so it doesn't look like the cause of the problem 
is related to how the OS is driving the sound card.  When I try to play 
the .wav file in the player, nothing happens, even though I have a button 
that locates the file to play and issues the 'start' command.

b) LindowsOS 4 - Playing the .au file in the audioclip on LindowsOS the 
sound is much less distorted, but there is some drop-out that is not there 
on Windows or OS X.  However, when I set the filename of the player object 
to point to the sound file on LindowsOS, it plays immediately, whereas it 
is intended to only play when the 'play' button of the controller is 
clicked (the behaviour I see on Windows and OS X).