Description of problem:

Hardware:
------------------------
Dell Inspiron 7500 
ESS Technology ES1978 Maestro 2E (rev 10)
RHEL4 with kernel 2.6.9-5.EL/i686

Problem:
---------------------------------------------------
Unable to configure soundcard. The card is correctly recognized,
but produces no sound. It perfectly works with RHEL3 and Windows XP.

# /usr/bin/system-config-soundcard
amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such file or directory
amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such file or directory
aplay: main:508: audio open error: No such file or directory

# cat /proc/interrupts
           CPU0
  0:    9196934          XT-PIC  timer
  1:       7315          XT-PIC  i8042
  2:          0          XT-PIC  cascade
  3:      25775          XT-PIC  3c574_cs
  5:     284236          XT-PIC  ESS Maestro, uhci_hcd
  8:          1          XT-PIC  rtc
  9:         17          XT-PIC  acpi
 11:          2          XT-PIC  yenta, yenta
 12:       3995          XT-PIC  i8042
 14:      31466          XT-PIC  ide0
 15:         17          XT-PIC  ide1
NMI:          0
ERR:          0

# lsmod | grep snd
snd_es1968             34717  0
snd_ac97_codec         63889  1 snd_es1968
snd_pcm_oss            49017  0
snd_mixer_oss          17985  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                96841  2 snd_es1968,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer              29893  1 snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc          9673  2 snd_es1968,snd_pcm
snd_mpu401_uart         8769  1 snd_es1968
snd_rawmidi            26597  1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device          8137  1 snd_rawmidi
snd                    54949  9
snd_es1968,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
soundcore               9889  1 snd