Sound under KDE will only work when running media player, it turns out that the /usr/bin/startkde script is looking for /etc/sysconfig/soundcard, this file was NOT created by the sndconfig utility, instead it had created /etc/sysconfig/sound. Renaming the /etc/sysconfig script from sound to soundcard resolved the problem. This is a 'newbie killer' ! tom
Fixed in the kde packages in Raw Hide.