sound problems

[Gerhard Magnus]

I've recently installed FC8 and have been trying to get the sound to
work. The system-config-soundcard plays its tune but everything else is
silent. Back in the day, you only had to turn up the volume on alsamixer
but now when I try starting alsamixer I get the message " ***
PULSEAUDIO: Unable to connect: Connection refused."

Does each application have to be configured to work with pulseaudio?

Why does something as simple as sound on a PC require a Senior Tech to
work in Fedora?

For starters:
(1) How do I get the mplayer plugin I have up and running in Firefox to
include sound?
(2) How do I get sound from xmms?

Any roadmaps or even pointers in the right direction would be
appreciated.

Jerry