How do I get sound in GNOME without pulseaudio

[stan]

On Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:21:59 +0200
lars.bjorndal at broadpark.no (Lars Bjørndal) wrote:

> Dear list
> 
> Could you please advice me in how to get sound within GNOME without
> pulseaudio, e.g. with ALSA/ESD?

I don't think this is possible anymore.  I am not an expert at this but
I believe that pulse is so closely integrated with Gnome now that it 
requires pulse in order to generate sounds.  I know that if I use something
from Gnome that needs sound, pulse is automatically started even though I 
have it disabled.  

I think this is the culprit.

/usr/libexec/pulse/gconf-helper

Can you afford to install a cheap sound card that you can give over 
exclusively to pulse, and remove your existing card from it's purview?
Or vice versa.

Then you use one card for orca and espeak, and let pulse use the other
for Gnome to produce system sounds.