sound no longer works for some programs

[Pierre Abbat]

I open a sound file in Wavesurfer and attempt to play it and get silence. It 
used to work months ago. I try to play a MIDI file in Timidity and it 
says "Couldn't open output device". XMMS still works, as does catting 
to /dev/dsp. Any idea what's wrong? I'm not sure what the sound card is, but 
there is no /dev/sequencer (which means KMid doesn't work).

Pierre
-- 
La sal en el mar es más que en la sangre.
Le sel dans la mer est plus que dans le sang.