Installed VLC to stream music, locked up, now no sound

[mayhem]

^^ Updated - find my solution below in a reply post ^^

I wanted to listen to tunes while I worked so I installed vlc (apt-get install vlc)
It worked for a couple minutes then X froze.
hit the front-panel reset, apt-get remove vlc, then used ktorrent to d'load some mp3's
installed juk-kde3
no sound
removed juk-kde3, then autoremove'd (to clear last vestiges of vlc too)
re-installed juk-kde3
no sound
checked my alsamixer, console and gui, no mutes, sliders maxed

Much of the stuff at ubuntu forums is for gnome, or not kde3, or people who never had sound to begin with.
My stuff all worked till I installed vlc

Here's my lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host Bridge (rev 01)
00:02.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI-X Root Port
00:06.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:07.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:11.0 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 Serial ATA Controller (rev
 80)
00:12.0 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 Serial ATA Controller (rev
 80)
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (rev
80)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (rev
80)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller (rev
 80)
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 SMBus Controller (rev 81)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 IDE Controller (rev 80)
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB4x0 High Definition Audio Contr
oller (rev 01)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge (rev 80)
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge (rev 80)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTra                                                              nsport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address                                                               Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Con                                                              troller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscella                                                              neous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc R430 [Radeon X800 (PCIE)                                                              ]
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc R430 [Radeon X800] (PCIE) (Seco                                                              ndary)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit                                                               Ethernet Controller (rev 15)
03:00.0 RAID bus controller: Silicon Image, Inc. SiI 3132 Serial ATA Raid II Con                                                              troller (rev 01)
04:05.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139                                                              C+ (rev 10)
04:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306 Fire II IEEE 1394 OH                                                              CI Link Layer Controller (rev 80)

Like I said, everything was working, I just couldnt stream audio from SomaFM. I've mangled something.

any ideas?

[brtw2003]

check if your user-id is in the group audio

cat /etc/group |egrep -i audio

/brtw2003

[mayhem]

check if your user-id is in the group audio

cat /etc/group |egrep -i audio

/brtw2003

here it is, I seem to remember manually adding root to the audio group when I first installed.

audio:x:29:root

I determined that it is only mp3's that aren't playing. I can hear youtube videos. I tested the mp3's from Xubuntu 9.10 and the files are valid.

This might be as simple as choosing the right mp3 player.

I'm leery of following the "comprehensive multimedia guide" at the Ubuntu forums because it employs many "g" prefixed libraries and apps. I've messed things up pretty bad before (I installed Gnome without realizing it on Xubuntu), and somewhere in these FAQ's it's made clear that we can't use Gnome! Also, there is the matter of sticking with BT4 repositories. With that in mind, what sort of problems can you forsee in this command:

 sudo apt-get remove gnash gnash-common libflashsupport mozilla-plugin-gnash swfdec-mozilla && sudo apt-get install alsa-oss faac faad flashplugin-nonfree gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse gstreamer0.10-pitfdll libmp3lame0 non-free-codecs sun-java6-fonts sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin unrar

Feeling my way along here . . .

^^ Update ^^
I tried Amarok. Default was no support for mp3's, Responded 'yes' to dialog 'add mp3 support', No error, mp3 wouldn't play. It acted like it didn't know what to do with the file, but wouldn't tell me that. Like a dead button.
Removed Amarok.
Installed noatun-kde3
Couldn't connect to the artsd engine, told me to configure artsd
'configured' (fooled around with) artsd, still didn't work
Removed noatun, and autoremove'd

I came here to update this and couldn't remember exactly how I'd done something, so I reinstalled Amarok while editing this to double check and it works perfectly. I didn't even log off.