4-front OSS and gnome sounds

[fheitka attglobal net]

I have been unable to get gnome sounds to work.
I am using the 4-front OSS sound drivers.  I can
play CDs and esd plays beeps when I start it, but
no desktop sound work.  Has anyone else had this
problem?  When I compile *some* gnome apps, they
seem to assume that alsa is present.   When I delete
the -lasound from the makefile, the app seems to
compile fine (without undefined symbols anyway.)
What are the assumptions gnome makes about sound
drivers?

Fred