My System shows: $ cat /proc/version Linux version 2.6.31-17-generic (buildd@palmer) (gcc version 4.4.1 (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu8) ) #54-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 10 16:20:31 UTC 2009 $ cat /proc/asound/version Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.20. ---------- for which there is no problem loading the agrsm driver pair While on your System: $ sudo cat /proc/asound/version Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.22.1. Compiled on Jan 9 2010 for kernel 2.6.31-17-generic (SMP) --------- Thus the problem is how did the update of your ALSA resources from 1.0.20 to 1.0.22.1 occur? Are you knowledgeable of any cogent updates done on your System? Please report the outputs of: $ ls /usr/src/ $ ls -l /lib/modules/ 2.6.31-17-generic/build MarvS