These instructions aren't really needed any longer, but some users of older Linux systems may find them useful.

KDE uses a sound manager called "aRts" to handle sound playback. If a program is not built to support aRts, it may not have sound.

Some solutions:

If the program uses Simple Direct Media Layer, install kdelibs-sound-devel and SDML will automatically build with support for aRts.

Run the aRts control panel from the Multimedia menu in the K start menu. Select "View aRts Status" & then suspend the sound manager so it will release the audio device. Note that this will only work if you have no KDE applications playing sound while you're trying to suspend the sound manager!

Finally, run the program from the command line with a wrapper which redirects sound activity to the KDE sound manager aRts, like so:

artsdsp <program name>