mcop warning: user defined signal handler found for SIG_PIPE, overriding

[AG]

I'm running a multimedia Linux Desktop. 
My distro is Slackware 8.1(2.4.18), KDE 3.0.1.
I'm using the SB128 PCI (full-duplex) Soundcard (ENS1370) or Ensoniq.
ALSA is my sound architecture (alsa-lib-0.9,alsa-driver-0.9, etc). 

My apps are the following (mplayer 0.9,realplayer 7.0, GAIM 0.59)
Eventually, I'll also run Gnomemeeting 0.94.

Problem:
While running GAIM, I consistently get the dreaded -> 
mcop warning:
user defined signal handler found for SIG_PIPE, overriding.
 
Although, I do have system/events sound, I cannot seem to get
application sound
from GAIM or RealPlayer.
I have all of the pertinent ALSA OSS emulation modules loaded(PCM,
etc)..

I've discovered that my Slack 8.1 precompiled KDE 3.0.1 pkg doesn't have
support for ALSA. 


<-snip->
root at rufnek:/# artsd -l0 -a alsa
gsl: using Unix98 pthreads directly for mutexes and conditions
Error while initializing the sound driver:
unable to select 'alsa' style audio I/O
<-snip->

It appears that I do have the default OSS support ->

<-snip->
root at rufnek:/# artsd -l0
gsl: using Unix98 pthreads directly for mutexes and conditions
autodetecting driver:
- toss: 4
- null: -1
- oss: 10
... which means we'll default to oss
device capabilities: revision0 duplex realtime batch trigger mmap
buffering: 7 fragments with 1024 bytes (audio latency is 40.6 ms)
Error while initializing the sound driver:
can't start sound i/o
<-snip->


If this is the case, would it be easier to abandon ALSA and convert
back to native OSS drivers?  

Actually, I would prefer to use ALSA b/c its ENS1371 driver
is full-duplex; whereas its OSS counterpart does not have
full-duplex capability..

Any help would be much appreciated..