Stefan,

after the fix, does actually esd works? I have a similar problem: esd doesn't work

matteo@burnt:~$ mplayer -ao esd startup.wav 
MPlayer 2:1.0~rc1-0ubuntu7 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 2.00GHz (Family: 6, Model: 13, Stepping: 8)
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
Can't open joystick device /dev/input/js0: No such file or directory
Can't init input joystick
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing startup.wav.
Audio file file format detected.
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [pcm] Uncompressed PCM audio decoder
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 1411.2 kbit/100.00% (ratio: 176400->176400)
Selected audio codec: [pcm] afm: pcm (Uncompressed PCM)
==========================================================================
[AO ESD] esd_open_sound failed: No child processes
Could not open/initialize audio device -> no sound.
Usage:program_name [address][:port]Audio: no sound
Video: no video

but I have read/write permission on /tmp/.esd

matteo@burnt:~$ ls -lah /tmp/
total 48K
drwxrwxrwt 11 root   root   4.0K Mar 13 16:32 .
drwxr-xr-x 21 root   root   4.0K Mar  3 11:42 ..
drwxrwxrwt  2 root   root   4.0K Mar 13 16:15 .ICE-unix
-r--r--r--  1 root   root     11 Mar 13 16:15 .X0-lock
drwxrwxrwt  2 root   root   4.0K Mar 13 16:15 .X11-unix
drwx------  2 matteo matteo 4.0K Mar 13 16:32 .esd
drwx------  3 matteo matteo 4.0K Mar 13 16:15 gconfd-matteo
drwx------  2 matteo matteo 4.0K Mar 13 16:15 keyring-vwlU2X
srwxr-xr-x  1 matteo matteo    0 Mar 13 16:15 mapping-matteo
drwx------  2 matteo matteo 4.0K Mar 13 16:32 orbit-matteo
drwx------  2 matteo matteo 4.0K Mar 13 16:32 pulse-matteo
drwx------  2 matteo matteo 4.0K Mar 13 16:15 ssh-HAsXrP3169
drwx------  2 matteo matteo 4.0K Mar 13 16:15 virtual-matteo.GN164Z
matteo@burnt:~$ ls -lah /tmp/.esd/
total 8.0K
drwx------  2 matteo matteo 4.0K Mar 13 16:32 .
drwxrwxrwt 11 root   root   4.0K Mar 13 16:32 ..
srwxrwxrwx  1 matteo matteo    0 Mar 13 16:32 socket

I don't find any errors if I start pulseaudio manually

matteo@burnt:~$ pulseaudio --log-level=debug               
caps.c: dropping root rights.
module-hal-detect.c: Trying capability 0 (alsa)
alsa-util.c: Using mixer control "PCM".
sink.c: created 0 "alsa_output.pci_8086_266e_alsa_playback_0" with sample spec "s16le 2ch 44100Hz"
source.c: created 0 "alsa_output.pci_8086_266e_alsa_playback_0.monitor" with sample spec "s16le 2ch 44100Hz"
module-alsa-sink.c: using 8 fragments of size 1376 bytes.
module.c: Loaded "module-alsa-sink" (index: #0; argument: "device=hw:0 sink_name=alsa_output.pci_8086_266e_alsa_playback_0").
alsa-util.c: Using mixer control "Capture".
source.c: created 1 "alsa_input.pci_8086_266e_alsa_capture_0" with sample spec "s16le 2ch 44100Hz"
module-alsa-source.c: using 12 fragments of size 1376 bytes.
module.c: Loaded "module-alsa-source" (index: #1; argument: "device=hw:0 source_name=alsa_input.pci_8086_266e_alsa_capture_0").
module-hal-detect.c: loaded 2 modules.
module.c: Loaded "module-hal-detect" (index: #2; argument: "").
module.c: Loaded "module-esound-protocol-unix" (index: #3; argument: "").
protocol-native.c: loading cookie from disk.
module.c: Loaded "module-native-protocol-unix" (index: #4; argument: "").
module-volume-restore.c: starting with empty ruleset.
module.c: Loaded "module-volume-restore" (index: #5; argument: "").
module.c: Loaded "module-rescue-streams" (index: #6; argument: "").
memblock.c: Memory block too large for pool: 59392 > 16376
module.c: Loaded "module-x11-bell" (index: #7; argument: "sample=x11-bell").
module-x11-publish.c: using already loaded auth cookie.
module.c: Loaded "module-x11-publish" (index: #8; argument: "").
module.c: Loaded "module-gconf" (index: #9; argument: "").
main.c: Daemon startup complete.
module-alsa-source.c: *** ALSA-XRUN (capture) ***

Matteo