sound only works after logging into kde

[elkhunter]

I'm having problems getting sound working in some apps. If I boot up and login with fluxbox (my normal window manager), then sounds works in some apps like vlc and smplayer but does not work in kde apps like totem or dragon nor does it work in firefox. However, if I boot up and login to kde then sound works in all these apps. If I then log out of kde and login to fluxbox, sound continues to work in all the apps. I tried completely uninstalling pulseaudio but got the game results (so I ended up re-installing it). Any idea why I have to login to kde once to get sound working everywhere? Is there a way to find out what sound card initialization its doing so I can add it to my fluxbox startup script.