Thanks Pavel!
I now finally have the nvidia module autoloaded under 2.6. I never had this problem with RH9 and 2.6. For the ALSA modules to load properly I just installed the alsa-driver package (under 2.4) which installs alsasound in /etc/rc.d/init.d. Alsasound can then be added to chkconfig.
I fixed this problem by changing in /etc/modprobe.conf alias char-major-14 soundcore by alias char-major-14-* soundcore.
same goes for NVidia drivers, where I had to change alias char-major-195 nvidia by alias char-major-195-* nvidia
HTH
P.S. I hope someone can elaborate on why this behavior changed.
Pavel.
Greets,
Jurgen