If you really don't want to use PulseAudio, you can set 'PULSE=no'
in the script's environment.

When built without PulseAudio support, ColEm uses OSS for audio. You'll
have to either load the OSS emulation modules (via /etc/rc.d/rc.alsa-oss),
run it as "aoss colem" from the command line, or launch it from your
desktop by opening a .cv or .col file (which will use aoss automatically).
