Comment 27 for bug 280534

balint@balint-desktop:~$ lspci | grep Audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)

I was experimenting yesterday. Here are my results:

1. We start with pulseaudio (it's default install in intrepid, i think you don't have to use anything)
* everything works. I can listen to rythmbox, watch youtube, etc. (in the same time ofc.)
* System->Pref->Sound : everything on automatic (or PulseAudio), recording is on PulseAudio (if alsa, it hangs up)
* wine works also -> I use OSS, and i start wine programs with +padsp+ (OSS wrapper for PulseAudio), so sound works (can listen to anything in the same time, so wrapper works (if only oss, then only 1 app can use the sound device at the same time)

2. If I want to switch alsa now, sound gets crackier, noisy, etc. as for other people in wine, but everything else working, but recording. So if i select ALSA for playing sound (in gnome-sound-properties from automatic to ALSA), it's work (maybe it's using pulseaudio-alsa bridge, i don't know).
I tried the following:
balint@balint-desktop:~$ ps ax | grep pulse
 6281 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session /usr/bin/pulse-session /usr/bin/seahorse-agent --execute x-session-manager
 6285 ? S<sl 0:01 /usr/bin/pulseaudio -D --log-target=syslog
 6288 ? S 0:00 /usr/lib/pulseaudio/pulse/gconf-helper
 6894 pts/2 S+ 0:00 grep pulse

I killed the process with PID=6285, now i switch the recorder to (in gnome-sound-properties) HDA Intel ALC885 Analog (ALSA). (If i want to switch ALSA - Advanced Linux Sound Arch., then it says: "gconfaudiosrc ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! gconfaudiosink profile=chat: Couldn't open for recording"). Everything else is on Automatic which seems to be the OSS (only this works for playing). This is bad because you can only use 1 app with sound. I can't switch the playing devices to ALSA, because it says: "audiotestsrc wave=sine freq=512 ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! gconfaudiosink: Couldn't open for playing"), and nothing seems to be working, but OSS.

But now ALSA is working in wine (winecfg->ALSA in sound prefs) and in games, it won't be noisy, cracking, etc. But you can't hear anything else (so it seems OSS is still be using), e.g.: a playing rythmbox.

So I think ALSA is deprecated in intrepid or so, and only pulseaudio seems to be working. And wine you should use OSS, and start programs with pulseaudio-oss wrapper (padsp).