Comment 127 for bug 411574

Same problem with sound and tried everything.

This command got the sound working until the next reboot:
sudo alsa force-reload

On this laptop the sound worked fine using Hardy, so I know the hardware is compatible with linux.

On the live cd the sound worked.

During the first boot the sound worked.

Decided to try removing the RESTRICTED DRIVER, and that did the trick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the driver info:

"The SmartLink modem daemon is the application part of thedriver for recent modems produced by Smart Link Ltd.

This package replaces (along with hardware access drivers) the olddriver generation (2.7.x) which consisted of kernel modules only.

It needs a kernel driver to access the hardware. This can be either recent ALSA (shipped with a newer kernel (>=2.6.4) with Alsa supportand intel8x0m module) which is sufficient for basic operation anddata/Internet connection, or the SmartLink kernel driver which isprovided by separate packages which you can build using the source fromthe sl-modem-source package.

This driver enables the usage of many software modems, as commonly found in laptops.

If this driver is not enabled, you will not be able to use your modem."

Notice that this driver uses a "kernel driver to access the hardaware", which is ........................... yep, ALSA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As far as I know , I don't need that driver to use this laptop, so I removed it and the sound now works without any problems.