Debian Install ALSA/Intel Issue

[Liz Hare]

Hi all,

Thanks so much for all your help with this.

Chuck said

 > Normally it is sufficient to unmute Master
> and PCM, raising their volume to reasonable levels. On the HDA-Intel
> device, there is also something called Front that also has to be
> unmuted and its volume set. You didn't say how you unmuted the audio
> interface, but if you didn't do all three items, Master, PCM, and
> Front, you won't get sound. The best mixer utility to use is one that a
> lot of people hate, it is amixer

I just used amixer to change volume and unmute Master, PCM, and Front, 
and no sound.

Another potential problem that may or may not be relevant is that ALSA 
sees two cards-- the Intel card and the NVdia Video card. I'm not sure 
how to ensure that the signal is going to card0, the Intel card.

FWIW, the Intel card is on an Intel S5520SC workstation motherboard. In 
an Ubuntu HOWTO (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto) I 
found suggestions to run

cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#* | grep Codec

And I get

Realtek ALC 889

It suggests that you look up in a table what your model is, and I get

intel-x58

It then suggests that you change alsa-base.conf, which isn't feasible in 
the install situation.

Any suggestions for getting this thing running would be really appreciated.

Liz