UpdateManager Ate My Soundcard!

[David Armour]

System sound troubleshooting, Tuesday, July 1 '08  7:01am: 

System/Preferences/Sound/Sound Preferences/
	Devices

		Sound Events
			Sound playback:	Autodetect
		Music & Movies	
			Sound playback:	Autodetect
		Audio Conferencing
			Sound playback:	Autodetect
			Sound capture:		Test sound

		Default Mixer Tracks
			Device:				SiS SI7012 (Alsa mixer)
				Master			selected

	Sounds
		Enable software sound-mixing (ESD)
		Play system sounds
		System sounds
			Select check box:	No sound
			Choose menu item:	No sound
			Click on command button: 	No sound
			Misc. message:		No sound
			Question dialog:	No sound
			Error msg.:		No sound
			Warning:		No sound
			Info msg.:		No sound
			Log out:		Log out		Plays
			Log in:			Log in		Plays
	System Beep
		Enable system beep		yes
		Visual system beep		no

The story so far/update:

Following a mostly-routine Update Manager process finished, about a week
ago now, I found my Hardy desktop had become mute. At the time, error 
messages suggested that I was missing a variety of gstreamer plug-ins that
synaptic listed as installed. Go figure. Aplay -l, however, showed no sound 
cards! Up-date manager ate my soundcard!

After  sudo apt-get install gdm ubuntu-desktop, aplay -l now shows:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SI7012 [SiS SI7012], device 0: Intel ICH [SiS SI7012]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

...and media programs such as Rhythmbox play .mp3 files, although the vol-
ume controls have complexified, inexplicably. The panel applet modifies the 
sound output less predictably than before, and seems to require fiddling with 
more audio icons than just the panel applet.

The log out/log in sounds play when tested, but the nifty panel timer applet
flashes completion but doesn't play the ambulance sound file. And CBC's au-
dio streams are still missing although -- the other google recommendation  -- 
I *have*  libflashsupport installed.

No dice! What next, Ollies?