No sound after the latest update

[Miguel Daniel Rodríguez Magarzo]

Hi list,

I am not sure whether this problem happened after a single daily update
or maybe after a automated kernel update, since generally I don't pay
much attention about which updates are running, just let the system to
do it. But the sound went off just after that update.

This is a laptop Thinkpad T42 with a 2.6.24-18-generic kernel, Ubuntu
8.04. 

Trying to open the volume control applet (which appears with the
non-operative symbol, e.g. a white cross over a square red background),
it says something similar to this:

There were no GStreamer volume control devices found.
"No se han encontrado complementos o dispositivos control de volumen de
GStreamer."

On the other hand, if we go to System > Preferences > Sound, and
clicking in the first button ("To try") trying to listen some sound
event, it gives me the following:

audiotestsrc wave=sine freq=512 ! audioconvert ! audioresample !
gconfaudiosink: Failed to connect stream: Invalid argument

Other buttons give similar warning, and there, just below at the end,
there is no sound device to select!

I think this bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/200338

and this one:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/200451

are saying the same, but those were reported months ago, I don't know
its status or whether they were eventually solved.

Is someone able to clear something at this, please?

Daniel