How to get sound working in Debian

I assume your Debian box already installed with Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA). If not, please install those pacakages first.

# apt-get install alsa-base

But i recommend you install other packages like alsa-utils, alsamixergui and alsaplayer. Then you need to investigate your sound card.

# lspci | grep -i audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01 )

# alsaconf
Terminating processes: 984.
Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: snd-hda-intel snd-hda-codec snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm snd-timer snd-page-alloc.
Building card database...
Running update-modules...
Loading driver...
Setting default volumes...
===============================================================================
Now ALSA is ready to use.
For adjustment of volumes, use your favorite mixer.

Have a lot of fun!

# alsamixer

# speaker-test
speaker-test 1.0.13

# mpg321 01\ London\ Calling.mp3
High Performance MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 Audio Player for Layer 1, 2, and 3.
Version 0.59q (2002/03/23). Written and copyrights by Joe Drew.
Uses code from various people. See 'README' for more!

Now I'm enjoy to listen Clash's London Calling again.

last edit : some people ask me how to start alsaconf at bootime. This is a simple solution from my experience, after you have done speaker-test, pls do this :

#alsactl store

and also include the following lines in your /etc/rc.local file:

alsactl restore