I have this same issue. ALSA mixer shows the onboard sound as a VIA 8237 chip, which is on an Asus A7V600-X motherboard which i have disabled in the BIOS. I also have a Soundblaster Live! 5.1 card which should be the primary sound card, however no noise is heard through this - although this is an intermittent problem and seems to be ok with a reboot if the speakers are turned on before the system is booted. Sound is consistently played through the onboard VIA card.
I agree with the previous comment that I see this as a bug, not a feature. -- [edgy] When onBoard Sound is disabled in BIOS, it's still available in edgy https://launchpad.net/bugs/65291 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
