Another update, another reboot, no sound!

[Dimi Paun]

This is getting ridiculous!

I had running sound, and today I've updated my system.
Right away, my sound was b0rken:
  - no sound from Skype, in any configuration imaginable
    (even when ran through pasuspender)
  - no sound from Flash in Firefox
  - no sound from VirtualBox, even though I was seeing
    the stream listed under "Playback" tab in PA's VC
  - however, I was getting sound from Rhythmbox!

So I figure, I'll reboot, what else? Sure enough, after
reboot I get no sound at all! And this after fscking around
for about 30min(!) to get any sort of sound out of my system.

It turns out that I had to run "alsamixer" manually _again_
because the master volume was, logically, set to zero. And
this after filling a bug about this:
    https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=493790

The bug was marked as fixed.

Sure enough, even after fixing the master volume, I still:
  - have no sound from Skype in any imaginable combination,
    even if it was working fine before (and I have not
    changed the version of Skype that I use)
  - no sound out of VirtualBox, even if it was working before


I've tried filing bugs, it doesn't help -- the rate of breakage
is way faster than I can file bugs (not to mention that filing
bugs is too sluggish for words). 

Something is Just Plain Wrong (TM). WTH is going on? How can the
situation be improved? I've just lost 1h right now trying to deal
with this problem, in the middle of my work day -- this is not
sustainable.

-- 
Dimi Paun <dimi at lattica.com>
Lattica, Inc.