Asrock ALiveNF6G-VSTA sound issue with Ubuntu Precise

Ubuntu precise is sometime unsettling at best. Audio won’t work with my old ALiveNF6G-VSTA. It used to be the reverse on Linux: old hardware would work, new hardware not always. Ubuntu Precise changed that altogether: old hardware isn’t working, and new hardware isn’t working either.

ALiveNF6G-VSTA(m)
ALiveNF6G-VSTA motherboard. Photo courtesy of Asrock

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NX machine, custom ssh configuration and on disk encryption for the faint of heart

Recently I switched an ubuntu test server running Precise Pangolin  from x11vnc to No Machine Nx server. I suppose (but haven’t tried) that those indications may also work for FreeNX (whose repository is unreacheable, at the moment)
As usual, it turns out that having a non-standard Ssh configuration or Ubuntu on disk encryption your mileage will vary, as NX machine relies heavily on OpenSSH. Also Ubuntu Precise  brings some issues of this own.

I recently detailed the length I had to go to ensure reliable ssh communication with home-directory-encrypting .
However I like to understand what happens under the hood so I decided to go ahead with the set up instead of just rolling back x11vnc.
It’s a test server, so let’s get over this.
Of course, I managed to do everything with the server “near” me. Doing this on a remote server is not a good idea, even  having something or someone with an alternative way of access on site. Things can go awry also after a reboot, because of the encrypted home file-system. Checking what happens after a full reboot before declaring ‘OK’ is a good idea.
Versions involved: nxclient,nxnode,nxserver  3.5.0-xx  running on Pangolin Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 bit.
Premise: I suspect a good deal of problems can be avoided installing and configuring Nx machine with the home directory (e.g the home of the user that is going to connect) mounted. One has only to remember then to cover all bases and modify the relevant directives and copy the relevant files outside the encrypted home. I did it without the home directory mounted.
Read everything before doing anything!

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