Frank Peters posted on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 11:28:17 -0500 as excerpted:

> I already posted a report of this issue on the Alsa-users list but
> received
> no response.  Before I go posting more reports I just want to ask for
> some confirmation.  Has anyone installed the new 2.6.37 kernel and
> gotten functioning sound?

I run the Linus live-git kernels so have been running the 2.6.37 series 
for some time now, and in fact am running 2.6.37 itself, ATM.  I don't use 
kernel modules here as I build everything in, but my sound (AMD 8xxx 
chipset, i810/ac97 alsa driver) is working and has been thru the whole 
cycle.  I don't believe it'd have been released with a lot of people not 
having sound, tho there might have conceivably been one or two reports in-
progress.

The hda driver still gets a lot of work each cycle, so it's reasonably 
possible it could fail (tho I imagine a lot of folks have it too, so it 
gets a lot of testing), but that it's happening with another driver too, 
suggests that you might have a different issue.  Are the devices actually 
showing up in /dev/?  Assuming you use udev, maybe it's the problem?  If 
you run them as modules not built-in, are the alsa kernel modules 
themselves actually loading?

FWIW, udev-164-r1 and alsa-utils-1.0.23-r1, here (~amd64).

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman