I personally have the VIA 8137. It works out of the box, but there are still issues. This soundcard actually lacks a master-volume, their windows-driver simulates a virtual one I guess.
However, look at the debugging-sound-page I did see one very good tip: Try using a different system. Ubuntu defaults to Alsa, but also supports other systems. Believe it or not, all these systems have their own quircks and work with some soundcards better than others. A good way to try out, is to go the Sound configuration. There you can choose between Alsa, OSS and ESD. Perhaps you get sound with another system? -- no sound, via 8233 (ac97) https://launchpad.net/bugs/88277 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs